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Originally Posted by GMAN
Scoe, I thought you worked for a van carrier. Do you mind telling which company you dispatch for? Since you are so close, you may know whether Boydstun still has their training program.
When you look at car hauling rates, it is easy to forget about the cost to purchase and maintain the truck. New car haulers can run as high as $250,000. :shock: Truck payments can easily run from $3,500-5,000 per month. That is a lot of money. All of your ramps run off of hydraulics. Blow a hose and you cannot load or unload your cars. I used to keep spare fittings and hydraulic fluid to make repairs on-sight. There is nothing worse than blowing a hose when you are picking up at an auction or delivering to a dealer on the weekend or night. Extreme cold climate can also affect your ability to use your ramps. My last car hauler weighed 42M pounds empty. Put a load of cars and add several inches of snow and you have a good load. :wink:
By the way, JackHammer, the 25% I mentioned was driver pay, not owner operator. Some of the car hauler companies pay owner operator's as much as 85% of the line haul rate.
I dispatch for CJ&M Transport here in Portland, they are at the Union Pacific rail head about a 1/4 mile from Boydstun. I still drive but that's only part-time on weekends for a Freightliner testing fleet.
I don't know if Boydstun has their training program, but I do know that my company has a training program in place and will hire someone without car hauling experience if they meet all the other qualifications. Not the least of which is owning your own car hauler or be willing to lease one.
The money is very lucrative but the work is hard and can be very tedious and is NOT for those who are not detail oriented. We have some 6 car haulers and some 9 car haulers and the one's who make the most are the 6 car haulers as they stay local and have less operating costs. They do have to load/unload 20 to 24 vehicles a day.