Fleece-Purchase For Dummies

I may have saved a financial life today.

I was over at the TA taking a lunch break when I overheard a young man singing the praises of being an "Owner Operator." Our conversation follows.

(Me)You're an owner-op?

(Greenhorn)I'm gonna be. I'm going on the lease-purchase program.

Who you driving for?

Crimson Flash.*

I ran with them for a while. Thought about the L-P deal, but I took a good look at it and I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.

What? Why? It's a good deal!

Really? Do you have their paperwork with you?

Yeah...it's out in the truck.

Kid, I'm not your daddy, and I don't sign your paychecks, so I can't tell you what to do. But if you'll take a bit of advice from someone who's been doing this a while, I can show you exactly how you're gonna get screwed. Go grab that L-P package and I'll show you what I mean.

(The young man went to get the paperwork. I found a Truck Paper and set my cell phone to "calculator.")

OK. Let's see that paperwork. Yep, just like it was a couple of years ago. Let me guess--you want a Pete, right?

Yeah.

They want $500 a week in payments for three years?

Yeah, that's not too bad, right?

Look here. (I show him the ad in the Truck Paper.) They want $45K for these trucks if you buy them outright. Let's see what three years of those payments adds up to. $500, times 52 weeks, times 3 years...that's $78,000.

Huh? That doesn't seem right.

Remember, three years isn't twelve four-week months. The only month with four weeks in it is February. All the others have a bunch of days tacked on, making a year thirteen four-week months, not twelve. See?

Hmm...OK, you're right.

Now, if you went to an independent finance company and took out a loan for that money, even with a horrible interest rate, you're paying around $60K at most. They're getting $18K more than even the most lowlife financier would take you for.

Whoa...

Don't pull your pants up yet, son, they ain't done boning you. You'll also need to put away $100 a week over and above your payment. See the fine print here? There's a $15,000 balloon payment at the end of that lease, due right now. And if you don't have it, they take the truck away. Now, $78,000 plus $15,000 equals what?

Ninety-three thousand...!

Yep. Ninety-three thousand dollars. Over double what you'd pay for that truck outright.

F*%#!!

Now, let's assume they let you finish the lease...

What do you mean, 'let me finish' it?

One common scam in this industry is to run you hard, let you keep making those payments, but not hard enough to be able to save much. And then, a couple of months before the end of the lease..."there's no freight, there's no freight." They make it impossible for you to keep making the final few payments, and they jack your truck and pull the same thing on some other sucker. They can sell that same truck two or three times, basically.

Damn!

This is why the people who control your freight should never be the people you make payments to. But let's say they're honest in that regard. Bear in mind, they pay typical ripoff HHG miles, so you'll have 10-15% more miles on the clock than you get paid for. And you'll have to run hard to make your payments, expenses and be able to eat. Not to mention, that truck will already have 3-400K miles on it when you get it. You've run hard, watched your expenses, stayed out of the chrome shop, the CB shop, the casino and all that. You put aside the money for the balloon payment, and three years from now, you have the title to...what?

You've just spent ninety-three thousand dollars on a bare-bones, snub-nose fleet Pete. With a castrated motor, a castrated transmission, and anywhere from eight to nine hundred thousand miles on it. It's junk. You'll be lucky to get scrap metal value on a trade.

Hell, if you want to spend that kind of money, go to a dealer and spec out the truck you want. If you can keep from going crazy with chrome and chicken lights, it'll be in the same general price range. Plus, you can make 5 years of much lower payments and still have a decent truck at the end. You can either trade it in and get a good price, or keep it and save that truck payment money for the eventual repairs and rebuilds.

Otherwise, I'd recommend finding a bank or finance company, getting a loan, and buying the truck straight out. Even though you won't have the title for a while, you'll be able to take 'your' truck and move on if Crimson Flash starts playing games with you. They know that, and they'll be forced to treat you with a bit more respect.

I gotta roll. Like I said, I can't tell you what to do...but I hope I at least made you think.

I left him sitting there a bit dumbfounded. I hope like hell he listened.


*Crimson Flash is a totally made-up company. In fact, I made this whole post up, nothing like this ever happened, and neither you or your army of lawyers can prove otherwise. Bite me.

So You Want To Be A Truck Driver

Here on the Trucker's Forum, I found what has to be the best post I've ever seen, that tells all you prospective drivers what it's all about. "Panicstrickin" really puts it out there. Quoted in entirety:

So you want to be a trucker huh? This is all my opinion and based on my own experience. There are a few different ways to become a driver. You can obtain a class b and drive local for a while. You do not need to go to school to get a class b. There are a ton of construction companies that will train you for one. You can also take the test through a private company, I think I paid $150. If you know someone who can teach you how to shift first then you will be one step up already. If you think you can get through the gears on your own then go for it but I suggest you get trained first! A ready mix truck only takes a class b and weighs almost as much as a big truck. They have 8 and 10 speed transmissions, so you will learn to shift as well as haul the weight. I was scaled once at like 67,000 and change. A ton of delivery box trucks only need a class b as well. Depending on the company you can also look at end, side or belly dumps. You need a class A for those and gain the trailer experience as well.

