Originally Posted by merrick4

Thank you Steve and GMAN. Steve if you go back and read over your orignal posts and now read what you write, well it's amazing. You seem to have reached a comfort level. Me I feel like a fish out of water, but I know in time that comfort level will come.

I do want to ask a queston, how do you send your bills out? I don't see any mailboxes at these truck stops?

Most of the time there are mailboxes at the truckstop just not in the same place as all the other ones. You can ask the clerk if they have outgoing mail and they usually have a bin at the back of the counter that they will put your mail in. The mailman comes into the truckstop store and delivers there mail and picks up any outgoing. They normally don't have mail boxes as people tend to steal the mail.

Yes, I have reached a comfort level and it took about 6 months. One thing to keep telling yourself. If the place your delivering gets loads all the time and you get directions then you should be all set and not have to worry like, "GEEZ, I wonder if I'll be able to make all the corners".

One thing about flatbed though, you do have to remind the people your coming in a big truck and ask for advise on how to get there, where to park if your early and maybe you'll need an escort in. Lots of unknowns when delivering with a flatbed.

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by merrick4

Thank you Steve and GMAN. Steve if you go back and read over your orignal posts and now read what you write, well it's amazing. You seem to have reached a comfort level. Me I feel like a fish out of water, but I know in time that comfort level will come.

I do want to ask a queston, how do you send your bills out? I don't see any mailboxes at these truck stops?

Most truck stops will have either a post office box outside the building or a drop at the fuel desk where you can put your mail. Just ask them at the fuel desk.

[Doghouse]

Merrick,
If you have an outlet fron the APU that is labeled 115VAC that means 115 Volts Alternating Current AKA household current, so go ahead and plug in your microwave there, and it sounds like your inverter does not have enough surge capacity, and it kicks the breaker inside the inverter.Also if its on a breaker (is it like a bathroom GFI outlet) that large, you should be able to run several household appliances from that one outlet.

Good luck and don't worry about kicking the breaker,..thats what its for.
Just don't let it kick off and off, and off, because thats overloading it,..and not a good thing to do. just adjust your use accordingly and all will be fine.

[tootie04]

Good luck Merrick....I am looking forward to reading all about your adventures 8)

tootie

[merrick4]

Thank you Tootie and thanks Steve and Gman for the mail, I'll just ask the fuel desk for the mailboxes although I don't like the idea of having to do that. I can never rest until I see things get done or I do it myself.

Doghouse, thanks, I guess I'll just use the APU. To be honest I really like this thing a lot. I'm very glad I got it. As for the inverter, the breaker that went was actually not inside the inverter, it was by the connection to the batteries. I'll just use the inverter for the computer and small stuff and the APU for the microwave. That's all I have anyway. I don't even have a tv as I don't watch it. Thanks again.

No_worries, the unit I got is a X2 2100A. I guess the A stands for advanced. I paid $19,800 plus 6% sales tax. I'm sure you already know about it but I have the brochure so if you have any questions feel free to ask. As for the trailer, I didn't get any erails though I supposed I could get them in. But I think you run team if I'm not mistaken, and that is better suited for the foliage and flowers. Could be wrong, got a lot to learn. Anyway the trailer is a 2008 Wabash. 50 gallon tank. The price for that broke down to $32041 for the unit. $3845 fet, $1972 for the state tax, and $125 for the title and tag for a total price of $37983. The good thing is he let me pay for it on a credit card so I will be getting cash back on that. Probably a few hundred dollars.

You will know a lot better of the prices than I would, but I feel I did pretty well. They charged me what they would have charged the guy who is loading my truck. He has a good name down here.

Actually I'm on my 2nd load right now. I think this is pretty bad but supposedly it's moving me to a better paying freight. At first I was supposed to go from Oklahoma to Lubbock, Tx to deliver the next day for $580. But it got changed to about an hour north of Oklahoma City to SIX stops in Michigan (yes six, I don't like that). Total mileage is about 1200 including dead head and it pays $1550. It's newspaper inserts and I'm hoping as all the places are near to eachother I can get in and out.

What I'm looking to do is haul produce and I guess Michigan is good right now for that. As mentioned, I don't book my own freight, but I think I will sign up for getloaded and start watching how things go.

[marcel27208]

hey getloaded.com works for me!!!!! :lol:

[mike3fan]

I hope that you start getting some better paying freight for that $150 a week you are paying.

So far it seems to me you have made roughly $3,700 on 2,700(would love to know actual) miles,with 9 stops for about $1.37 a mile,not nearly good enough if you ask me(which no one did) for having to buy a $38,000 trailer.

Just keep in mind just because someone can blow smoke up your skirt doesn't mean you need to stay with them and run your business into the ground,stand your ground and only run your truck if it makes money.

Consider this,would most reefer haulers take a coast to coast run(2,700 miles) with 9 stops for $3,700?

It is fine to take bad feight to get to another area if you must but twice?

I say give the guy a couple of weeks and see where you're average is and then you can make an informed decision if it's worth the $150 a week.

[merrick4]

Originally Posted by mike3fan

I hope that you start getting some better paying freight for that $150 a week you are paying.

So far it seems to me you have made roughly $3,700 on 2,700(would love to know actual) miles,with 9 stops for about $1.37 a mile,not nearly good enough if you ask me(which no one did) for having to buy a $38,000 trailer.

Just keep in mind just because someone can blow smoke up your skirt doesn't mean you need to stay with them and run your business into the ground,stand your ground and only run your truck if it makes money.

Consider this,would most reefer haulers take a coast to coast run(2,700 miles) with 9 stops for $3,700?

It is fine to take bad feight to get to another area if you must but twice?

I say give the guy a couple of weeks and see where you're average is and then you can make an informed decision if it's worth the $150 a week.

You're right Mike and that's why I am posting on this board and laying it all open and appreciate all comments. This isn't personal to me this is business.

Anyway I won't know the actual mileage til I finish up this next load, but I started in Miami with 325,395. I now sit here with 327157 but that was with deadheading here. My hub miles for last trip was 1612. I had a flat rate of $2150 so for a total of $1.33 per mile.

As for this load, I'm about hysterical. Honestly the guy himself doesn't book my loads; he has a dispatcher. Though he couldn't get hold of the dispatcher so he got me the load to Texas but then the dispatcher switched me to this. I don't know the dispatcher, he's just another person in the world to me and if this doesn't work out then I'll move on.

I don't like 6 stops and on top of that I got right to this place and then when I get here the broker tells me that they changed the time to 11:30 (I was here at 3:30).

Thanks again for your comments

[mike3fan]

Originally Posted by merrick4

Thanks again for your comments

thanks for taking them in the context they were meant,good luck.

[Doghouse]

Wow Merrick,
6 stops and all the changes,...keep up the good work, before I even hit the road I will have learned what to plan for and ask brokers before it even happens :wink: seems these guys are a never ending supply of BS.