Y'know.......I've been here a while, now and I gotta that Mike provides some of the best advice around.

No way you can make a profit with one truck in this market. Let's say costs are ~$2.00/loaded mile. Tack on 20% for DH and now you need $2.40/loaded mile just to get even. You need to average $2.50/loaded mile (good luck with that in this market) on 100,000 miles to make $10,000 per truck per year.

One more time for me pleeze. What is your total cost of doing the IFTA this way?

Sorry Rank I'm not clear by what you mean by total costs. To get the IFTA done, it's just the $7.50 a month. That's all. Of course the GPS equipment cost too but the equipment is for the GPS routing, it wouldn't make sense to buy it just for the IFTA.


Anyway driving home now and just wanted to answer Mike and Rosty. Basically Mike everything you said is true. I actually read what you wrote to my friend and he said it's all true. So why keep trucks? Fear.

Fear on relying on one stream of income. We had a meeting today with a brokerage. We need to hammer out the details but I will be signing on as an agent with this brokerage. The guy was even saying that once you see you can make the same without the trucks as with the trucks (and they do have a fleet as well) that I will forget about the asset part of it.

Actually in the meeting was the person in charge on the intermodal division. He apparently worked at one of the major rails for over 20 years and he said that when he was brought on he couldn't believe what kind of revenue they were generating srtictly with a computer and phone (as he was with the train, he was always an asset based person).

But I don't plan on that yet. I am fearful of one stream of income. If there is anything I've learned in life, it's that you need multi stream of incomes.

Rosty, I appreciate your comments on employees. You made some great comments and I plan on taking your advice.

I have been "interviewing" drivers and think I have one chosen. One thing I am doing that I wish I was doing before, the company that does or did my IFTA also maintains company files. Cheap too.

So for instance, when I choose a driver, they gave me a 20 page packet with my company name on it and when the driver fills out everything they will go through the process of verifying everything and maintaining the driver file. They charge $45 to set up the file, verify all previous employees (by certified mail) and then for $8 a month they maintain the driver file and do stuff like pull the driver record every month.

For another $8 per truck and tractor he will maintain those files as well. I hated doing that. When I get a receipt I just drop it in a prepaid envelope and they file and maintain it all. Also everything is scanned so there is always a copy available for when I need it.

I was so happy with that. I had my files in hand, put them on his desk, wiped my hands together and told him I don't want to see them again.

So now I am heading home, and going to put the driver in the truck and then I need to come back up from where I came from to get trained on the broker systems.

I actually had a few days to look at it. It's a good feeling to see what the loads actually pay. Plus when I go back up I will be able to sit down with the salespeople to see how that stuff works. Not to mention the rate matrix or is it rate matrices?

So a lot of things seem to be happening. I'm kind of nervous to be quite honest. I believe I have a lot of doors being opened to me and I just hope this all goes well.

Also I will be working for my friend to help him with his company. I've been with him for a couple of weeks now and it's amazing how he's grown within a system that really isn't too efficient. They weren't even getting volume discounts on fuel. I have been trying to streamline a lot of stuff. He was going to hire another office person, but I don't think that is going to be necessary.

If I end up staying with trucking or if I grow a company then all this experience I am gaining helping him run his will make it much more easier to run my own.

I'll say one thing, I've been watching him as well as another guy we went and saw that at one time at over 40 trucks, they don't believe in contracts. They like working strictly on the spot market. After so many years doing this, they seem to know where to put the trucks and where not to to capitalize on the needs of the market.

As always I appreciate the comments and feedback that I receive. A lot of negativity goes on on this board but I am very thankful that at all times I have received postive feedback and also positive criticism.

Thanks again.

Merrick,
Damn man,..throwing in the towel? that only leaves one Florida boy left!!!
Have you considered www.manufacturersnews.com to get a guide of all the shippers in the country (400,000 shippers). I Have the Florida book and it has 17,000 shippers in it.
It's very helpful in getting direct with the shippers. I would recommend the CD rom.
Good luck, and I want to know more about your GPS product,..it sounds cool.

Thanks a lot Doghouse; I appreciate that info. When I get up to get trained on the system, things like this will come in handy. I'm really very excited about it all.

That gps thing is peoplenet http://www.peoplenetonline.com/. Actually I have to have Peterbilt install mine but there is a place out of Tampa that does it too. They might be cheaper as they work with Peoplenet.

Thanks again Doghouse, and give us an update on your progress soon. It's been a bit since the transmission issue.

Got the truck fixed today. It was something actuator and was pumping fuel into turbo or something like that. There was a wait for a new part so I got a used one put in and with labor it costs I think it was $376 or so.

Had the driver with me to pick it up and then went and got the trailer. He was happy as can be. I guess he was running for some Jamaican that had like 12 trucks but they were a mess and not properly cared for. He saw I had everything nice and clean.

I'll say one thing as I've been interviewing quite a few people, they all seem to have the same concerns. That they will get paid on time, that the owner knows what he's doing and won't be out of business tomorrow.

I'm pretty cool, but I have to remember that I need to conduct an interview like a regular employer. Really considering they are calling for a job, some really have attitudes. Let them talk for a while and stuff comes out. "I hate Dac", well you just told me you have a good license and job history so what's the problem?

My friend got me a load today to Illinois for like $1.50 but I declined. It felt good to get back on the phone and start calling on loads. One lady calls me and tells me about a 650 mile trip and I was going to quote her $1400 but then she goes on to tell me that she is getting crazy quotes like $2100. Sure is crazy I tell her, I'll do it for $1800. She had to call me back but never did. I called her and she said she hadn't heard back from her boss. Oh well maybe tomorrow.

You must check out a drivers Dac. I know of at least 10 people that tried to get a job with a company I was doing business with. They all said they had a clean license and only 2 out of the 10 actually did. :shock:

Thanks Sideman. I need to figure out how to do that. Right now the process is to give the info the to insurance company and they either approve or deny. So far they have only denied one person.

Seems like there are a ton of people that don't want to (or can't maybe) run for the big companies.

Anyway my truck is on a load right now heading to Missouri. I have to say, there was so much stress to get this one. I got up early which I usually don't do. Finding a load for another driver entails a whole different perspective than when finding one for yourself.

For instance today is Thursday. There where decent loads to the Midwest but a lot of them didn't deliver til Monday. That means I had to send the guy out and have him get there Saturday or even late Friday and then sit til Monday. I know how it is to be sitting there and don't want to do that to someone. Better send him out tomorrow and let him sit in his own house for today.

Finally got a load to Missouri which finals on Saturday and I will hopefully get him a load on Saturday. So before I had to basically just try and get a good rate, now I need to try and get a good rate and try and not leave a guy sitting in a truck stop for a couple of days.

I'll say one thing though, when all was said and done I got to thinking that man my truck is on a load rolling down the road and I am home. Pretty good feeling that is. Yes I know, wait unitl the 3AM phone call and all the other things that can and will go wrong, but let me enjoy this brief moment

I like being able to sit here and track him with my computer too. It helps soothe the nervers a bit.

I got quoted $1.10 a mile today from Miami to Chicago. I asked him if that's the rate with $4.00+ fuel, what was it before at $2.50. I was honestly asking him too, but he got mad. I also found a good load to North Dakota, paid decent and all but he didn't have his broker authority. He was a trucking company that was allowed to post his excess freight. Decent money but I couldn't take that.

Listen to ppl when they tell you that making money running one truck is hard to do! Im not trying to rain on your parade as Mike calls it, but you are really gonna need a lot of luck on your side to make this worth your effort. Times are hard enough for the drivers who are actually driving. Your profits are gonna be very slim. If you had another couple of trucks that were leased on with you it might be worth the hassle. Otherwise, i think you would be better off hanging sheetrock and trying ur best to get this brokerage of yours running. One source of good income is a lot better than having two with increased risk. You might need to evaluate your risk/reward with this one truck operation. Also, what is so good about this peoplenet gps fleet management tool? I couldn't justify the cost of having this on one truck. I cant really see how its going too boost the efficiency of a one truck fleet. That along with the fact that u like to sub out all of your paperwork and record keeping really makes me wonder why you keep wanting to increase your expenses? Yeah....i admit that it can be time consuming and troublesome, but you talk about being an agent and all..... do you think paperwork and record keeping is going to be nonexistent with that? Sorry to sound like im bustin ur balls, but I dont think ur seeing things in the same context as some that have been through ur adventure.

Thank you hamboner for your comments. I have always said and will say, that I appreciate all comments both positive and negative.

Just a couple of things, yes the Peoplenet was relatively expensive but as I may have mentioned, I have experienced the cost of not staying on top of an investment before. If I can catch a problem early enough, then this device will be well worth the money. Going out of route a few times with fuel the way it is will cost plenty.

Also I do sub out some of the stuff I don't like, but I don't feel it's that expensive. All that taking care of paper work probably costs me like $50 a month. On the other hand I save hundreds a month in interest expense by doing the things I like doing. So I spend about $50 or so a month on stuff I hate, and save hundreds on stuff I like. I started this business last June I think and on just 1 card alone I have received over $1500 cash back, just by buying fuel and purchasing the equipment on the card. I enjoy paying attention to stuff like that.

I really don't mean to sound like "yeah but" which drives me crazy when people do that. I have hopes of maybe getting more trucks, and I would like to set the groundwork up real good before I expand.

You know this guy I'm friends with has 14 trucks and has no idea really of his cost per mile and many other things that are going on. He was literally throwing money right out the window in poor money management. He hates that stuff, so I have been helping out. Conversely I hate mechanical stuff and he helps out with that.

I don't want to even have 2 trucks without understanding everything.

Anyway thanks again for your comments; I mean that too, as I want to be challenged on things, and forced to explain what I am doing.