[Doghouse]

Let me know how your DOT goes,..I'm getting one when I get back to Fl. next week.

[BigDiesel]

Originally Posted by merrick4

But if I don't do produce and I know nothing about nursery stuff, then what do I concentrate on? (more of a rhetorical question).

If I am not going home for the holidays then over the Green Monster with the baseball she goes

I have a good relationship w/ a couple of growers in Yuma, and my mom lives there.

I do nursery due to the fact that the family that owns one of the larger nurseries, have been friends of our family for years. It's not what you know, but who you know. :wink:

[Doghouse]

I'm in Yuma right now,....parked in a sandbox next to a Love's.

[BigDiesel]

Originally Posted by Doghouse

I'm in Yuma right now,....parked in a sandbox next to a Love's.

off Gila Ridge Rd.

[merrick4]

Originally Posted by BigDiesel

I have a good relationship w/ a couple of growers in Yuma, and my mom lives there.

I do nursery due to the fact that the family that owns one of the larger nurseries, have been friends of our family for years. It's not what you know, but who you know. :wink:

Yes I know but unfortunately I have always lived by the saying "how can we mis you if you don't go away" either that or familiarity breeds contempt. Short and sweet I have always kept it, now I find myself calling people I haven't spoken to in quite a while.


My family, well most of them now moved back East, was in the Scottsdale area for many many years but I still have an aunt out there in Chandler. My Uncle, though now living in Florida, is a CPA and has a lot of clients out there. I find it awkward though bringing this stuff up, that is mixing business with social. You with 18 years of sales must have that down pat. I move in light speeds though so I am going to get this 8)

Doghouse, you will have your audit before me. Mine isn't til the end of January. This guy was real cool, he is from Upstate New York, same area as you I think.

[no_worries]

You'll always find your best rates on a Friday, on average. Even more so in this situation. That doesn't mean they'd be higher than Summer rates, but you get the idea. Of course, Fridays can also be heartbreakers. You hold out for that homerun because someone "just has to be holding back" and you're left at the end of the day beating yourself up because you took something out of desperation as the day was fast coming to a close or you're stuck over the weekend. Do a little homework the day before so you have a good idea of volumes, rates, and lanes. A little prep goes a long way toward giving you a feel for the freight pulse in that area. Like you said, it's like a living thing the way this stuff moves sometimes.

[merrick4]

Originally Posted by no_worries

you're left at the end of the day beating yourself up because you took something out of desperation as the day was fast coming to a close or you're stuck over the weekend. .

That's why so we set ourselves up so we don't have to take anything out of desperation :wink: But you are right about being stuck somewhere. This place is not where I want to be over the weekend.

I did do quite a bit of watching the boards today. I have been posting the night before but I am going to stop doing that. They start calling first thing and I think it's best not to take the first load in the morning.

One thing I have been mulling over, it seems it's best not to call on a load. I don't mean that as a blanket statement, but it seems better if they are calling you, I feel more like I have the upper hand.

Oh by the way NW, I heard that Tesco finally started out there. I read many years ago that they were planning on doing that. I guess they have set up their distribution center within 2 miles of thier meat and produce suppliers. I think they said it was in Riverside and that one distribution center serves several states.

[no_worries]

LOL, you must have been listening to CNBC the other day...I heard the same story. I've been keeping an eye out, I don't think they have one close to me yet. There's a store just down the road that Albertson's recently vacated. I thought maybe they'd move in there but now that I know more I think it's bigger than what they use. I really don't do much pre-prepared and convenience foods, so I don't know how much I'll like them...but I expect them to do well here. I do like the neighborhood market concept.

I agree about not calling. I will call on loads if I'm looking to go somewhere specific and also to get a feel for the rates that day, since so few post rates much of the time. And there are certain characteristics that will peak my interest enough to call on. But for the most part I prefer to be called 8) But those days when the phone barely rings can get to you :lol: Not a good sign.

[Darin Younce]

Merrick4 , I just wanted to say I have enjoyed reading your journal for the past few weeks. I too am about to go out on my own in a different way ( 4 car rollback) but nontheless I have learned a great deal from your post . BTW did you notice your last post was 666 :twisted:

[merrick4]

Yes I heard it on CNBC I think I read about it several years ago in the Economist magazine. I use to love that magazine. Don't have the time anymore.

Well today was something else. I woke late, well normal for me but I wanted to get up kind of early to start looking for a load but it was 10AM.
I was gonna run over to Mcdonalds to get my iced coffee and I hear someone say something behind me; I turned around with my fists up and it was TealKW. First person I met from this board now. Nice conversation we had; it was nice to put a face to the name. Actually I didn't even get his real name. But nonetheless we had a nice talk.

So then I run over to McDonalds get back to the truck and post the truck. I must say I wasn't prepared for what happened. I wish I had 50 trucks because today was a money day.

Just an aside, I heard that Lester Coggins of LCT was a real jerk; that he didn't care if you made $50 a week. All he cared about was having the trucks for the big flower days. They must make some serious money on those days.

Well the first call was for a load from Georgia to Penn. He was paying over $3.00 a mile and with deadhead it was about $2.50. I was close to saying yes but then I realized something I hadn't planned for, namely Christmas Eve. I wasn't sure if I could get a load that Monday so if not I would be sitting in Penn. til Wednesday and worse in the cold and worse I'd have to reload out of Penn. But $2500 for basically one day run was tempting. It was the first call and I just didn't want to say yes.

Next call was from TQL. A load from Miss. to Cali. It was about 1866 loaded with about 211 dh. He said it normally pays $2400 but what would I do it for as they all knew today was payday. I told him $3800 and he said he would check with his customer.

A couple other calls in the meantime, one was to Chicago with no dh and paid over $2.00 a mile. Of course it didn't start off at that but I told him I am being offered serious money and so he goes up to $1800 for I think it was 786 miles. What to do, what to do. I don't want to sit in Chicago for several days either.

Well TQL calls back and says the guy will do $3300. In the meantime I realized I worked for this broker before and actually had a good experience with them and got paid very well (that was the $1.70 to Montana) So that was about $1.57 a mile to California. I was hesitating, and he asked if I could help them out. I told him I'm here to work not to help people out, really not in those words but I am running a business, a for profit business not a charity one.

I didn't want it for that rate cause I mean I could get $1800 for much less miles and be in a good area. He puts me on hold cause I asked if he could confirm a reload out, and he comes back and offers $3500 which is over $1.60 all miles to California. So I said yes. Not sure how smart that was in hindsight but this was for a few reasons.

I am starting to vaguely formulate a plan out here and I would like to work certain lanes and California isn't what I'm working on right now, but also I need to keep the money rolling. I have heavy credit card debt for buying all of this stuff. I have the money in the bank but I want the debt payed off and still have the money in the bank. This month has been good so I will do this and work my way back and probably end up with $5,000 grand or so after fuel and that's that.

Also to be honest, and I know I will catch flack for this, but I don't want to be sitting in the cold for 5 days. I hate it more than you can imagine, not dislike, not "this sucks", HATE WITH A FIERCE PASSION.

Anyway I'm not sure of the rates out there, but we'll find out. I'm going to Santa Fe Springs which is I guess right outside of L.A. I have decided that I will stay out til the end of January. I'm thinking L.A. is a good place for freight but we'll find out.

And to be honest all I ever hear for Cali is $1.00 a mile or so. Yes I wouldn't take that but someone is every single day. So I'm thinking this was a good rate. Any thoughts on this. No_worries? BigD?

By the way, the load I took from Arkansas which was good money, that guy wanted to "put me on the board" and run my truck. But I didn't want that. I plan on running my own board, not someone else's 8)