I'm with G, I also like to have food in my diet. :thumbsup:

 

Books....books and stories...they are portals to other dimensions.

Good stuff to have while on the road

 

Hunger is a great motivator. And how else are we supposed to purchase life's necessities? You know, Lottery tickets and line 5 refreshments. Can I get a sixpack and a Powerball ticket?

 

I think depends on what you expect from this and how better u do it.

I always find some interesting to see,think listen and talk about. Also I have 5 -6 trucker friends that we continiously keep in touch and burn around 5000-7000 minutes a month on my cell. Thank God about the unlimited plan I'm under cause otherwise my wife will be screaming. Main motivator is my family and the hope that I will be able to be sucessfull financially. Off course,right now its a little tough on this part but hopefully things are going to change.

 

I don't want to start an argument here but there seems to be much confussion about what a backhaul was and so called de-regulation. There is so much to this and it is a very interesting subject but I will try to do a short version of the way it was. The term backhaul didn't mean cheap freight it just meant a load back, in some cases you might make more on the back haul then you did on your headhaul. To haul regulated freight you had to trip lease or be leased on to a regulated carrier. freight rates were published and established. The more off the beaten path the better the rate. The trucking industry was protected, great for us but not the consumer. Contract carriers were few and auth. was hard for them to obtain( You had to go to D.C. with the intended cust. and a lawyer and prove they needed your services and common carriers had lawyers trying to prove they didn't) Also manufacturers or non-trucking companies were only allowed to haul thier own goods and that meant out loaded and back empty unless they picked up something going back to one of thier facilities to be used by them. This is for the most part where the term backhaul started taking on a different meaning. This is where we got beat up most on dereg., now shippers started getting more of thier own equipment and the general attitude was any money coming back that at least paid the fuel would be good. Now we started competing with trucks that are not supported by the freigt rate. The backhaul is extra. Don't forget they(shipper) already cut us out by delivering thier own goods to begin with. If there is anything we could change in this industry to help it, it would be to make it again so that we don't have to compete with shippers for commercial freight. Before dereg. thats all every O.O. hoped for and we got it and it"s been down hill ever since. If you were an independant you ran what was called exempt products and or trip leased from time to time. One other thing I did as an independant was hauled what was termed hot freight. That was non-exempt goods without auth. In many ways it was exciting and looking back maybe even fun. I"ve been an O.O for 35 years and lived this. I have to stop here and appoligize for running on.

 

Sorry! my posting on backhaul was meant to go on the deregulation thread.

 

You might want to leave your setup for maximum mpg alone. When fuel goes up you will again majorly benefit from your original intent. That will be fun. And motivational.

 

i now pull a 53 ft dry van. tried flatbedding last summer and it WAS more interesting, but tarping just isn't my idea of fun. i know you have a stepdeck ... that's probably the best thing to have for an o/o.

 

I talked to a gear shop mechanic today and he says i can switch to either 3.58 or 3.42. it's the same 2 grand as far as he's concerned ... my only worry is how will the truck perform on hills? right now it pulls like crazy going up but then everyone passes me on level ground By my calculations if I keep the same 295 LP tires (500 revs/mi), the best ratio would be 3.42: I'd do 65 MPH at 1,350 rpm (Cat recommends to cruise at between 1,300 and 1,350 RPM). Do you guys think 3.42 ratio would be too fast for those nasty hills in parts of New York, North Carolina or California?

 

I spent 9 hours behind the wheel yesterday and did 514 miles, running mostly at 59 MPH. Since I know I'll get roughly Cnd$0.60 per mile NET income, it means I just made $308 in 9 hours or $34/hr and that's BEFORE the truck payment of $1,600 a month and BEFORE maintenance. For a 9 hour work day especially when you stay out for 2 weeks at a time, I think you should make at least 60 bucks an hour after all expenses, not $34.

Which of course leads me to a possible conclusion that I should stop being an o/o leased to a company but get my own trailer and own authority ... I should be able to make more than 60 cents per mile NET, right?