you Know What?

[Scottt]

The more I read this board the more I am glad I did what I did.

Went to the local community college and took their 6 week driving course ($1260) Learned just enough to get my CDL.

Bought a truck and trailer and took off and taught myself. Backed into my first dock on my first load.

It has been a year and 3 weeks and all is good. Have been able to put money in the bank everyweek,

I take a week off wheneverI get tired of running, No Dm, BM's or whatever you call them telling me which roads to run and where I can buy fuel. No qualcoms tracking my every move and trying to match a log book to it. No 60mph truck and watching the speedometer that it doesn't hit 70 on a hill.

3900 miles a week, everyweek with no hassles!!!!

[Kevin0915]

must be nice. too bad not everybody has the same circumstances as you. Not everybody has the juice.

[TimberWolf]

Scott,
what type of loads are you pulling? do you have a dedicated account that you work from, or are you fishing every week for new loads from various companies?
Congrats on being able to handle the owner operator world right from the start.


Kevin
your new signature line would beg to differ on how much of a man you really are, in fact it kind of shows the imaturity of your real personality.
You should have just left well enough alone and not made any statement about removing the last signature line..
Oh well, Kids will be kids...



Timberwolf

[Orangetxguy]

The more I read this board the more I am glad I did what I did.

Went to the local community college and took their 6 week driving course ($1260) Learned just enough to get my CDL.

Bought a truck and trailer and took off and taught myself. Backed into my first dock on my first load.

It has been a year and 3 weeks and all is good. Have been able to put money in the bank everyweek,

I take a week off wheneverI get tired of running, No Dm, BM's or whatever you call them telling me which roads to run and where I can buy fuel. No qualcoms tracking my every move and trying to match a log book to it. No 60mph truck and watching the speedometer that it doesn't hit 70 on a hill.

3900 miles a week, everyweek with no hassles!!!!

Went thru the OR scales at Cascade Locks the other night. They had 12 trucks sitting there OOS, for log violations. While I was standing there watching them go thru my log book, the chicka on the computer called out, "This one crossed at CottonWood @ such and such time, and crossed Woodburn 2 hours early!! Pull him in!!!".

They are tracking trucks by the license plate number!

[Kevin0915]

Went thru the OR scales at Cascade Locks the other night. They had 12 trucks sitting there OOS, for log violations. While I was standing there watching them go thru my log book, the chicka on the computer called out, "This one crossed at CottonWood @ such and such time, and crossed Woodburn 2 hours early!! Pull him in!!!".

They are tracking trucks by the license plate number!

license plate number, or a transponder in the truck? could be both i guess.....

[Orangetxguy]

license plate number, or a transponder in the truck? could be both i guess.....

While they were doing my book, I watched. They were imputting the truck license plate number. Then seeing where all it has been registered the last XX hours. Which explains why on my way north I saw so many open weigh stations in UT, ID and OR.

[Kevin0915]

While they were doing my book, I watched. They were imputting the truck license plate number. Then seeing where all it has been registered the last XX hours. Which explains why on my way north I saw so many open weigh stations in UT, ID and OR.

i gotcha...

[Kevin0915]

Scott,
what type of loads are you pulling? do you have a dedicated account that you work from, or are you fishing every week for new loads from various companies?
Congrats on being able to handle the owner operator world right from the start.


Kevin
your new signature line would beg to differ on how much of a man you really are, in fact it kind of shows the imaturity of your real personality.
You should have just left well enough alone and not made any statement about removing the last signature line..
Oh well, Kids will be kids...



Timberwolf

and i care what your oinion is because why???

[AC120]

The more I read this board the more I am glad I did what I did.

Went to the local community college and took their 6 week driving course ($1260) Learned just enough to get my CDL.

Bought a truck and trailer and took off and taught myself. Backed into my first dock on my first load.

It has been a year and 3 weeks and all is good. Have been able to put money in the bank everyweek,

I take a week off wheneverI get tired of running, No Dm, BM's or whatever you call them telling me which roads to run and where I can buy fuel. No qualcoms tracking my every move and trying to match a log book to it. No 60mph truck and watching the speedometer that it doesn't hit 70 on a hill.

3900 miles a week, everyweek with no hassles!!!!

Scottt, it's always great to hear of someone who got out there, did the thing, and did it right. Kudos.

[Scottt]

Scott,
what type of loads are you pulling? do you have a dedicated account that you work from, or are you fishing every week for new loads from various companies?
Congrats on being able to handle the owner operator world right from the start.Timberwolf

I am leased on with a small company in the town where I live (9 O/O)

We just run from south of I-80 in Iowa to the Los Angeles area. I haul about the same thing every week. We have 5 or 6 places we go to in LA and we get 1 load a day back out of the same place. If there is more than 1 truck in LA whoever gets unloaded first gets the gravy load and the other gets a brokered load.

[Syncrosonix]

While they were doing my book, I watched. They were imputting the truck license plate number. Then seeing where all it has been registered the last XX hours. Which explains why on my way north I saw so many open weigh stations in UT, ID and OR.

they are also hiring for motor carrier inspectors right now. i applied for a gig in one of those states, took the test, passed with a 90th percentile, and waiting on any kind of word about where i am in the whole hiring process gauntlet.

[1TruckDrivinSunUvAGun]

The more I read this board the more I am glad I did what I did.

Went to the local community college and took their 6 week driving course ($1260) Learned just enough to get my CDL.

Bought a truck and trailer and took off and taught myself. Backed into my first dock on my first load.

It has been a year and 3 weeks and all is good. Have been able to put money in the bank everyweek,

I take a week off wheneverI get tired of running, No Dm, BM's or whatever you call them telling me which roads to run and where I can buy fuel. No qualcoms tracking my every move and trying to match a log book to it. No 60mph truck and watching the speedometer that it doesn't hit 70 on a hill.

3900 miles a week, everyweek with no hassles!!!!

That's good that worked for you but not very many have that kind of capital or credit to buy a truck and enough to run it right out of the gate.

[Scottt]

That's good that worked for you but not very many have that kind of capital or credit to buy a truck and enough to run it right out of the gate.

I had worked 21 years as a Distribution Mgr and had a nice 401K nest egg that I dipped into to get started.

For the youngins on here. If your company has a 401K plan with matching money max out your contribution.

In 20 years you never know you might get kicked to the dirt like I was and need money to do something creative to make a living.

[mike3fan]

who in the hell wants to run 3,900 miles a week? isn't the point to work less not more?

[Musicman]

license plate number, or a transponder in the truck? could be both i guess.....

OMG folks, OR has been doing this for a long time (punching in license plates)... the primary point of it is NOT to bust you for driving too fast, or too long, etc., but to nail companies who under report miles traveled in OR. CO punches in your VIN at each scale crossing, which is why they demand you have it on the side of your truck. I would also warn those who run OR that all the other states’ DOT knows that OR and CO track you. I know for a fact that other states’ DOT will call OR and CO to certify your previous 7 days worth of logs. They may not be able to put you out of service, but they can and will write you a ticket for falsification.

When we hit the OR or CO state line, we make sure our logs are 100% current and accurate at that point and generally don’t stop at all in either state for anything. We are a bit lazy about logs and generally don’t log stops for things like coffee or restrooms, but in either of the two aforementioned states, that could become a problem.
The only time I’ve ever been put out of service was on the WB Loma, CO scale. Mark Furman (I swear this DOT guy could be his twin) looked at my log and noticed that the Limon scaled had me crossing at a certain time, but yet if my log was accurate about when I’d left Salina, KS, I’d have to averaged something like 90 mph from Salina to Limon. Needless to say, I had some explaining to do, which of course didn’t work out so well.

Those Loma scales can be a real beeeatch. Last time I went by there EB, they had six trucks OOS and one of the skateboard drivers had a full sized Smokey Joe grill set up and a few guys were sitting arround it in lawn chairs. All they lacked was as keg and they'd have had a full blown party going on. I chuckled about that all the way to Denver.

