How does that line from the movie go......"just when you think you're out, they pull you back in"......something like that. Well just when I thought I was "retired" from driving, I found out that the "life style" of big truck truckin' is in my blood.
I originally found an O/O that has a few trucks leased onto Mercer (for those of you that may not be aware, Mercer is very similar to Lanstar) and he was looking for a new driver.
It was the perfect scenario for me to get back into the game and see if I really did miss trucking or was it just a "phase" I was going through. He gave me 100% full access to Mercer's load board and what not as well as 30% of the TOTAL to the truck. Needless to say, I did indeed miss it and made the O/O (and myself) a decent amount of $$.
To make a long story short, I went out and found me I decent used KW and am now once again an O/O going from the "High Seas to the Highways" :-)

 

Once you get diesel fuel in your blood, you are hooked!

So, you have a KW truck. Are you pulling your own trailer? I know you had your Pete all cleaned up and looking nice, I imagine your new truck is, will be, looking the same. Perhaps you could post a picture sometime(I know you don't visit this website everyday).

Good to hear you are out here again; Drive safe!

 

Yes I have my own trailer, went with a 48' flatbed for now, may go back to a step deck in the future.

Not sure if I did it correctly, but I attached a couple of pics.

 

Hey Devil.... popped back on here to see what was going on. Congratulations on getting back on the road!! As for me... I am now in Chicago working for Peoples Gas... I'm the supervisor for the downtown business district. I love it here! I look forward to your updates and will be popping back in here on a regular basis!

Safe travels!!

R/
Frat

 

Yaaaay!

 

well good for you!!!! bottom line in life is to just be happy at what ever you do.

 

thanks

 

I don't get on here too much anymore but here's a quick update:

so I've been here at Mercer for about 6mo or so. And so far so good. As many of you may know, they are very similar to Landstar. Each one has their own "pros & cons".

I don't know if it's Mercer's customer base or me just being in the right places at the right times, but I rarely ever sit more than overnight before I have a reload. In fact more often than not I will have 2, sometimes 3 loads lined up at a time. Unfortunately I know that is about to change as it's that time of year where freight for us "flatbeders" starts slowing down. Mercer has a contract with UPS during the holiday season so i may change things up a bit and go pull a van for a few weeks.....not sure yet. Overall though, I am doing well and am happy here.

As for my truck though, lets just say I am not as happy. let me rephrase that.....my truck, (2011 KW T-660) is a great truck WHEN its running properly. This is the 1st truck I have owned with the DEF after-treatment system and like many drivers i have been having problems with it. Over a span of 3 weeks I have spent nearly $10k in repairs on it. I just got it back out of the shop a couple of weeks ago and thus far she is running like a champ again....she pulls good and I do average around 7+ mpg when loaded (depending on the weight and terrain) and therefore am happy with that aspect of it. Just recently I found a shop that will remove all that DEF crap, which is supposed to increase the over all mpg and performance of the truck but it would cost some $12k to have it done.....with nearly $10k already invested in repairing it I cant see spending that much $$ at this point and time.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I wish I would of kept my 2006 Pete....but oh well it is what it is.

 

To everyone that has posted/replied on this thread, I want to say thank you to each of you. I had been considering getting back into OTR driving after taking a 15 year break. Looking to have my wife get her license and we go team. Not sure if we want to do the company driver route or O/O to start.While doing my research online I ran onto this forum and thread. I have to say it was some interesting reading and insite on the way the business is now, I found it about a week ago and have read pretty much daily lol. It's addictive. I am now To the end of the thread and had to join to give Devil Dice, and everyone else,a thumbs up and thanks for starting and continuing this thread for so long.

 

glad that you enjoyed the thread.....so have you decided on what you and your wife will do?