From desk to own authority part 2

Ya, I hear you SS. I seem to only eat one real meal a day and the rest of the time I eat canned chicken, fruit in a can, nuts and granola bars. I suppose I could crank up the crock pot with a bag in it and make a pot roast or other things.

I forgot to mention. The guy I met at a truck stop and we cooked steaks I ran into again. I was heading back home early in the morning and was pulled into that inspection station I think in Texas that everyone has to go through, even cars. I asked if I could pull over and turn on my heat valve. As I was opening the hood the other driver came over. He got shut down for having beer in his truck. He was only able to tell me he got put out of service for 10 hours then I got told to leave and he was told to get back in his bunk. That's it? You get shut down for 10 hours. I would have thought they screwed you to the wall?


OK, I'm ready to head out again!

[person]

Congratulations Steve on passing the 1000 posts mark and on 61400 hits. About one post for every 60 hits, huh.

On the crock pot deal, I read to cook all the different things you want in there. Just take every item and wrap them separately really well with foil. You know, work the seams well and keep the seams on top. You can have a four course meal and not have to wash a thing. Let us know how it works.

Congratulations Steve on passing the 1000 posts mark and on 61400 hits. About one post for every 60 hits, huh.

lol, you must be an engineer analyzing that!!! I think the newness of my posts has worn off and I've been using this thread to talk about anything now.

I'm not sure I'll try cooking in the cab just yet. It just seems like it's going to be a pain always looking for a Walmart Super Center to pull into and do some shopping. There are times that seem to happen quit often that I'm cut off from civilization for 2 or 3 days at a time.

My truck is suppose to go in this morning to have the front end looked at. It's raining cats and dogs and I'm not sure what's going to happen when I lower my landing gear on the trailer. The lot is dirt and gets pretty muddy. I'm going to bring the truck in anyways. They have backhoes and other equipment in my lot that could get the trailer out if I get stuck.

I'm just so overwhelmed with paper work. I thought I would just buy a truck and drive around. I seem to come home to a mound of stuff to do. It's getting close to registration time again for me and the running around I have to do is lots. I also have KY,NM,OR and other states that have there own fuel tax reporting. IFTA took me like 6 hours to do even though I have great records now.

Recording fuel, mileage, maintenance, parts, tolls.....ARRGGGGGG

I need a full time secretary in my truck who can also cook and install a convection oven. I think I know someone like that

On a side note about raining cats and dogs. Years ago when the roofs of houses were made out of grass and thatch dogs and cats would sleep on the roof to stay warm. The heat from inside the house would rise up through the roof. When a heavy rain came the dogs and cats would fall through the roof into the house.

[GMAN]

The paperwork can certainly take some of the fun out of running your own authority, Steve. There are those who will do your IFTA for you for about $45-50/month per truck. If it gets to be too much, you may want to consider someone who can do it for you. There are also software programs which can do your fuel taxes. All you need to do is plug in the numbers and it does the rest. My state now offers online IFTA filing. I am thinking about checking into this myself. It may shorten the time involved in filing. You may want to see if your state offers online filing. I know you have a computer background, but there are industry specific programs on the market which will help you manage your business. Most run from $75-495 for up to 5 trucks.

[serbie]

The paperwork can certainly take some of the fun out of running your own authority, Steve. There are those who will do your IFTA for you for about $45-50/month per truck. If it gets to be too much, you may want to consider someone who can do it for you. There are also software programs which can do your fuel taxes. All you need to do is plug in the numbers and it does the rest. My state now offers online IFTA filing. I am thinking about checking into this myself. It may shorten the time involved in filing. You may want to see if your state offers online filing. I know you have a computer background, but there are industry specific programs on the market which will help you manage your business. Most run from $75-495 for up to 5 trucks.

GMAN, could you post the programs or pm me the list if you don't want to put them out there. Thanks.

lol, you must be an engineer analyzing that!!! I think the newness of my posts has worn off and I've been using this thread to talk about anything now.

Are you saying your novelty has worn off?? :shock:

Just kidding. Steve, you live in Merrimack, I'm 20 minutes away and haven't bumped into you yet?

[Bigmon]

What about prepaying them. I know a guy that pays all his utilities a year in advance. This way each month they keep crediting his account until he owes them. Then he does it all over again.

Some of the utilities even pay him interest.

Are you saying your novelty has worn off?? :shock:
Just kidding. Steve, you live in Merrimack, I'm 20 minutes away and haven't bumped into you yet?

No, the novelty hasn't worn off. Just that everything that was new has worn off. I was freaking out going down a 5% grade with my leg shaking before. Now I go down a 10% and say, wow, this is way cool. I can't wait to get back out there but may have to wait a while.

