MBA driver,

I wasn't suggesting that anyone go out and buy a new truck to get there feet wet as an O/O. All I am doing is stating the difference in owning a new truck verses an older one.

Your theory about paying taxes vs. having a bunch of deductions is exactly what im talking about! No truck payment = more money which means they tax the hell outta all that money you just made. Having a new truck means having a bunch of deductions i.e. truck payments or what your accountant likes to refer to as deprecaition. My father ends up taking home about the same money whether or not he drives a new truck or one thats paid for. He has tried both scenarios many times in his years. He prefers to drive a new ride vs. paying in lots to drive an older one. If you wanna spend a lot of time at home you better drive old!

Amen to the home time and the older truck!

There are a lot of ways (non cash) to lower AGI and taxes. Generally, top line deductions to get to GI are real money. Deductions to get to AGI are the kitchen sink variety that don't necessarily involve "real" cash outlays.

You have great points. Probably at this point we are separating the fly
sh!t from the pepper :wink:

Hey y'all hope everyone is doing great! Just coming back to work after an eleven day mini-vacation and wanted to say some stuff, since I have had honest questions from some about the truck I bought from Superior...

There obviously is a concern for the age and mileage on the truck (2001 Freightliner FLD 112, appx. 970,000 miles at purchase). I reviewed the complete maintenance history prior to buying it, and made the decision that for a final selling price of $10,000 plus an additional $426.13 in interest to be paid over the duration of but a single year it was worth the risk, and purchased it the first week of October 2007. Being that it was already set up and equipped for the job I perform with occasionally unloading chemicals I saved a few dollars on parts and labor as well (PTO air compressor, PTO product pump, and all applicable fittings). The following list are some of the items that the truck recently had done within the past year by the terminal I had picked it up from prior to picking it up (where it also ran on a dedicated fleet out loaded, back empty)...

-Overhead
-New head
-New rings and seals
-New clutch
-New, re-manufactured transmission
-New turbo
-New A/C compressor
-New alternator
-New E.C.M.
-New product pump
-New cab leveler
-New tires and brakes on all axles
-New shocks
-New hood
-New front bumper
-New air dam
-Front end alignment
-Rear end alignment

Obviously a couple of my fixed costs have dropped since October and will be eliminated eventually (truck payment and escrow account), but here's a basic breakdown of my fixed costs for 2008 starting from Jan. 1st.

$8,020 Truck note ($200.50/week until paid in full, then mine)
$1,400 Reserve Escrow ($75/week until paid in full to meet company's $2,000 minimum requirement, then done unless I choose to continue)
$1,457 IL Base Plate ($103.57/week until paid in full for year)
$1,501 Occupational Accident Insurance
$1,040 Qualcomm (presently not being charged for this since unit is not used)
$960 Accounting/Professional Services
$676 Physical Damage Insurance
$550 FHUT
$416 Bobtail Insurance
Total: $16,020

Now, add that I'm presently averaging almost 6.7 mpg with this old truck (3.90 rear end :shock:), and averaging around $3.09/gallon for fuel (up from 6.061 mpg, and down from $3.132/gal.) maybe then some people can see why I don't get caught up in the whole super high c.p.m. game with the revenue I'm generating.

Repairs...yes I do worry about major issues. However, I didn't come to this game unprepared as some may think. As well as what I already have stashed away, I continually add to this. For now though, the truck runs great as it should with it's maintenance history.

Taxes... Planned accordingly and had funds put back for this as well before getting into the game. I simply deduct a certain amount for this each week from my net earnings after deductions.

Retirement and Savings... See taxes.

Y'all be safe :wink:

Hate to be the bearer of bad news. But, with the absence of freight you will probably get 300-miles down the road and have another mini-vacation.

In the last couple weeks the bottom has fallen out.

If your neigbor loses his job it's a recession. If you lose your job it's a depression.

What is with you MBA? No, it hasn't fallen out. You come to the company during the slow times and are stuck in a temporary rut. It happens. It happened to Skywalker, a good friend of ours, and I year before last shortly after we had all hired on. We all got home before Christmas and didn't leave out until New Year's Day or later. Yet we all ended up on pace to make around the same gross pay for the year, until one of us decided to go buy a boat and take off the last two months of the year, and another one of us decided to buy a truck and start running dedicated :roll:

Concerning freight, Savannah seems to have had plenty of work lately, as well as my "home" terminal in Westville. Actually, we usually have too much work for us there and must give loads away to company drivers daily. There's only fourteen of us there, and only three that like running the longer, though less-paying loads that don't allow us home daily. As to the lack of miles out on the road, get paid for your time waiting. If I were you when in that predicament I would take full advantage of it. The pay package is set up for you to utilize it and make money, especially when you aren't driving. But if you're that concerned about miles don't worry, things will pick up soon.

Personally, when I was a company driver I had no problem going 300-600 miles then sitting until a load came up. Or picking up a load on Friday that only went 600-900 miles and delivered Monday. Hell yeah! Cha-ching, cha-ching!!! That's a lot of hourly pay waiting to be had. If you go through all of my numbers as a company driver you will see that the best weeks I had were when I ran between 1200-1700 miles and racked up the accessory pay. Again, things will pick up soon...

Actually, I'm keeping busy as I always do. I left from the house and picked up in Savannah yesterday, delivered in Kingsport today, am on my next load which goes to Indianapolis Monday, and then will head to Westville and jump back into my dedicated stuff. In the meantime, I may very well go up to the house and take off yet another day then come back down to deliver in Indy. Hmmmm.....

:wink:

Whatever... Man all you yack about is sitting at home. When a driver is parked at home he gets zero pay - nadda, zilch, nothing.

Yep, I sure do because I haven't picked up my last couple weeks' settlement sheets. So I can't really update my numbers until I have my estimates confirmed with actual payroll. And why are you getting bent out of shape over what I do? I don't know what to tell you if you have an issue with the fact that I take a few extra days to be with my son and I post it or, I make mention that I'm under a load and able to drive a few extra miles round trip to the house then back down to make my delivery if I want to. You may not presently be, but I'm still tickled to death over how things are here and unless something drastic happens to change that will continue to be...

MBA, I understand that you are getting down because things aren't working as you think they should be. I and many others have said it before, we are still in the slow season. You yourself even spoke of the commodities market and value added markets in the other thread we all have going on here. As hard as it may be, stay positive!

I'll ask you again... Will you please tell which terminal you run for? If not openly on here then P.M. me. I'm dead serious about this; if that terminal cannot keep you busy enough then look into transferring to another one that can. To the best of my knowledge from what I have actually seen, you do not have to work out of the yard closest to your home. It is worth exploring this option.

As I've said before...things will pick up. If you can stick it out through the next five weeks I will bet you a steak dinner, barbeque, or whatever meal you prefer that you will be well on track to returning to the elation you showed when you first started here! It's just unfortunately still a slow time in general for chemicals.

If you were to look back at my numbers from this time last year, you'll see that for the first six weeks I myself had only driven 9,767 miles and only had 12 days off going into the seventh week. Then things finally started picking up in March, and just kept improving as the year went on. My bump in the road to higher productivity and earnings was simply the amount of time off I took.

Superior Carriers 2007 Totals, Jan 1st to March 31st (WORK PAY ONLY):
Gross: $13,702.68 (.535/mile)
Miles: 25,595
Hours: 245.50
Days Working: 74
Days Off: 17
*Totals calculated up to April 01, 2007*

And now the second quarter, April 1st to June 31st
Gross: $13,393.85
Miles: 22,955
Hours: 305.25
Days Working: 65
Days Off: 26

Finally the third quarter, July 1st to Sept. 30th
Gross: $11,677.74
Miles: 18,542 (Took all vacation days and personal days, see days off)
Hours: 305.75
Days Working: 56
Days Off: 40

:wink:

How many of y'all were here in Kingsport this week for orientation? Wish I would've gotten there earlier!

Roll call.... :lol: :lol: :lol:

I was there but hit the road as soon as class was over.

MBA, you've got mail :wink: