[Rev.Vassago]

Originally Posted by shahan

Do you guys goto residential homes to load up?? The only way you could come into my neiborhood is if you drive over top of a stop sign and turn around in the yard. What do you do if you cant fit down the street?, which im sure happens alot.

You'd be surprised. I've put my truck in places where a NORMAL driver wouldn't even think of going.

But in the event that I cannot get my truck in, I will rent a truck, like a U-haul, Penske, etc., and load the shipment on there. After I get the rental loaded, then I have to take it all off and put it on my truck.

I get about 10 shuttles a year, at best. So far this year, I've done 2 of them.

[Teal 95 KW]

I wish these weren't so grainy, but I guess that's what you get with a camera phone at night. <shrug>

[Rawlco]

That is quite the nice shade of teal paint on that truck :P

Teal: So are you currently under load with United, or is that an old photo?

Bandit: How is the new truck working out?

[Teal 95 KW]

Haha..thanks. It was originally Teal, I had it painted a couple months back, had some stuff shaved off, next up is turn-outs on the exhaust, new strap-less fuel tanks, and WTI fiberglass fenders. Kinda going for a "hot-rod" look, as I've shaved off all the badging, etc. on it. I'm not underload right now, I just came back over to United, and will start loading in a Monday morning.

I spent the past few days in Chicago with Bandit, and he finished loading 20k lbs. today over by Wisconsin going to SC, so I'm not sure when he's going to be back.

[Rev.Vassago]

Originally Posted by Teal 95 KW

Haha..thanks. It was originally Teal, I had it painted a couple months back, had some stuff shaved off, next up is turn-outs on the exhaust, new strap-less fuel tanks, and WTI fiberglass fenders. Kinda going for a "hot-rod" look, as I've shaved off all the badging, etc. on it.

I'm going for an old 50's style pickup truck look with mine. I was considering pulling the dash from an old pickup truck, and making it fit the Pete in place of the current dash.

[Teal 95 KW]

That would be pretty sick. Alot of work, I'm sure, but the Pete cab is pretty narrow so it might not be alot of work to get it to fit width wise.

I've always built sports cars, etc. and now that I have this truck, it's more addicting to do stuff to them, I don't even want another car, lol. One question though, did you do anything else with that truck when you bought it? Or, did you buy it to pull HHG-Seems it would have been easier to put blue accents on a white truck, than to put white accents on a blue truck

[shahan]

Lets say you hire help and a uhaul for every p/u AND delivery so you dont have to do any work, or even goto the residence. Assuming they break an average amount of stuff, would you still show a profit at the end of the year? Just curious.

[Rev.Vassago]

Originally Posted by Teal 95 KW

One question though, did you do anything else with that truck when you bought it? Or, did you buy it to pull HHG-Seems it would have been easier to put blue accents on a white truck, than to put white accents on a blue truck

I bought it new, but since it was a prototype, I couldn't spec it. But it had the Cummins I was looking for, plus it was speced out to the wazoo, and the price was right (about $53,000 under list price). It was speced to pull reefer, and I'm sure I'd get better fuel mileage if I would have been able to spec it myself, but for $53K, I'm willing to go with what I was given. The paint job ran me $3500.

Some of the future plans for the truck:

- Hardwood floors (not that plastic flooring that looks like hardwood)
- Replace the dash
- Replace the headlights with lights off an old pickup truck (not those gaudy Double JJ lights)
- Shorten the stacks even further (I've already dropped them 9")
- Lose the hood ornament completely
- Remove the air horns, and hide them under the body somewhere
- Bullet style turn signals on the fenders
- Tinted windows
- Rebuild the sleeper, adding a shower/toilet, kitchenette, etc.
- Full fenders, with custom taillights on the rear
- And possibly, suicide doors

Originally Posted by shahan

Lets say you hire help and a uhaul for every p/u AND delivery so you dont have to do any work, or even goto the residence. Assuming they break an average amount of stuff, would you still show a profit at the end of the year? Just curious.

Any broken items are too much. You wouldn't last long in the business with a business plan like that. Moving is a touchy area - most people either don't want to move, or are apprehensive about putting all their worldly possesions in the hands of someone they hardly know. The HHG companies expect, and the customers expect, that you will make the move as easy and painless for them as possible.

It isn't just about the labor for loading and unloading. It goes far beyond that. You are expected to hold the hand of your shipper, and get them through a traumatic time as painlessly and smoothly as possible. And the first step to doing that is to take an active role in the process, and get as "hands on" as you possibly can.

[Rev.Vassago]

Just finished my first load of the contest today. The Mrs. was really apprehensive about moving from Jersey to Colorado. But I set her mind at ease, and they were overjoyed with the results.

The Mr. was so happy, he slipped me a $500 tip at the end of the day. Not bad, considering the reason he was so happy was because I delivered early. But because I delivered today, I got some nice overtime unloading pay, and overtime unpacking pay.

Got my second load already booked - the first part of a 47,000 lb load going from Denver to Toronto. I'm supposed to get 28,000 lbs of it. This one is a VIP load, and the shipper is a close personal friend of Bill Graebel, the owner of the company. Gotta love that 3 grand border crossing pay!!!!!!!!!!

The shipment is going into storage on the 6th, and I've got another load already booked to load on the 7th in Toronto, then it is off to Jersey (again) to pick up another, and then assuming they don't fill me out with anything else, then it is off to Florida to deliver on the 12th and the 13th.

[Teal 95 KW]

:nervous: