You don't need IFTA or a computer. Just take your total miles for any given period and divide by the gallons and that's your MPG. You may get 6.7 on a trip but at some point your going to idle for a weekend at 10 degrees.

I've already seen a huge difference in my MPG now that I have an APU. I am using the APU a lot more than I would normally have idled my truck too.

 

You know I read that the other day that they say that people use an APU more than they would idle. When I was a company driver I never shut the truck off. Besides if you are in the truck with the lights on and everything going you have to keep the truck on to not kill the battery so for me I don't think I use the APU more than I would have idled the truck. Actually less because I never leave the APU on at night continuous and always leave it on start/stop. I am quite pleased with the decision to buy one of these things; especially now that fuel is at these prices too.

 

>I guess those cows get stressed, or die, if they are in the trailer too long?
Yep.

 

I was talking with my friend today Rank and I asked how do you make a profit when you have to pay drivers. He said right now it's bad so he is averaging about $300 per truck a week profit after everything is paid. He has 11 trucks so that is $3300 a week. Now the key to all of this is he has a day job that pays him $100,000 a year and the wife makes about $50,000 so he says if he can get $9000 a month extra with the trucks then he is doing good though he doesn't deny the headaches.

I guess the day job is key. For me my wife's job pays all of our personal expenses though it has been tight as she is in an MBA program which we are paying for (no school loans).

He did say that when it gets good again he is going to be a little more prudent with the income because now it is bad out there. But he said it's been bad before like this and it will get good again and those that can withstand it will be ok which is what everyone here has been saying.

When I was at the Freightliner dealer in Miami today they showed me a whole row of repos that have come in. I was thinking I wish I knew the story behind why each one failed.

 

11 trucks... and even worse...11 drivers. I want to slit my wrists just thinking about it.

 

Get me a load first, OK?

 

The reasons for failure in this business are pretty much the same. People buy trucks they cannot afford, with payments that they cannot afford at high interest rates. They have little or no money saved to take care of maintenance, breakdowns or to run them through the lean times. They over spend when they do get money rather than put money aside for a safety net. They have poor credit and no resources to take care of any major expenses. They don't treat this as a business. They run for cheap rates or lease to a carrier who doesn't pay them enough to run the truck and make a decent living. When they do buy a truck they don't have it checked out.

There are too many people who get into this business and go out and buy a truck before they get any experience. If you have plenty of money to run you while you are learning the business, you may make it. If you have little or no experience and no money, you are shooting craps. There are some who make it despite all the obstacles. For that to happen, everything must work in their favor. In business, it is a good idea to plan for the worst. Unfortunately, most of those who fail at this, plan for the best. And for the record, things rarely go 100% as planned in this business. A few months ago most people would not have expected things to have gotten this difficult. I have been expecting something such as this for a while now. In fact, a couple of friends of mine and I have been discussing this for about 2 years. Both own trucks and have many years experience. Business runs in cycles. An economy cannot sustain unbridled growth. Corrections will happen. It will be painful for many. For those who are prepared, they should do well once things pick up. That will likely take at least several months. In the mean time, the next few months should offer an opportunity to find a good deal in a used truck.

 

You know what's funny GMAN, I had a delivery one time in Up State New York at the Walmart DC. When I was done I set out to start my day and get my iced coffee. So I ask some trucker where can I find a McDonalds.

Man what a coversation I had with that guy. He was Romanian and you know how life is, if you meet one person from a country and they are a jerk they are all jerks, so by chance I just had had some Romanians as neighbors and they were the nicest people. So right away I say hello to him in his language (the only word I knew) and we get to talking. His story in this country was fascinating but too long for this.

However when we got to trucking (he was a JB Hunt O/O) he set about to tell me how he use to ask when he got into this why is that people fail. He said he asked always and always got the same answer so much so that he knew why someone failed before they even told him. Mind you all of this he was expressing in a very dramatic way and in bad English. I wish I had a recorder as his words were interesting. Just writing this does not do justice to the conversation we had.

Anyway so I ask, "Well what is it, why do people fail?" He says, "The maintenance. People don't keep up with the maintenance and when the truck breaks down they can't afford to fix it".

Obviously this is not the only reason but I just thought of that when you wrote what I quoted of you above. It does seem simple enough though. Sometimes in shops I have had mechanics tell me that people leave their trucks there for weeks at a time until they can get the money to get the truck out.

You know I know I can make it in this business, but I want to do more than make it. I want to excel. Tuesday I have an appointment with an accountant and I am excited. I want to see how I have done the last few months. (My situation is very tangled so it's harder to see profitiblity.)

 

You are right about the maintenance, merrick. When an owner operator starts getting into financial difficulty, he starts skimping on maintenance. It may just start with extending the oil change. Then, perhaps a wheel seal is leaking so that is delayed. Tires get a bit worn and he attempts to wait as long as possible or buy used tires that aren't much better than those on the truck but cost about 1/2 of new. He isn't very mechanically inclined, so he must hire someone to do all of his maintenance work, including the small stuff. By not repairing the wheel seal early, he may need to replace the brakes which costs much more than a seal. If he waits too long and fails to keep an eye on the oil level, he could even damage a spindle or bearing. I met an owner operator who was in such a situation a few months ago. He wasn't sure how he was going to pay for his repairs, but he was gone when I got back to the truck stop several hours later. I suppose he must have worked something out.

I like your attitude about excelling. If more people had that attitude, we would have a much better group of people out here.

 

Yes I can remember times so hard many years ago when I was paying for my Pete that I only had decent brakes on 1 axle and I was out in Boise without much of any money because I was dealing with a wife that I was trying to keep happy and she had the money ??? I had to change my ways and get my truck in shape but that cost me that marriage. I put new brakes on out there on 2 of the other axles that day and finished it off the next week. Sure made me feel a lot safer and easier on the nerves. It's funny some times the things a man puts his-self through tryin to keep a woman happy !!!