It depends on the rate. I won't haul a load unless I can make a profit on it. It makes no sense to me that I should haul a load at break even or at a loss when everyone else is making a profit. Without the truck moving the product none would make a profit. I understand what you are saying. I know people who feel the same as you. I suppose we all must do what we think is best for our business. In my situation, I may haul for a lesser rate to get to a better paying area, but rather than lose money or run at cost, I would rather deadhead.


I SECOND THAT GMAN! IM JUST NOT GONNA WORK FOR NO ONE FOR FREE! I CAN IMAGINE BROKER /SHIPPER SITTING IN THERE OFFICE JUST LAUGHING AT ME! NO WAY JOSE!
DEADHEAD OUT!

 

Good posts merrick! Sounds like youve been working your butt off! And its starting to pay off! Thats alot to handle by yourself.

 

I am glad that things are going well for you Merrick. You have come a long way in 3 years. You have learned and been able to apply what you have learned into a workable business model that works for you.

 

Good job Merrick! You can buy that Mickey D's Ice coffee maker now and put it in the office.
I am still alive. Things are good.

 

Thank you everyone for your best wishes. Glad you're still around Sideman, no ice coffee machine for me. Actually I have a 15 month old now and I take her every morning to get my iced coffee. She likes going in there and they give her the receipt and I take her to the trash and she throws it out for me.

When it's crowded she grabs onto my leg and there's nothing better than having her hold me close.

I just signed for my 12th truck and tomorrow might be 13. I'm trying to bump the order up to 5 trailers; I'll find out tomorrow. I have my little cousing who's home from college come by and help me tomorrow. She can dispatch and upload a lot of stuff into the new dispatch software I'm using.

I like it cause I can even upload the truck registrations which drivers have a habit of losing so I can retreive them from anywhere in the country as long as I have access to a comput

Wife is in New York for her work right now and if I had everything in place I could have gone with her. She'll be home tomorrrow though and quite frankly though I'm from the North East I'm not a big fan. I'll stick to the palm trees and beaches.

Thanks again.

 

Figure I'd keep this thing going. This year hasn't been so much as a growth year as I've been selling all my trucks and doing the long term lease with Ryder. I've bought 7 new trailers and have 5 more coming. I believe I mentioned somewhere that I moved into an office, have a co-worker in the office and am going to hire another. I share an office with a CPA (family) with over 30 years experience so though he knows nothing about trucking I am always learning from him.

Honestly if I had the drivers I could run about 20 more trucks. I work a lot but there's money to be made. We just got all the paperwork done for Canada and will be hauling there now as well.

I was heavy leveraged to get this going but am debt free now (except for trailer payments). I don't factor, just got off Quick Pay from CH. I'll say one thing, if people know they are going to get good service you can name your price more or less. I still have a lot to learn, this business has so many aspects, but thank goodness I grew so fast and didn't crash and burn.

I watch people get into this with old equiptment and not ony do they have the breakdowns they ruin their name. Also people always say I'm good with money but really all it comes down to is spend less than you make.

As for now I'm keeping my open for new opportunities. There's without a doubt money to make here but it's a lot of work. However I speak with other business owners and it's the same thing. I don't care what business you're in, employees are the biggest problem. I have it some what good as we are based out of South Florida and I have year round freight out of here so I get people home on the regular. It maybe only for a day but nobody is really out for more than two weeks and most are home weekly or every 10 days or so. It's a big help.

 

I wanna see some pics of this company that you grew. How many trucks do you own and how many are leased.

 

The picture thing is an odd question, what do you want to see the logo on the office door? I lease 13 trucks and kept one that's paid for. If you want to see a picture of the trucks well if I had 14 trucks sitting in the yard I'd have problems now wouldn't I? Sometimes there are none as they are on the road. Well the one I own I keep local know even though that's the one with the rebuilt engine. I just don't want problems on the road. With the leased trucks, they break, and they come out and give me another.

It's a hassle for the drivers sometimes but they aren't sitting in hotels. I have never missed a load since I started this. Right now I even have 2 2011 or 2012 I'm not sure Volvos which are "lease in waiting trucks". That means I signed a lease on two trucks but they were not in state so they gave me those till they have the others. Those two need the DEF, but are running well. One had to go to the dealer the other day but they are nice. Even have USB ports on the dash.

Again any other question feel free to ask.

As for trailers I lease 5 (will never lease again) and own 11 with 5 more coming. I am also negotianting some new Cascadias, most of my leases expire next year. I should have done this a couple of years ago for longer term but everyone said I was crazy plus trucks were so cheap I just paid cash. Worked out well I guess. I bought them cheap ran them for a couple of years and sold them for pretty much what I paid for them. Now I did have repaairs but you are going to have that anyway.

I'm about to go into growth mode. I have so many ideas running through my head. I might open another "terminal". I technically have one in New England as my friend use to own trucks and still has the place (a car repair shop) I can park there (I did that once when I was driving and went to visit him).

Any other questions feel free to ask. Today so far was quiet. I had a flat on a trailer but the tire shop is about 2 miles from where we park so that was that. It all works out nice. The office is about 2 miles from my house and the yard is about 3 miles from the office. We are close to the Publix DC in Deerfield Beach FL so we don't even have to get back on the highway from there. So all California loads have gone straight to that DC.

By the way Mackman, I see you are from PA. They are far from you but Painters Garage in Breezewood is the best shop I found for Detroits in whole country. They treated me like gold. Honest as they come too.

 

I just wanna to see some pics of your trucks thats all. I thought maybe you would have owned more then one. Sounds like things are going good for you. Im slowly trying to get out of for-hire trucking and into the septic business. There is alot more money to be made in my eyes. Plus you can pay someone 20/hr and OT after 40. So trying to keep good guys shouldne be that hard. Do you offer any benefits to your drivers?? Is all you pull is reffer??

 

I had owned 7 then switched to leased. I see no value in owning them. Of course at the end of the lease I have nothing but I also don't have down time which is huge. I am in the process of trying to obtain health insurance, getting quotes etc. Yes all I have is reefers.

I guess things are going good, but it all depends how you look at it. It's a lot of work. But my bills are paid and I'm saving money for when something else pops up. I tried to buy a couple of Townhomes recently but things didn't work out. It's become a feeding frenzy again here. Prices dropped so low that people are buying things up quickly. I've made some offers but none have been accepted.

Don't know anything about the septic business but good luck with it.