Heysus man... what dead zone are you expecting to deliver to? ... http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0/icon_lol.gif

join OOIDA, they are a great help in a lot of things

did you look in to a expeditor? or gettig a sleeper for your truck?


good luck with the venture!

I decided against a sleeper, at least for now. A day cab suits me fine.

I was just grumbling that my decision will backfire once in awhile. For instance last year I happened to be passing through Arkansas when they had that freak ice storm. It wasn't too bad until I got to Little Rock and suddenly there were cars off the road and fender benders left and right. I made it to the Pilot and of course it was full. Then I noticed some trucks in front of the Target on the other side of the e-way. They couldn't have had us towed if they wanted to and I slept like a rock. Had I been in a day cab I'm sure every hotel for miles around was full and I would have had a long night.

But I've factored that eventuality into my purchase decision and I'll live with it. Just practicing my grumbling. Next I think I'll grumble about budget cuts. It's been a week since my accountant filed my paperwork and Michigan is still sitting on it.

O/O's aren't very happy people...that's for sure.

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...0/icon_lol.gif hahaha hahaha hahaha hah hah

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2...cheesygrin.gif heh heh ....hem... cof


http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l2..._neutral-1.gif heh cof .... ...................................(sound of crickets)

In the MI, IN, and northwestern OH areas, I've seen straight trucks that were set up like covered wagons. Places I loaded steel, they were picking up smaller loads. Granted, that was a few years ago, before the economy tanked, but I would expect that you should have no problem picking up loads in that area. For the rest of the country, I generally saw box trucks picking up loads (like Panther II). Don't remember seeing any with Mercer on them, but Landstar had a few of them. There should be loads available for you.

What you get to do is look over the country and when you retire, you can pick the areas you want to spend time in, based on what you got a look at. Some really fantastic areas west of the Mississippi.

I'm trying to fit in best I can. :)

Now that's what I'm talking about right there! I'm happy where I'm living. I've got great neighbors and the area has a cool atmosphere. But there's so much of this great country that I haven't even seen yet. I know I'll spend most of the year staying pretty close to home and concentrating on keeping the bills paid but I'm not so old I don't have a little adventure left in my soul. Once or twice a year I plan on just heading out and taking some load that pays pretty well and leads somewhere I haven't been before. If the next load leads even farther into uncharted territory I'll smile and consider it a good thing. There's got to be more to life than pounding the same piece of pavement day after day.

MD, are you going to continue to dispatch, and take an occasional load yourself, for awhile?

I'm just going to try and find loads for myself. Dispatching is much harder (pronounced boring) than I thought it would be, not to mention more thankless. Nope, I plan on running hard, at least for the next year and giving my dispatcher (me) a break whenever I can. Any load going anywhere that pays pretty well and won't leave me stuck finding my next load will be good enough.

One thing though, I've done some programming and I've got some ideas for making finding better loads easier with less time/effort investment. I plan on working on that in my spare time. If anything comes of it, and let's be honest, I'm not exactly a workaholic these days :), maybe I'll post something someday that will be worth looking into. As always, the smart bet is to bet against me. :)

Welcome to our jobline.
Excellent report and I'm really excited to know more.