My truck was in the shop for a total of 1/2 an hour and they found a bunch of things worn out already. I've already had 3 wanna be fake mechanics at the truck stops look at my front end and found it to be in perfect shape. Well, it's not. They also put a vibration device on the truck and the drive shaft was out of whack also. They are sending that out to get ground and balanced.

One of the motor mounts is just about gone. I feel that is the major cause of my vibration and shaking.

I'm having my Jake reprogrammed also to act different when the cruise control is on. I want the Jake to come on full blast at 2mph over the speed limit and to stay on until I reach my original cruise setting. As it stands now it comes on low at 3mph over, then med another 2mph then high another 2mph. At that rate your 7mph over the speed limit.

I don't think there is a program that could help me with IFTA other than add some stuff up. What we really need is a device that records which state your in for how many miles then dumps out a comma seperated ascii file to plug into a spread sheet.

Time to go visit my truck and see all these parts I've never heard of.

[allan5oh]

I know my company spent about 10k on an IFTA program that uses the qualcomm satellites to track how many miles in each state/province.

[person]

http://www.driversdailylog.com/ddlwhatelsedoesddldo.htm

IFTA issues quarterly fuel rate tables and these can be downloaded from http://www.iftach.org (look for Tax Rate Matrices). These files are issued by yearly quarter. 1Q2002.csv, 2Q2002.csv, 3Q2002.csv, etc. The files are comma separated value (.csv) text files designed to imported into spread sheet programs like Microsoft Excel or similar. DDL has been modified to read these files and to extract the Diesel Fuel rates for each state or province in the file. The IFTA Report requires these files and will even create the required file name base on the date specified for the beginning of the report.

Expense records can be entered (if the option is enabled) which will appear in the Remarks section of the LogSheet and as 'tick's on the Grid. Several common reports can be prepared, and the Expense records can be saved to a CSV (comma separated value) file. CSV files can be 'imported' into popular spreadsheet and database programs. It is possible that this data be imported into bookkeeping and other trucker record keeping programs.

That page tells about a lot of other stuff too.

[GMAN]

The paperwork can certainly take some of the fun out of running your own authority, Steve. There are those who will do your IFTA for you for about $45-50/month per truck. If it gets to be too much, you may want to consider someone who can do it for you. There are also software programs which can do your fuel taxes. All you need to do is plug in the numbers and it does the rest. My state now offers online IFTA filing. I am thinking about checking into this myself. It may shorten the time involved in filing. You may want to see if your state offers online filing. I know you have a computer background, but there are industry specific programs on the market which will help you manage your business. Most run from $75-495 for up to 5 trucks.

GMAN, could you post the programs or pm me the list if you don't want to put them out there. Thanks.

Some packages that I am familiar are: Trucknpro (www.foglinesoftware.com), Easy Trucking (www.easytrucking.com), Truckers Helper (www.truckershelper.com), loadledger (www.loadledger.com). Any of these packages can do your IFTA calculations except trucknpro and they are currently working on that. Truckers Helper is probably the most comprehensive and will also do your payroll. Some have commented that it is a little more complicated. Trucknpro, Easy Trucking and loadledger are all fairly easy to use. Most of these programs have a demo you can either view or try for a short period. I believe all of these programs have several different levels that you can purchase depending on your needs. There are other packages which are more costly, but these are ones with which I am familiar. Let me know what you think of these programs. If you need more names, I will see if I can dig my list out.

[serbie]

I've used Truckers helper in demo mode a hundred times (and your right, it is a little complicated) but seemed to work decent. This was the only software title I knew off that could do IFTA.

Was using it to compare my trips with co's I drove for/and current, against there O/O pay scale. Have to say It was a good learning experience.

This blows just sitting around waiting for my truck to be ready. Seems like every time I come home there is something stopping me from heading out when I WANT TOO.

Most of the roads are either closed or gone around here due to the floods. The National Guard is right outside my front door. They are bringing people back and forth to there houses in boats to get there things. I'm lucky that I'm on high ground.

It's time for my DOT physical and it looks like I'm going to have to get it on the road if I can. I can't seem to line up a time when I'm home and I can get an appointment.

[GMAN]

I've used Truckers helper in demo mode a hundred times (and your right, it is a little complicated) but seemed to work decent. This was the only software title I knew off that could do IFTA.

Was using it to compare my trips with co's I drove for/and current, against there O/O pay scale. Have to say It was a good learning experience.

My friend loves his Loadledger. I think the program is only about $100-200. Easy Trucking runs about $150. Trucknpro costs $75, but doesn't yet have the IFTA calculations function. If you only want to do your IFTA, you could just set it up on Excel and import the data off of the Federal website. If you want to do other calculations, you might want to take a more serious look at an industry specific software package. I have also known of one individual who bought Quick-books Pro to do their books. I don't whether they were able to do their IFTA with the software. There are packages available which can cost thousands of dollars, but I don't see the need to spend that much money, especially for the smaller operator. After you take a look at these packages, let us know what you think of them.

[tootie04]

This blows just sitting around waiting for my truck to be ready. Seems like every time I come home there is something stopping me from heading out when I WANT TOO.

Most of the roads are either closed or gone around here due to the floods. The National Guard is right outside my front door. They are bringing people back and forth to there houses in boats to get there things. I'm lucky that I'm on high ground.

It's time for my DOT physical and it looks like I'm going to have to get it on the road if I can. I can't seem to line up a time when I'm home and I can get an appointment.

I was wondering if you had grown feathers and web feet yet?? :wink: I am glad you are OK and on high ground.....

I thought DOT physicals were good for two years?? :?

tootie

[person]

I don't think there is a program that could help me with IFTA other than add some stuff up. What we really need is a device that records which state your in for how many miles then dumps out a comma seperated ascii file to plug into a spread sheet

I think that would be this http://www.driversdailylog.com/ddlwhatelsedoesddldo.htm It is also a logging program. The files are comma separated value (.csv) text files designed to imported into spread sheet programs

[Rev.Vassago]

My truck was in the shop for a total of 1/2 an hour and they found a bunch of things worn out already. I've already had 3 wanna be fake mechanics at the truck stops look at my front end and found it to be in perfect shape. Well, it's not. They also put a vibration device on the truck and the drive shaft was out of whack also. They are sending that out to get ground and balanced.

One of the motor mounts is just about gone. I feel that is the major cause of my vibration and shaking.

You just found out the reason why I am against buying used trucks. No matter what GMAN says, it's too much of a crap shoot. I'd rather pay the higher monthly payment, and have a truck that isn't sitting in the shop having parts replaced. Piece of mind is worth a lot (and a kick ass warranty doesn't hurt either).

[Dejanh]

You just found out the reason why I am against buying used trucks. No matter what GMAN says, it's too much of a crap shoot. I'd rather pay the higher monthly payment, and have a truck that isn't sitting in the shop having parts replaced. Piece of mind is worth a lot (and a kick ass warranty doesn't hurt either).

I second that...

[serbie]

It's time for my DOT physical and it looks like I'm going to have to get it on the road if I can. I can't seem to line up a time when I'm home and I can get an appointment.

Steve,

You can hit up Health Stop. Walk in clinic right across the street from Barnes and Noble. Next to BK'S on DW south Nashua. Not sure of the cost but there are open 8-8 7 days a week I believe, will pm you the phone #

I got my truck back late yesterday. They replaced the motor mounts, 5 of those joints on the end of the drive shafts, a drive shaft yoke and had the drive shaft balanced. I won't know if this has fixed the problem or not until I get loaded and out on the road above 65. I had them reprogram the jake also and now I can't set the cruise above 70. Lots of highways out west the speed limit is 75.

So, I'm off to Milford, UT in a few hours. I checked it out on Google Maps and there's like 3 streets in this town. Off the beaten path for sure.

Tootie, you were right, my DOT physical is good for 2 years so at least I don't have to worry about that for another year. Glad you mentioned it.

I'll be running around after this trip when I get home to renew my registration for my truck,trailer and car and inspections for all 3. The state of NH is now enforcing the 2290 tax and it's manditory to show proof of payment.

I was at my local truck parts store the other day and bought air lines. These things are 15' massive rubber lines with real kick azz connections and they were only $24 a piece!!! I think those plastic ones in the truckstops are over $30.

[Doghouse]

Think you've got it bad,....the International dealer won't even touch my truck. The guy who had it before me must have been freakin McGuyver, He had wires,switches,levers,multiple wiper switches,......you name it he had it. It took my 5 days to figure out the right switch positions (that's right 3 switches) for the A/C.
He had an RV A/C unit on the roof, and a portable diesel genny that he drilled a hole in the fuel cap and ran a hose to an external tank on the catwalk. Of course none of this crap worked, but he was proud of it.
That's the tip of the iceberg, I could tell you horror stories about the riggin' this guy had done.
The one bonus, the damn truck ran like a top , and he brought it to me on the hottest day last summer, after running 300 miles nonstop, an the engine was cool, the hubs were cool, everything seemed good.
Now if I can just figure out the blue switch on the dash,.....probably a self-destruct button!!! :shock: