Originally Posted by Cam

Read your blog Mike3fan,

Don't know if I should post here or there. I'll just toss out a couple things. About the OSU dorms, spoken like a true Wolverine :lol:
Don't lump me in with those idiots 8)

What do you do with your rubber suit when you aren't wearing it? It seems you'd have to on your toes to keep the icky stuff off your regular clothes and outside the cab of your truck.
I keep it inside in a closet during the winter,and in the side box in the warmer months,don't really get that much stuff on it so that isn't really a concern

Lots of waiting, any of that pay detention?
Yes anything over 2 hours is paid,and I have never been shorted on detention,only beef I have with the detention is it is paid on the same percentage as our linehaul I feel it should be 100%

Am I to understand you make all your money on the linehaul and nothing for deadhead even when your deadhead exceeds your loaded miles?
That is correct,I don't let the deadhead get to me,have to get to the next load somehow,and the tank has to be cleaned out every time so you will have that.

I'll stop right there until I know where to continue. I actually took notes.

I get the feeling that one of the things you question is the possibilites of getting product on you,I will say that most of the stuff I haul is basically harmless,and if it is dangerous that most of the time you do not have to do anything,the company that you are loading/unloading won't take the chance of a driver doing something that will hurt their company and will do all the work for you while you sit in your cab and read Steve's great white truckers tales from the road on CAD :wink:

Originally Posted by Cam

That was the other thing I was thinking, you once stayed in the OSU dorms. I know you are a Michigander but heaven forbid I should confuse a Buckeye at heart with one of those guys. (I'm a Spartan)

My girlfriend graduated from MSU and they have always been my team

I looovvveee paid detention. Imagine, getting to a destination and saying, 'take your time, boys'. 8) I almost never see detention.

yep gotta love taking a nap and getting paid for it

All said and done, when you count your revenue against your hub, that's what counts and it really doesn't matter how much was deadhead- as long as the rate per mile is still good. Two observations, your rate per mile loaded must be very good. Have you figured out an average?

29,579 loaded miles on $61,598.02 =$2.08@ mile loaded,thru 4/22

Secondly, it makes me wonder how much incentive the company has to plan your loads efficiently so that your deadhead is as small as possible. I think it would be difficult to deadhead a lot if it isn't costing them anything.

Hasn't been a concern yet....

I was wondering about the washout. Since the product varies so much, that tank has got to be really clean. I guess they have the equipment for that. Getting some place to washout, waiting in line and waiting for it to be done...gets to be time consuming?

Almost everyone of our terminals have a wash rack,only twice have I had to wait for my tank to be washed,one time was 1hr the other was a little longer it depends on what was in the tank and what is going on the tank,most times it is drop the dirty tank and pick up a clean one

Well, a this point I'm not too concerned about the health issues base on what I'm hearing. It just has to be asked.

Last thing, your reaction to that mechanics' bill was pretty impressive. Even under financial pressures it sounds like you didn't blow up. So why did it cost so much?

Miscommunication from me,he deals with gravel trains alot and everything needs to be heavy duty and he just put the most expensive stuff on with the thickest shafts for the PTO's which were unneeded on my truck,and as I have found out if there is any thing to put on a Peterbilt it is gonna cost you much more than any other truck...lol

Did he do something wrong? Do you still use him?

Yep,he is more than fair with the prices he usually charges me,he just had alot of labor on that job and some miscommunications from me on what I was wanting.

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

Cam...Dana Wash, the tank wash portion of Dana/Suttles, does an excellent job of getting a "live wash" done and out. I have done several(driving for a chemical company), at the facility in Laporte Tx, and was in and out in less tahn 2 hours. Most times, you can drop the trailer in the wash bay, go get a shower and a meal, return and pickup & inspect the trailer, then leave in 2 hours. Same is true in Mobile AL. Dana also seems to have dedicated bays for their own equipment.

Originally Posted by Cam

Only people of the highest fortitude and character can be Spartan football fans. :lol: Now hoops...look-ing go-od.

That's 2.08 to the truck loaded, that can buy some tolerance on the deadhead! Some...

Now, I read your posts and looked at your pictures (great photos), what I read and saw was a lot of snowy driving hell. That's not a tanker thing, that's just driving up north. Feel me now, I really am serious about taking the first three months of the year off. If I had to, I'd just run harder in the beautiful sunshine and dry roads the other nine months to make up for it. I don't suppose that would allowed in tankers?

The other thing is I'm thinking about just making Florida my home. We've got a trailer on a lot down there, I have simple tastes, suits me just fine. Born down there, too. May just renew my license there in June and say :asta: to state income taxes. If I worked out of Florida that might take care of most of the winter driving though I don't know Dana's operational areas.

Which brings up one more thing. I see you get all the way down to TX. Can you request to go different places, you know, get to Houston or someplace and tell them you are going to stay four days at your sister's house or something. If I ran out of Florida could I visit my family in MI say every three months?

Originally Posted by Cam

Tanker Yanker? Means you are done looking at Landstar? 8) One of our BCOs on another board left to go back to tankers. Everything was amicable, he didn't say why he was going back but I'm putting 2 + 2 together. Thanks for the info. That kind of fills out the picture. You too are a great writer (I'm just trying to mess with Mike3fan's head)

Originally Posted by Orangetxguy

LOL..Cam, I've done a lot of tanking, and a good bit of skateboarding, some reefer, a ton of specialty, type work. I just left a private fleet, that is owned by 2 of the biggest companies in America, did a 6 week stint at ACE Transportation, as an experiment to determine some truth, about my brother.
Yes, I looked at Landstar. I didn't have a problem with the offer, or the way they operate, but I decided I prefer tanker, so I signed a lease 2 weeks ago with a tanker company, Millers Transporters, out of Jackson MS. I signed with them for 1 reason. THEY are paying to outfit my tractor, with the PTO & Liquid pump, Intransit Heat, and Air Assist equipment, with no charge back to me. Their % of the line haul is the same as Dana/Suttles and 5 other tanker companies I looked at, so it was the outfitting that sold me. The truck should be out tomorrow or wednesday.

I'm certain I will see Mike3 around...if he is going into DuPont and Lucite plants in OH & WV.

Originally Posted by mike3fan

you will need to talk to a terminal manager for that info.....