You're in so much trouble.

I'd ban him TF.

 

Yeah, if I didn't like the board arsonist rank I gave him, I'd change it to Mrs. Mercer. She was my 4th grade spelling teacher at St. Mary's Catholic School. She wrapped my knuckles a few times with her ruler if I screwed something up.

:shock:

 

You forgot that you need to bill your shippers or brokers and collect the money. :roll: After all you will need money to pay for all that chrome.

 

What about these guys? Taken from the TMC thread.

"You have a bad/non-communicative FM and nothing is going to change for the better if you don't have a talk with him and your team leader or get a new FM.

I've never been offered any option on loads with TMC. I just always trusted that my FM was doing his job and getting me the best loads possible.

I've made good money with them (as advertised, about 1k/week) up until about 2 months ago, running a little dirty, but mostly clean. In that same time, my hometime has been mostly crappy though, I've only been home early enough 2x in the last 3 months to be able to do anything on Friday night.

I've just had it with them... nothing I do is enabling me to make the money I used to make. Unload early... doesn't matter, I'll wait 2 hours almost every time for my next dispatch.

Unload a little later (1000-1200), and about 1/2 the time i'll be preplanned before I even send my empty macro in... tell me which makes more sense?

The only problem with this strategy is that you've moved your truck to reach your unload destination, and there is very little you can fudge on with your logbook(if such things concern you).

I've been running with very little concern for legality in the last 5 weeks, just to seen what kind of a paycheck I could squeeze out of the system, and to see how long it would take before safety/logs got on me.

In those 5 weeks I grossed a little over 1k once, 750-875 3 times, and about 650 in a week that I had a 1 day breakdown.

In a typical week I broke my 14 hour rule 3/5 days, drove more than 11 hours 1/5 days, took less than a 10 hour break or 8/2 split 3/5 days, and backlogged, fudged, or outright lied on my log 5/5 days.

Someone from the log dept finally called last week to ask what was up. I told them I couldn't make the money they advertised running legal, so I was just doing a little experiment, and as it turns out, I couldn't even make that money running balls-to-the-walls illegal. They told me I would be routed to a terminal for log class (lol) if I didn't shape up... which is funny, because I could teach the log class, and how to lose your shirt with TMC running legal." posted by LennyD on 9-7-08 pg 255


"I've been in my own truck for almost a month and I have to say it's been pretty challenging, but also rewarding. Been wanting to do this for a long time and it feels good to be doing it. Not sure how I'll feel once the novelty wears off, but for now I'm doing the best I can.

The one thing that bugs me to this point is how my FM just tells me about one load and offers no options or anything. It feels odd, and I called the other day for a load after unloading first thing in the morning, and spoke with another FM because mine was in a meeting. We spoke about 3 different loads, where they were going, how much they were paying, if I wanted to get home that weekend, etc. It felt great to be offered options (options are always good) and like I had some control.

The next day I spoke to my FM and told him what had taken place and how I appreciated being offered the different loads. I asked him if we could do the same and he said he will when there are options. I find it hard to believe the one day I talk to someone else is the one and only day there were options.

If I feel something could make my job easier or better I try to implement it. Unfortunately, I feel that my FM and I are subtly butting heads.

He has been getting me loads back home on Fridays, but I have to start running illegal starting Thurs. and that puts me back home at 1am last Sat. and 10pm last night. The first two Fridays I was home by 5pm and thinking, man this job is pretty cool.

At the pace I've been running the past couple of weeks I don't know how long I'll be able to do it. The kicker is the money is not like I thought it would be. So far I've been bringing home around 550/wk. (running the northeast, some VA, NC) It takes the wind out of my sails to come home and see that amount deposited after busting my ass all week.

We'll see what this next week brings. Good luck to everyone and hope it's a good week for you." written by dakota1 9-7-08 pg 254

 

LOL cherry picking posts. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

In any business endeavor, you need to have clearly defined goals and a plan on how to achieve those goals. It doesn't make any difference what type of business you start, you must have a goal and plan. Well....that is unless you have plenty of money and just want to see the country. Having plenty of money in this business can help overcome a lot of mistakes. Unfortunately, most of those starting out don't have a lot of extra money with which to play with and must guard our funds closely. Someone with less capital and a good plan can often succeed when another with plenty of resources and more capital will fail. It is all in the planning.

When planning it is usually a good idea to include contingencies. Unexpected things can and usually do happen in business. Most people in this business would not have anticipated this type of economic slow down this quickly. Every business has cycles. Trucking is no different. Planning involves thinking about how you are going to get loads, where you will run and how much it will cost to run your truck. It also includes how you are going to finance your business. This is a very capital intensive business. Just buying fuel can cost more in a week than many people earn in a month. And that doesn't include any other costs of running your truck, such as tires, maintenance, payments, insurance, etc.,

There is one thing that most forget. They neglect to pay themselves. Keeping what is left is not sound business planning. Paying yourself a salary or wage makes more sense, but again, that is not what most owner operators do. I have a couple of friends who pay themselves a flat salary. One pays himself $800/week, no matter what. The other pays himself $2,000/month, no matter what. I also have another friend who spends what he makes and is always broke. He works hard and gets good rates, but fails to plan. With his drive, if he would only spend some time planning he would be in very good financial condition. The third friend is more typical of most owner operators. All three of these individuals run their own authority except the guy who pays himself $800/week. The two who pay themselves a salary put all of their money into their business account and live on their salary. They let their money grow to a point where they can afford to make any major repair that may come along. The friend who pays himself $2,000/month recently had his engine rebuilt. He didn't borrow the money. He paid cash with money that he put aside for this type of expenditure. He planned for it. He is a seasoned trucker. He knew before he purchased this truck that he would need to prepare to rebuild his engine. It isn't a matter of if, but when. It came a little more quickly than he would have preferred, but when the time did come, he had the money to take care of his repair. He laid out about $10,000 in cash. That is part of the planning one needs to do in order to be prepared for major breakdowns. By the way, he didn't wait until his engine quit to do the over haul. He saved several thousand dollars by going ahead and doing the in-frame when he did rather than waiting until the engine completely failed. It is about planning.

 

I saw the TMC thread and went to the last page. One post is quoted on page 255 and the other was posted on page 255.

 

Yep from what I can tell that is how you do most of your investigating,scratch the surface and pick the parts that suit your arguement.I still think that the drivers you quoted talking about only bringing home $800 a week will be more than you do and all they do is drive,compared to what you will have to do for the same or even less take home.

Frankly I couldn't give a crap,it's obvious that nothing any veteran driver or buisnessman tells you it's not gonna change your mind,you've got all the answers.Except for all the ones you ask questions about on this forum and then dispute the answers that are given......

 

The one guy who made $750-$875/wk 3/5 wks said he broke the law to make that money.

The other guy said all he makes is $550.

Plus, they sit and wait to get loaded with no detention pay and do not get home every weekend.

My dad is averaging at least $.50/mi on 2-3K miles/wk. That is double either one of those guys and he doesn't have to deal with company crap.

I currently make $478/wk as a school bus driver and when I work 40 hrs at my other job another $640.

 

What grade are the kids on your bus? Do you have a nickname?