[franwake13]

Those Loma scales can be a real beeeatch. Last time I went by there EB, they had six trucks OOS and one of the skateboard drivers had a full sized Smokey Joe grill set up and a few guys were sitting arround it in lawn chairs. All they lacked was as keg and they'd have had a full blown party going on. I chuckled about that all the way to Denver.

i really did laugh, thats funny

[1TruckDrivinSunUvAGun]

OMG folks, OR has been doing this for a long time (punching in license plates)... the primary point of it is NOT to bust you for driving too fast, or too long, etc., but to nail companies who under report miles traveled in OR. CO punches in your VIN at each scale crossing, which is why they demand you have it on the side of your truck. I would also warn those who run OR that all the other states’ DOT knows that OR and CO track you. I know for a fact that other states’ DOT will call OR and CO to certify your previous 7 days worth of logs. They may not be able to put you out of service, but they can and will write you a ticket for falsification.

When we hit the OR or CO state line, we make sure our logs are 100% current and accurate at that point and generally don’t stop at all in either state for anything. We are a bit lazy about logs and generally don’t log stops for things like coffee or restrooms, but in either of the two aforementioned states, that could become a problem.
The only time I’ve ever been put out of service was on the WB Loma, CO scale. Mark Furman (I swear this DOT guy could be his twin) looked at my log and noticed that the Limon scaled had me crossing at a certain time, but yet if my log was accurate about when I’d left Salina, KS, I’d have to averaged something like 90 mph from Salina to Limon. Needless to say, I had some explaining to do, which of course didn’t work out so well.

Those Loma scales can be a real beeeatch. Last time I went by there EB, they had six trucks OOS and one of the skateboard drivers had a full sized Smokey Joe grill set up and a few guys were sitting arround it in lawn chairs. All they lacked was as keg and they'd have had a full blown party going on. I chuckled about that all the way to Denver.

First time my company ran in Oregon with a new truck in which I was driving they were "randomly" DOT audited two weeks later. They told me to never run in Oregon again after that. They said that was the reason, I told them they were nuts, who knows they could've been right

[TimberWolf]

they are also hiring for motor carrier inspectors right now. i applied for a gig in one of those states, took the test, passed with a 90th percentile, and waiting on any kind of word about where i am in the whole hiring process gauntlet.

Back in 1992 I took the test to become an air traffic controller, did some basic studies before hand but had no clue what to expect, ending up with in the 95% range and was told that most likely I would never get called as they took the top 2%r's and then if they ran out of ppl they would continue on down the scale, I never heard from them. Did the same for a federal food inspector as well in 1999 and scored 99% and was offered an appointment with in two months only problem was it was in Nebraska and the family was not keen on the idea of Lincoln. I had asked for Colorado or Florida appointments and was never offered one after a year of waiting I just gave up as I would of had to go through the application process all over again.
Great work once you land it...
Good luck.

Timberwolf

[Syncrosonix]

Back in 1992 I took the test to become an air traffic controller, did some basic studies before hand but had no clue what to expect, ending up with in the 95% range and was told that most likely I would never get called as they took the top 2%r's and then if they ran out of ppl they would continue on down the scale, I never heard from them. Did the same for a federal food inspector as well in 1999 and scored 99% and was offered an appointment with in two months only problem was it was in Nebraska and the family was not keen on the idea of Lincoln. I had asked for Colorado or Florida appointments and was never offered one after a year of waiting I just gave up as I would of had to go through the application process all over again.
Great work once you land it...
Good luck.

Timberwolf

i keep checking in every other day. i'm definitely willing to relocate.

[SickRick]

I am leased on with a small company in the town where I live (9 O/O)

We just run from south of I-80 in Iowa to the Los Angeles area. I haul about the same thing every week. We have 5 or 6 places we go to in LA and we get 1 load a day back out of the same place. If there is more than 1 truck in LA whoever gets unloaded first gets the gravy load and the other gets a brokered load.

Just curious (since there's a good chance I'll be forced to go this route) - you bought a rig and you're LEASED ONTO a carrier - OR - you got your OWN MC# and this company dispatches for you?

Main reason I ask - is that I CANNOT GET ANYTHING other than 500 Mile Radius insurance from Progressive. NO ONE will lease me on (not even Landstar) because they STILL have to provide you with TRUCKING LIABILITY INSURANCE and unless they SELF INSURE (like the "coolie carriers") a new CDL-A isn't going to get "leased on".

Congrats on being able to pull it off, right out of the gate. You are certainly the EXCEPTION - NOT - the rule, from what I've read on various forums...

Regards,

Rick