Comments By Sid V.

I went to roadmasters in Orlando. Yes, they are owned by werner ( at least when I went). I feel they are a great school.

One thing I will say was there were instructors there that could not make it there as a full time job. I don't know if it was the lack of hours, pay, or the standard of living in Florida. Good luck to your friend and hope he can make it work.

Hi Willa.

From your post I can already tell you your accounting software is the least of your problems.

You need to sit down with a cpa and make sure your buisness is structured correctly. I hope someone is walking you through the process because you don't want to have a taxable income in six figures at the end of the year.

As far as your accounting question, it is a complicated as you want to make it. I do everything with paper and pen and I give my cpa a very detailed spreadsheet at tax time. My buisness is very simple, I only use 3 brokers and everything is has a paper trail.

Hi Thomas,

You will find that the more you get into the industry, the more you will ficus less on miles and more on other issues such as safety, on time delivery, clock management, health etc.

In fact, when I talk to people and their mindset is focused on miles I know they're either new or still don't understand what it's about.

As an owner, more miles is viewed as a negative. Miles means more wear and tear on the equipment, and that means more maintenance and more taxes. The only time I look at miles is when I do quarterly ifta taxes and it's a number that I just gloss over.

To me, anyone that pounds out 700, 800 miles to me is insane. To company drivers that may seem like an accomplishment, but to me that almoa t borderline torture.

Anyways, take it for what it's worth. I just wanted to get that off my chest.

Hi Mack

The trucking industry as it stands today has already been in a downturn for about 4-5 months. So, the o/o's you are talking about have already went out of business. These are people that bought equipment that had inflated payments and they were taking a risk that the market would stay at an elevated state. Now, mostly the people that are left are o/o's with paid off equipment or with really low overhead.

I do not believe that there will be an apocalypse of o/o's becoming company drivers. The reason being is two things. First, being company you have to follow the company rules. Secondly (and i might get pushback) the money you make as a local or regional driver does not compare with that of an o/o. I say that mainly because of the tax liabilities of a w2 compared to a 1099.

In any case, if you want to get into truck driving you shouldn't let anything stop you. Imo, you should get in as soon as you can because if the economy starts getting worse and people start losing jobs you will have to compete with the influx of new people trying to get in.

Hi Sharon,

A person that tells you to bang on the side of the trailer to see if it's empty obviously has never driven a truck.

Be a professional. If there's a question about a trailer being ready to take, make sure it has a green light. Bend your knees at the dock and make sure the dock plate is down with your eyes. Pull back the black plastic seal and make sure the door is closed and there's no hazards. This will take you less than 10 seconds. It's not that hard.

I don't feel bad for the people that got let go. They could have caused injuries or death from pulling a trailer out when it was not ready.

Csa score goes against a carrier not a driver. Maybe you can ask them to clarify. Maybe it's your psp report?

Hi starlighter,

Just a few things, and these are just my opinions. You may want to consider truck driving after your daughter goes off to school and you can put your full attention on truck driving. There's a sharp learning curve and you wouldn't want to put more stress on yourself wondering when you're going to get home.

I would start by looking around your area for local jobs and seeing if there are any that hire with little experience. Memphis is big hub for freight so there maybe some intermodal companies, but generally local work is a lot harder than driving a truck across country. They usually have very early start times, and heavy physical requirements.

Good luck.

More than likely they're counting up everything manually and making sure it's in good shape.

Put yourself in the sleeper birth. If they take more than 8 hours you can split your break or if they unload more than 2 hours your next break can be 8 instead of 10.

Hi Davy,

The freight market has been in the toilet for the past 3 months going on 4. But i've seen some of the rates go up this week so maybe it will only be a temporary slowdown for you. Good luck.

Hi twosides,

Kingpin law just means they don't want you driving with your tandems all the way back.

You're light. Move your tandems all the way up towards the truck and you'll be fine.