If you bought in a lot of areas 3-5 years ago, you might not see any positive appreciation in your lifetime.

I want to know who your lending source is. Who's writing commercial paper with 10 percent down? Most I've talked to are still sticking with the standard 10 year term. You can bet you'll never see interest rates anywhere close to today's when it comes time to roll that over.

Well I had a truck and trailer stolen out of the yard last night. Truck is recovered already with no damage and trailer is missing.

Not sure what to expect now. This was my first trailer, so it is only a 2008 53 foot reefer (Wabash). I have a feeling they are going to find the trailer without the reefer. I don't know how they will proceed at that point but we will find out.

Main thing is trailer was empty. I do have rental coverage so will no more tomorrow when I speak with the adjuster.

I'm in Canada. Things are different here. A mortgage broker I talked to said he wanted 5% down for a duplex, 6% down for a triplex, and 7% down for a fourplex. I'd be more interested in positive cashflow from the property than in appreciation.

Hello there Merrick, * Congratulations *
 

You've done it now.. and all you need is to keep on keeping on > > > Good Luck *

I just discovered some Great News for "owner / operators" during these tough times !!

A Southeast Businessman is looking for about "12" honest dependable truckers (owner-

operators) that are interested in earning an extra $1,000 - $2,000 / month on a

consistant basis. Contact # is (888) 404-5550, Ask for Thomas.

Let your buddies know if any of them are interested.

My condolences.

My boss & I joke a lot about whether trucking is worse than real estate.

You will need a lot bigger down payment than that to get cash flow.

I was referring to your comment here:

"No matter how you look at it; when you're buying real estate you're getting an APPRECIATING asset..."

Must be a lot different there. Here you might swing less down on something up to a fourplex if it's owner-occupied. Anything over a fourplex is going to be commercial property. With the commercial market these days, good luck...even with 20% down. As LCH said, there are fewer and fewer markets every month where you'll get significant positive cash-flow with a minimal down. Maybe I need to move to Canada.

My properties are worth less every month. Rents are declining, my city utility bills for water and sewer are skyrocketing. Cash flow is disappearing. Buying a truck is actually starting to look intelligent. I'll take a WAG & say it could be a decade before they are worth what I owe on them. Unless we get into a high inflation scenario, which is not impossible by any means.

If you could find financing for small residential properties (non owner occupied) I'll bet you would need at least 25% down.

Right now, on a small investment prop, I can get 1/2% over the owner-occupied rate with 20% down. However, that's much different than what it takes for an apartment building. I've been watching the investment property picture out here on the west coast and it's getting a little dicey. I'd hate to see what it looks like in some other parts of the country.

Merrick, sorry to hear that, let us know how you make out with the trailer.

On another note, I just put a driver in my truck. I have my fingers crossed. Wish me luck.

I am now driving local here in Atlanta area.

Strangest thing, police called and trailer is back in my yard. Total cost to me was $398 towing to the tow yard, $100 for new In Cab Monitor and I'll take care of the driver with his GPS.

Have no idea what they stole it for. I was talking to the DOT agent who found it and he said sometimes they steal things just to move stuff.

Amazed I have it back, especially down in Miami.

I must say I enjoyed the trip from Miami, back up to Broward with truck and trailer. Wouldn't mind taking another short road trip.

Hey Sideman, good luck with that truck and driver. If I understand are you driving local and sending your truck OTR?

All's well that ends well, LOL

Well.it's time to apply everything you've learned from driving school.The road is like our life.It has a journey with some struggles and risk but remember to be careful and keep safe as always.

Our rules are same here: if you intend to live in the property and it has four or less units, the banks will treat it as a residential property. "commercial" starts after 4 units. It's still possible to find good deals if you get away from big cities.

Merrick, I am driving as a company driver local and my driver is running OTR.

He is on his way to Oregon right now. I decided to do this so I can take kids to Cub scouts, etc...

Rates are to crappy to have hometime.

When they get older I will get out again. New driver has grown kids, and not married. 42 yrs old, mature, nice attitude, clean mvr. He likes to run months at a clip. I think he will be happy.

cliff notes to this novel????

Cliff Notes would be, a guy drove a truck as he wanted to see the country and didn't know what else he would do at that moment of his life.

Realized that he enjoyed himself but can't make money with a big company. Bought own truck and did that for a bit but you are only going to do so much with that, long story short now is up to 8 trucks, has no life and works 24 hours a day. Well not every day but when the phone rings at 3AM it's NEVER good.

And really in summation, trucking is one brutal business. And that' no joke.

Will not be adding any more trucks at this moment and is reviewing applications for an assistant. And really as I run the trucks with friend's, we are really running like 25 trucks. This economy has pushed him to the brink of shutting down. He just got his truck payments deferred for 3 months which will keep him afloat for a while. Apparently a lot of people are doing that now.

Fortunately, though we run the trucks together we are two different companies and I do things my way and am not behind in any bills.

