I just spent the last few hours reading "A Day in the Life of a Hobby Trucker," and I have but one thing to say....

That was one long ass day!! :lol:

 

Hey Steve,

I was in your neck of the woods a few weeks ago grabbing a load at Anheuser-Busch. Lots of greenery and it was a beautiful day. I'm glad to be home though. I've been considering buying a truck for some time, but now it looks like I may start a local gig monday delivering diesel to the oil fields @ $20+ per hour and home every night. Not sure I'm up for it though and I know I'd miss aspects of OTR. Guess we'll see...maybe I'll have to call about a few trucks today. :wink:

 

Too bad I wasn't home. I know a few perfect spots to park and all the best places to eat. I live about a mile from the Budweiser plant. It's a beautiful place!! They let ANYONE have the place to host any non profit event or benefit there also.

I just pulled into the studio but can't see much because it's still dark here. Big huge open spaces and big warehouses. Lots of semi trucks marked not for hire and lots of trucks hooked up to trailers pulling HUGE spot lights.

Lots of security but the second they spotted my license plate I was let in and told I could drive around and park any place I wanted.

I have a feeling once I leave I'm going to be in one hell of a zoo out there on RT 5.

I'm still deaf running through the cabbage patch with my jake on. Lots of loads posted here with some rates not bad right off the bat. One thing I can't figure is there are a bunch of loads going to El Paso and paying crap???? El Paso is not the place to be for getting loads so that usually means they pay top dollar. I'm assuming they are taking advantage of the Mexicans trying to get a load back to the border?

I was hoping to head down that way to get my windshields replaced but maybe not. I don't see a lot coming out of there either. Not sure where I'll head from here. Lots of choices though. I know it's going to suck leaving here to pick up something else. It's one of those places you get one chance at finding the customer and if you screw up it's an hour before you can turn around and get back for another shot.

 

Sometimes it pays better to go back up north and then try to load East.

If ya come this way.....call me.... 8)

tootie

 

Dropped my load off at the studio. I guess Hollywood has hundreds of studio's all over the place and you wouldn't know it unless someone knew. This place was just a gated entrance off a residential street that rose up a few hundred feet into a HUGE area. There was big parking lots all over, huge grassy areas and streets all over the place that made no sense.

I was told they film many car scenes here and crashes. You may be watching a movie that's being filmed in another country then all of a sudden there's a car scene and bingo, your back in this parking lot.

Everyone that worked there right down to the fork lift operator and regular grunt did not look like your average blue collar worker. I'm assuming they were all just trying to get their foot in the door.

So I head out and over to Frazier Park at the Flying J. Big place and lots of little stores within walking distance. 350 loads within my area and not a single phone call. Once again I call and the average price seems to be $1.50 so I sit.

I'm pretty sure I have a long LTL heading all the way back home for $1.35 per mile, it's light and takes up about 20' of deck. This is the key in my opinion to a good paying load. Get a long run with your first LTL then do the postman thing all the way back. I noticed two other loads heading back to NH also and if I could get them both that would be over $3.00 for the whole trip.

Kind of fun doing the LTL thing. You look at the total length of the trip and every time you pick up a little something you go back to the calculator and figure out the total trip length price per mile. There have been a few LTL loads I've picked up along the way that payed only $500 for like 1,000 miles but took less than 5 minutes to load right off the highway and was stacked on top of other stuff. Same for unloading. It pretty much took nothing and was nothing more then a coffee break to load and unload and a real easy $500.

Now, if I could find a dispatcher to do this who actually spent more then 5 minutes a day or one that wasn't menopausal and a complete nut case I would have it made.

I hope to run into that A-Hole who TP'd my truck on my way back to the East Coast. I got some bumper stickers for his trailer that should give him a red light on every scale and a few pee bombs as other trucks pass him.

 

Oh yea, one more thing. I'm getting more and more calls from brokers every time I post my truck. They want me to get pre qualified with their company. I say great, do you have lots of loads. Why yes Steve, we do. I say great, tell me what loads you have, I'll pick one then we can get myself setup. No need to get pre qualified when we can do the paper work and haul a load right off the bat.

Well, that's usually the end of the conversation. Either they hang up or the only load they have is 3,000 miles away.

I'm not sure why they are doing this. Maybe to tell a shipper they have 5,000 trucks at their disposal or something.

Then I had someone call me about a load but he wasn't sure if it would fit on my trailer. It was 19 pallets that were 50" x 50". I asked if he had a calculator and he said yes. I asked if he knew how many inches were in a foot and he said yes. I told him you would think that is something you would figure out before calling drivers......DUH

 

Your just feeling "Churlish" is all.

 

LTL is alot of fun and can keep ya hopping. One time we picked up a meat grinder in Indy, it paid 500.00 to go to somepalce in Utah (on our way to CA) it only took up a small spot on the deck. That time we took $12,000 out to CA and brought $7,000 back.

We had an awesome dispatcher she was known as the LTL queen. She lived in NY and her hubby had about 6 trucks. I have no idea where she is now....but she was good!!

GL finding ????.....that should be interesting.... :lol:

tootie

 

Oh, nice going numnuts. I didn't mention a name. Now he knows!!!

 

Ha, I fixed it but since you quoted me.....he still knows.....now you are the numnuts!! :lol:

tootie