[sbatson]

Hey guys got this offer today and might take it just seeing what you all think, Its for a small company in texas 5 trucks all reefers paid 25% of everyload, the equipment is all freightliners and very straight forward guy and he was the owner, dispatch etc... lenght of haul average 1700 miles and said his guys average about 1000 min a week and he is negoiable about home time he said every one has different needs , talked to him for over a hour about trucking businees etc.. and said they run legally no exceptions all the trucks are set up with o/o specs and keep in mind for a newbie with 7 months local and 1 month OTR it does not sound to bad, I guess, what do you think?

[sbatson]

And the only thing that bothers me is the trucks are 13 speeds, so how do the shift? I have been in auto ,10, and 9s and thats it.

lets see...lebron james(CFM),"sounds like otr, how much for detention, how much to fuel the truck,is it union, otr sucks,go local paid by the hour??" Cluggy, Josborn."sounds alright but you will be gone away from family...you should look into hauling fuel." uhm, colts fan..."i would rather deliver propane cylinders and be home everyday...I agree with CFM, he makes some very valid points." my point is, why ask...make the choice that is going to be best for you and based on what you want and need. look at you own family life and ask how they feel about it, cause all you are going to get here is the same old bull shit from the same old people.

[Mr. Ford95]

From what dad said, those 13's are easy to shift. He used to help the Wal-Mart drivers figure them out when he was a mechanic there. If I remember right, he said they are like a 10 speed(could be wrong on my memory there :shock: ) except instead of using the clutch when you flip the switch, you just let off the throttle and it will switch up a gear for you. He said the Wal-Mart guys would push the clutch in, flip the switch and upshift with the shifter, then let the clutch out. So it was actually jumping up several gears instead of 1 by 1. They were going from like 1st to 4th and then 4th to 8th..........

I have never driven one so this pattern may be off but this is how I know it:

Wind 1st out, flip the switch up, let off the throttle for a second and your in 2nd gear. Wind 2nd out, push in the clutch, flip the switch down, upshift to your next position and let the clutch out, your now in 3rd. Wind 3rd out and then flip the switch up, let off the throttle for a second, your now in 4th. Do that all the way up. To go down, just do it in reverse. Flip the switch down and let off the throttle once your at the proper speed to go back down to 3rd, push in the clutch, flip the switch up, downshift the shifter and let the clutch out to go from 3rd to 2nd, flip the switch down and let off the throttle to go from 2nd down to 1st.

[sbatson]

He said no layovers ever if you are going somewhere he will have a load coming out of there by the time you unload.I know some people have some good points sometimes that stuff I might of forgot to think of and I'm looking for the money and the experience right now so it seems like a good fit for now and sometimes you have to sacrfice things in order to get where you want in the future and me and my family know this and plus I will be sending my wife thorugh school soon to be a nurse( CNA LVN etc..) so I got to do what I need to do just dont want to get into anything that is going to make my family suffer from.

[wimpy]

Hey sbatson, what happened to that Fedex job? Decided not to go with it?

[Chasing Daylight]

Could be a good paying gig, if you're willing to play the game. I could be wrong, but my hunch is his guys run completely legal... on paper. I've never seen a 5 truck reefer fleet that wasn't stright up outlaw. Get used to those loose leaf log books.

Also get used to multiple picks, multiple drops and plenty of grocery warehouses. Not to many small reefer fleets that don't haul garbage (produce.) It takes a special breed to play the produce game, you'll either love it or hate it.

As for no layovers, thats possible to accomplish. But you'll likely be running nothing but brokered freight. Sometimes a layover beats the alternative in that game. Everyone complains about how cheap the mega carriers run for. But theres a world full of brokers that expect you to run for rates that Swift would likely say no to. If getting a load to prevent a layover means earning 25% of a .90 cent load that you'll be under for 2500 miles, then it isn't worth it. Better to take the layover and wait for better rates. Nobody benefits from hauling cheap freight, especially not a percentage driver.

A few questions worth asking:
1. Are you an employee or contractor? (does he take out taxes from your check, or send you a 1099 at the end of the year?)
2. Does he have a fuel card program, or will you be fueling off of cash advances from brokers?
3. Does he handle the load management, or will you have to be calling brokers every day to give status reports?
4. Is dispatch forced, or do you have the ability to turn down low paying loads?
5. Does he have established customers, or is all of his freight brokered?
6. Does he have maintenance accounts set up, or is that another case of using cash advances?
7. Do you get 25% of gross, or 25% after he deducts administrative fees?

[Uturn2001]

From what dad said, those 13's are easy to shift. He used to help the Wal-Mart drivers figure them out when he was a mechanic there. If I remember right, he said they are like a 10 speed

Same shift pattern as a 9 speed. If you can drive a 9 you can drive a 13.

Your extra gears come into play in the top half. It helps some people to think of them as "1/2 gears". To shift in and out of the "half gears" all you have to do is press the red button on the side of the shifter and let off of the go pedal.

[sbatson]

Hey chasing daylight I'm sure that I will be paid 1099 but I did forget to ask that and he does have a fuel card and he handles all the load managment and the pay is 25% gross and I will find out about the rest tommorrow. Wimpy the Fed Ex job has to wait 2 to 3 weeks for approval from Fed Ex and she said my school was not on there approved list so Fed Ex will decide on that and plus I dont 2 to 3 weeks for someone to give me a answer if I can work there or not, so I will keep on pluding away and plue I found this other job that sounds a better to me.

[fireman932003]

What I would do is find a couple of his drivers and ask them how they like it. Tell them everything he told you and see if it matches up to what they say. Then discuss it with your family and make the call one way or the other.