This year want to get more into brokering and factoring. As for the factoring, not even really with the trucks though I do that too, but would like to hook up with exporters and shippers who do not or can not wait 60 days or so to get paid from Walmart.

And I will say it again, as there are many who want to get into this business and own a fleet of trucks, this is one brutal business. You can have money in the bank, great accounts, fuel discounts, tire discounts shop discounts and one mental case driver can cause more problems then you realize.

Pictures? :lol:

If I remember correctly, isn't your friend running off the CH Robinson boards?

Well he was working with CH, I basically run the trucks now but he is not so good with managing money. I kept buying Freightliners and he's got fancy Kenworths. We've kept real busy; have good accounts but it doesn't matter what your income is if your expenses are more.

We actually still do a lot with CH, but we work with a lot of specialized divisions and really if the rate is not where it needs to be we don't take it. I'm on one now for them, St Louis to Savannah, GA dry for $2.00 a mile. Works for me and I don't have to worry about being paid. A lot of times I ask for another $20 or so to cover their quickpay fees.

That is the cliff notes of it right there.

Hundreds of nuts on a truck but the one behind the wheel is the one that will bankrupt you.

Tell me about it, I can't get anywhere with the nutjob at the wheel of my truck.

I nip things in the bud VERY QUICKLY. I don't know if I have mentioned this before in this thread, but I one guy play around in Atlanta, and I got on a plane and he was stunned we he realized that he now had no way to get home. I drove the truck back myself and was still on time for delivery.

GPS, I'm always watching. Also, considering the economy I pay very well, and as a consequence of that I have high expectations. I am quick to put someone back on the couch to think about being unemployed for a while.

That usually humbles them a bit.

>I got on a plane and he was stunned we he realized that he now had no way to get home
LOL, I love it.

Well I've been following this from day one and not commenting but it's been almost 4 months Merrick since we heard from ya, whats up? You can't leave your devoted followers hanging like this, we need an update please. Hope all is well as can be, freight index is going up pretty fast so I figure your doing good.

Are you sure about that? The reason I ask is because if you can get a cheaper load that's going to a good freight area, wouldn't it be better to do that than to be paid absolutely nothing for making the same run? Yes, I know it sets a bad precedent to let the load run for a low amount, but isn't it better to get something rather than nothing?

Makes sense.

If it's any consolation, IBM is doing the same thing to their data center staff here in the U. S. For some reason, they think it's perfectly reasonable to ask the highly knowledgeable operators they have in this country train total morons from Brazil and India to take away the job from the one doing the training.:pissedoff:

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.

Um.... nevermind. you've addressed this facet of your business strategy a number of times in this and other threads.

By the way, the O/O's of this nation are due a big THANK YOU for taking on these issues for the rest of us. Since the destruction of the labor unions' power, we don't have anyone but you to go to bat for us all.

Hello, thanks for asking. Been real busy. There is money to be made out there now (I run reefers but I've built up steady accounts and have just stayed with them. I don't chase the produce.

I'm up to 10 trucks on the road with the 11th coming next week. I just placed an order for 3 more trailers. We'll see if they finance me. Things are changing though, truck prices are rising. I was enjoying buying decent trucks with low miles for the low 30's. The last 4 trucks have been Ryder leases. I also have some PLM trailers (the banks shut me off because I built up so much credit in the first place. I have now fixed that and can finance again but I love the leased equiptment. Not so much the trailers but without a doubt the trucks.

I am a one man show running 10 trucks and it would be impossible for me to handle every single aspect. I had a reefer go down the other night ( a leased one) I called PLM with the driver on the phone and went back to bed. Next morning I found out they got him fixed right away and he kept rolling.

I did have an engine go on me last week, that hurt. I ended up getting a step 3 overhaul. Who wants to pay $19,000? But I paid cash, no more credit. That's done with and I now have a truck with a $600 payment with an engine with 2 year warranty (heading to California as we speak). New injectors, new turbo and all the rest I don't understand. But I conferenced called the service manager of my local Kenworth dealer down here, had him talk to Penn Detroit and let him go over everything.

I'm in the process of getting dispatch software and am really hoping to grow much larger. It is a ton of work though. Friday I had not one truck to book yet I was running around like crazy taking care of things. It's never ending.

The wife handles Quickbooks but I do the invoicing. She's back to work now so she's busy as it is plus our daughter is just about 15 months now so she doesn't have much time to help. I finally found a good accountant.

And that's about that. If I had another 10 trucks I think I could move them easy, I don't even make sales calls. I've built up a good name in the last 3 years (well next month will be 3 years since I started). But I would be extremely remiss if I didn't mention that I've built that name with the drivers I have. They are the backbone of this company amd do a great job for me. I consider us all working together as a team and am appreciative of the work they do for me. I do my best to take care of them and they cause me fortunately little grief. The ones that do get pushed out the door real fast.

That's all for now. Hope all others out there are doing well. Heading of to sleep.

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.