I don't feel a need to explain it but if you have to hear it

Steve is a Motor Carrier. You are a leased contractor working for a Motor Carrier. Puts Steve higher on the food chain than you. Also explains why you seem to be soooo jealous of him.

Please don't expect me to continue dumbing down my staments so you can understand them in the future.

 

This is fun. Great thread Steve

 

The correct words, would be;-"using his authority"! :wink:
"Title", doesn't pays the bills! :P

 

I highly doubt Steve has any trouble paying his bills.

 

That was not my point. I simply replied to your perception, of the "food chain". I have no doubts, that Steve can afford his new hobby!

 

OK, everyone. Myself included. Let's all get back on topic and quit the insults being tossed at each other or I will have to lock this down!!

 

OH great. Another lock down threat. :lol: Just when things were getting a little juicy. :lol:

 

That makes absolutely no sense. Do you think that having your own authority means you've hit the pinnacle of trucking? Because my $3.30+ per mile average contracted to a carrier is still better than his $1.70 per mile average running under his authority.

Any Joe Schmoe CDL holder who can buy a used truck can get their own authority for less than $1000 with absolutely no experience to speak of, and find brokers who will give them freight with no prior track record. Steve even bragged about the fact that none of the brokers cared that he had no experience last year. Getting contracted to pull for certain carriers, such as the one I am contracted to, is much harder. I had to convince the carrier that I had the experience and professionalism to have their name on the side of my truck, and they hold me to a standard that I must maintain to continue to have that name on my truck.

Your "top of the food chain" argument is like saying that all truck drivers should strive to become owner operators operating under their own authority. It's just assanine. It all depends upon each drivers own situation. If they are more comfortable being a company driver than an owner operator, than more power to them. Hell, there's company driver jobs out there that pay a hell of a lot better than a lot of one-truck "motor carriers".

The only difference, in my opinion, between me and Steve is the name on the side of my truck, the amount of money that I'm willing to move the truck for, and the amount of BS that spews from my mouth (or fingers). :roll:

You think that I have some deep seeded jealousy for Steve. Why? I have a newer truck with less miles than he does, I work less hours than he does, and I earn more for the work that I do than he could ever dream of doing while he is getting his loads through middlemen brokers.

And to Scoe: I think this thread went off topic a long time ago, and has simply become a bragging ground for Steve to show off to the starry-eyed noobies who eat up his every sentence. So pardon me for wanting to call out some of the BS that he posts here. In my personal opinion, this entire thread does a disservice to new drivers or people looking to purchase their own truck. Steve is in a unique situation that 99.9% of other drivers aren't, and that message tends to get lost in this thread as he brags about his $1.40 per mile freight and "life doesn't get any better than this".

I think I've been pretty damn good about keeping the insults in check. I wish I could say the same for many of the other people who are posting in this thread, Steve included.

 

Scoe,
You know what would be kinda a neat feature for this forum? A user filter. An option where a reader could filter out any given person's posts. Like they just would be invisible to the reader if they put in that persons screen name. Check with the tech people. New stuff becomes available everyday.

 

I’ve been home for just a day and half and going non stop. I’m not sure if everyone else goes through the same thing but I’ve loaded up my car 2 times already with stuff from my truck. There is so much to do after coming home. I’m not sure people realize the work it takes to restock and get the truck ready to head out again.

Wash privacy curtain, comforter, sheets, blankets, gloves, and clothes. Clean coffee pot, filter basket, coffee cup, and utensils. Check oil, WW fluid, antifreeze, tire pressure, fill up with fuel. Go to Wal-Mart for more supplies which I spend about $250. Vacuum truck, wash windows, RainX windshield, dust and the million other little things that need to be taken care of.

I tried to relax yesterday and do nothing but felt so guilty I went down to the truck and did a bunch of stuff. I drop my load off on Monday then I’m going to bring the truck into Midas Muffler and have them weld on an extension pipe to my Rigmaster and run it all the way to the rear of the truck. When the wind blows a certain way the fumes from the exhaust come in the drivers’ side window, which I leave cracked all the time. I have a CO detector and it’s never gone off but the smell can get to you. The guys at Midas love doing these off the wall jobs.

I’m also going to have all the windows in my truck tinted before heading out again. My truck has a huge picture window in the bunk that’s like 2’ wide and 5’ tall but I always keep the curtain covering it up. I’m hoping I can have it tinted so dark that people can’t see in. I need to get a PM done also and will bring that to my new little shop that I started going to the last time I was home.

I broke down and bought a microwave yesterday also. The places I go are so far out there I’ve been cut off from civilization for days at a time and no place to eat so I end up eating Granola bars and canned chicken. Winter is coming and eating ice cold chicken just doesn’t cut it anymore. My TV is currently in the cabinet along with my printer/scanner on the shelve above. I bought a white piece of shelve and some brackets and I’m either going to put the TV or printer on it to make room for the microwave.

There are lots of stuff I see in the super market that look good so I’m going to experiment at home making some different things. I’m assuming I can boil water in a plastic bowl along with spaghetti then heat up some sauce. I don’t want to fire up my refrigerator so I’m looking at stuff like pasta and canned food.

The microwave I bought was rated at 700 watts and my power inverter is a 1500 watt unit. When I turned the microwave on for the first time it made a noise like it was straining. I looked at my inverter and the power indicator was decked out full. I then plugged the microwave into my Rigmaster outlet and it ran fine. I have a meter that measures true watt usage and plugged it in to find out that my 700 watt microwave was drawing about 1600 watts!!! Doing a little research I found out that a microwave needs a lot more power to make it work than it’s rated output power. From what I could find, a 600 to 10000 watt microwave requires between 1100 to 2000 watts.

As far as money is concerned I still seem to be averaging $1.70 per mile. That’s a grand total average for the year. This time out I averaged a little over $1.80 because of all the short runs I did. This was the longest I’ve ever been out and $14,000 in checks waiting for me was pretty nice. I still have over $10,000 in outstanding invoices. I know some of you want to break down what I’m making to the penny but I haven’t done that and really don’t plan to. All my bills are paid and I’m over $20,000 in the bank just sitting there. The Rigmaster took over $7,000 or I’d have $27,000. I’m sure some people run smarter than myself and much less but for me, I don’t mind at all. I would rather drive for 7 days at $1.50 instead of sitting for 3 days waiting for the $2,00+ loads which I have never seen happen. I’ve tried that approach in sort of bad areas and that technique just doesn’t work. I’ve seen the loads just sit there for days after the broker has called offering $1.35 and I asked for $1.50 and more. They never call back.

I’m also not sure why I’m called a hobby trucker. This is my job, I don’t have any other income and I need the money to survive. I guess because I’m having fun and really enjoy doing this is the wrong thing to do. I think if I posted more negative comments and became mean and nasty I would be more of a real trucker. Sorry, that’s not going to happen. I’m a happy person 99% of the time and find humor in just about everything I see and do.

I’m not sure how long I’ll last at home. I’ve only been home for a day and I’m already thinking about heading back out but I have some things to do. Not mandatory except for the freaking IFTA which is due soon. When you do your IFTA you have to add up all the miles for the quarter and divide by the total number of gallons you have used. Mine came out to 5.5mpg. This is the ONLY true calculation for MPG. I hear a lot of you saying you got 2 tenths of a gallon better fuel mileage when you did this and that. I think that’s crapola and IFTA reporting will show your true MPG.