I know I will get slack for this but you will learn more about trucks, how they work, what they will do and where they will go in construction. I could go on and on about the things I have done in a truck that would make a lot of people vomit, but thats another story! My point is, look local. There are so many local jobs out there that can give you the REAL experience you need to be a truck driver. You will be home every night and it will ease you in slowly. You will learn how to drive in weather, traffic, tight spaces and everything else the city has to throw at you. I understand if you want to get right out there and go, SO..... Lets dig in!

Oh, one more thing and the most important!! EVEN IF YOU HAVE BEEN DRIVING LOCALLY, most big trucking companies will not consider you experienced. That is another story as well... But this leads us into the next thing. Try to start small. If you have been running local, there are some really good small over the road companies out there, maybe even right in your town. Check Craigslist and other places. A lot of these guys are willing to give you a chance with your local experience. Plus you won't have to deal with the big corporate B.S. Maybe they only run two or three states but you will get the "over the road" the big guys are looking for.

If you want to attend a school go for it. All schools are pretty much the
same. Three to five students in the truck. What they teach you is THE BASICS. It is impossible to get any experience in 4 weeks. Why a trucking company takes that over say 1 or more years local makes my eyes bleed from the sockets. Yet another story..... I regress. You will learn what to look for in the pre and post trip (not what it does or how to fix it) You will learn to hook and un hook the trailer. You will study in class from a book, the things you might encounter (slick roads, braking, u-turns, rail tracks and so on) You will practice backing between barrels, into docks with no other traffic, shifting, double clutching, rules of the road, if you live in the mountains you will go up and down the hill a few times...... Again the BARE MINNIMUM.

A few grand and weeks later you are now ready to drive a truck!! Oh wait not yet. Now you get to choose the company. I won't name any names here. You will be contacted and given instructions. If you do not have a local terminal, you will be bussed, flown, driven a rental car or other ways to the terminal of their choice. I would like to say to the closest but that all depends on the company. You then need to get a trainer. I have heard stories let me tell you!! Now mind you that trainers are the same people we all deal with in everyday life. They are smart, stupid, gross, stinky, funny, loud, racist, overbearing, nice, calm... you get the point? You could get the guy (or girl) that was in
line in front of you at the mall that smelled like a donkey and was rude and loudmouthed. People are people and they aren't always who we like or get along with.

You will either stay in a hotel until they give you a trainer (I have heard stories of weeks in one) They will pay you like $300 bucks a week. Or you will get one right away!! yay for you! I am not sure of the rules here but I believe you need a certain amount of driving hours to be turned out on your own. That may vary form company to company, but I have heard it is like 300 hours. You do the math. You can only drive 11 hours with 10 off up to 70 in 8 days, then you need the 34 hour restart. Most companies will not let you drive at night for so many of those hours. In a perfect world all your hours would be driving, not unloading or sitting. I am horrible at math but here is close "perfect scenerio"
numbers.... 5 weeks with a trainer. That is 5 weeks in a truck with someone you do not know and those are perfect scenerio. More like 8 to 10 weeks. That is two to three months with a trainer.

I am not sure of the different pay scales of all the companies. I have
heard $300 a week is all you get for that time. The trainer gets paid for all your miles as well as his.

Trucking is a hard adjustment to make. If you were not born to drive a
truck you won't last. It is driving all night and sleeping during the day. It is sometimes sitting at a shipper or reciever for HOURS waiting. Example... If you get to sleep 10 and you wake up at 3am and drive 3 hours to get to a shipper at 6am then wait to get loaded for 4 hours it is now 10am. Your load has three stops on it two are that day. You get to the first one in 30minutes but it takes two hours, then you get to the second one in 30 and it takes another four hours more hours. It is now 5pm and you have seven hours left to drive. You have been up since 3am. When you stop it will be midnight. That is 21 hours you have been up. Yes you should be taking a nap through some of this, but there are plenty of things to keep you from doing so. You have to leave the cb on to be contacted, another driver might bang on your door for a number of reasons, you might watch movies or surf the net or yack on the phone. You need to eat and take a shower, get fuel... and lets be real here are you really going to be able to just stop the truck and just be asleep? I didn't think so.

Go to a truckstop and buy a log book. Start at what ever time you want. Run a perfect scenerio of driving. 15 pre-trip, 11 driving, 15 to fuel every other day, and 10 sleeping. Just watch what happens with what times you will be driving and sleeping. Toss in an hour to load and unload as well. Are you getting the point? Companies don't want whiners. They expect you to pick up and deliver on time. They do not care if you had the runs or if you had traffic or if you couldn't find a spot in the truckstop. They don't care about anything but that load and if you whine and complain you will be treated accordingly. Schools
will never teach you about PACKED truck stops and how hard it is to back into a space at 2am after a really long day in between two owner operators. One has a 379 pete that he has put $20,000 in chrome and lights and paint, the other has a W900 that has pretty much the same. They won't teach you that that truckstop you have to try to do a blind side 90 to get in cause you went down the wrong side and it is the only spot left and there are two other trucks coming to get it too.

You won't learn or should I say can't possibly learn all of that from 4
weeks in school and 3 months with a trainer.. even a good trainer. You will not shower every day. Sometimes for a few days depending on you and how tired you are. The major truckstops are all the same in every state. They all have the same menus, same movies, same showers etc.... Some are nicer than others for sure. Rest areas are always packed early. Off and on ramps are usually discouraged by the bigger companies, although I found them to be quite nice, and sometimes they are just as packed.

Ice, snow, torrential rains, wind, accidents, traffic, construction, are
all VERY REAL. Shippers and recievers that take hours to load or unload you are all real. Having 20 minutes to eat and shower are REAL. You will always see a ton of trucks just hanging out at a truck stop when you have no time, no sleep, no food or shower. You will wonder why they are getting to do that and you aren't. There are like 2 million trucks on the road. That is a lot. So what you are seeing is all of the ones at any given time getting a much need rest or getting hammered by dispatch waiting for a load. Relax, you will be there at one time or another as well. You will have dreams of 3500 miles a week... don't
count on it EVER. That is 500 miles a day. With a truck that is governed at 62 you can't even get 700 miles in 11 hours, and trust me if you are 79,990 you are not gonna average 62mph. They can get you close to that sometimes but not very much. If you have light loads and a truck that will run 80 then 3500 a week is no problem if the freight is there.

I would budget yourself at around 2000 to 2600 a week. I was running for a company that ran me 3800 to over 5000 a week. No It wasn't legal at all and it damn near killed me. I was at .35cpm and I was only getting anywhere from 800 to 1500 a week take home. That should give you a good idea what you will make. Owner operators can make GOOD MONEY. If you can live on 600 or less a week the by all means. I know a lot of these guys out there will tell you they are pulling down a grand or more a week. All you have to do is the math. .35cpm at 3500 miles a week is $1225 dollars gross. If their truck is governed at 65 and they average even 50mph in 11 hours they barely will clear 3500 miles in a week. In a perfect world with no weather or traffic or swaps or extra stops it would be possible. It's like 3200 miles from L.A. to N.Y. I doubt a dispatcher is gonna give that to a solo driver EVERY WEEK. Plus you will run out or low on driving hours so you will either have to take a 34 restart or drive like 3 hours here and 2 there and 5 here untill you get an 8 or 9. Unless you restart your 70 you will never have consecutive 11's to drive.

I have written so much I know I have a ton more to say but I just can't
right now!! I am not trying to discourage you from becoming a truck driver. I am just trying to get you to see some of the reality of the job. I haven't even gotten to the good stuff like being alone and listening to tunes and enjoying the scenery. Short skirts, no skirts, #######, wankers, not having someone looking over your shoulder all day, some of the freedoms you get and the country you will see. There are a lot of really great thing about being a trucker as well.

Last but not least here are some pointers. ALWAYS get out and look. If you are in doubt that you are gonna hit the owner operators $300,000 Pete..... GET OUT AND LOOK..... if it takes you 15 minutes to get in the spot but you do it safely... then do it. Turn off the cb when backing into a spot. Other drivers will give you a TON of crap and that will shake you up. Don't worry about the ones waiting for you... to hell with them. Take your time and do it right. Don't get cocky... you will hit docks and parking spots the first time for a month and if you get cocky the next one you try to get in will bite you in the ###. Don't tailgate, watch your mirrors all the time, double check cause that ##### in the BMW doesn't care that you are trying to get over and she will try to beat you to the punch every time. You could be lit up like a christmas tree with neon signs all over your truck telling people that you are turning or slowing down or what ever, and they will pass you and cut you off and honk at you and slam on the brakes in front of you all the time. They DO NOT CARE ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE GOING, always assume they do not see you or care to see you. If you are tired pull over and sleep. Evdn if it is for 30 minutes. Your life and those around you are more important than the load.... ALWAYS. Lot Lizards are GROSS don't even think about it. Drugs are for #######. Keep you logs as accurate and neat as possible.. (trust me) Keep your cool when it takes forever at the shipper or reciever, it will always come back in your favor. Keep a set of spare keys on you at all times. There are a number of reasons for this just trust me. No you don't need a "big radio". Watch your spending out there, it is EXPENSIVE.

I know I forgot a ton of things so if you have any questions I would be
more than happy to try and answer them for you. Good Luck!

So There I Was...

...trucking along outside of Stratford, TX, minding my own business. My partner had just climbed into the bunk and we were heading back to Arizona. Two trucks approached us, and the rear truck's trailer tires picked up a rock the approximate size of New Jersey and hurled it straight into the windshield.



It sounded like a 9mm went off in the cab, glass particles sprayed everywhere, and my partner just about shit Twinkies, figuring that we were all gonna die. I assessed the situation, realized that there really wasn't a safe place to pull a set of doubles over and we were still mobile anyway, so we proceeded to Dalhart in search of a new windshield.

No luck in Dalhart--all the truckers over there are Manly Men driving Manly Trucks like Petes, KW's and Freightshakers. No Volvo glass to be found. We ended up going all the way to Amarillo to get fixed. It actually wasn't a bad thing, since--unlike truckload--we got paid for the downtime and extra miles as well.

The main point of this post is to make a few things clear: We were doing 65mph. The other truck was probably doing about the same, and the rock passed it up. That rock must have been doing a minimum one hundred fifty miles per hour when it hit. So, next time you're celebrating, please join me in raising a glass to Mr. Edouard Benedictus...the inventor of safety glass.

The Truck Driver's Secret Weapon

Before I get into this post, I want to give you the obligatory disclaimer: There is no substitute for sleep.

You can only fight off fatigue for so long, and then your body is going to knock you out whether you like it or not. If you're operating a motor vehicle at the time, the consequences will be Very Not Good. Use common sense and good judgement when making use of fatigue-fighting products or techniques. Remember--no load is worth a life!

Now that that's been said, what do you do when you need a bit of wake-up?

Coffee is the usual standby, and hypercaffeinated varieties are available from TA, Pilot and Love's. They're my usual choice, but too many cups will give your stomach fits. And coffee can be inconvenient: if it's too hot when you get it, you have to water it down with an ice cube or let it sit for a while. If it's drinkable, you need a very well insulated mug or it'll get cold fast. And I don't even mess with cream and sugar, but there's another factor to consider in wasted time and possible unavailability.

Then there are energy drinks. They come in two varieties: shot and big-ass can. Most of the shots taste vile, and if you don't knock it back in one gulp, it's possible that you'll puke. (Especially when you've already got a sour stomach from a gallon of coffee and those 2-for-$2 hot dogs that were already mutating on the grill for about 20 hours before you ate them.)

Then there's the big-ass can variety. Mountain Dew Amp is some pretty good stuff, but most of them taste pretty bad as well. And many of them really don't do much. But there's one particular drink I've found that not only tastes like something you'd want to drink, but lives up to its purpose.

The makers call it SoBe Adrenalin Rush. I call it Crack In A Can.

Seriously, this stuff is Super Sauce. Liquid plutonium. As in "I just saw God and I'm an atheist." From the moment it hits your tongue, you are AWAKE. And it lasts for hours. I don't know what they put in there or how it works when other drinks--with ostensibly the same ingredients--don't. I'll just say that if you can suck down a can of this rocket fuel and still feel tired, get off the road and sleep, because you're about to have a total system meltdown.

No, I'm not affiliated with SoBe, or paid for this in any way...but I just had to spread the word about this stuff. When you have to wake up right now, I've never seen its equal. And I've tried a lot of ways to keep awake.

Yep, I'm wired. 0.0

LTL--The Best Deal On The Road

Well, I've been a bit busy of late, but I couldn't be happier.

Back in my younger days, when I first began my 'Action-Packed Career Driving The Big Rigs!', it was an adventure. The pay was more than I ever made before, I didn't have some pointy-haired boss hanging over my shoulder, and you could get away with a lot more...er, 'creativity' than you can today.

Now, I no longer live to truck--I truck to live. I've realized that it doesn't matter how fast you run, how cool your truck looks or what or where you haul. It's about the money. If I have more of it in the bank at the end of the month than you, I win.

I am doing something I never thought I'd do--I'm team driving. I wasn't forced into it, but until I can move closer to the yard, it makes financial and logistical sense to go that route. It's not horrible once you learn to sleep while bouncing over the craters of our sadly-neglected Interstate system.

So, all told, what do I think about LTL? It's the best damn thing any driver can get into.

Consider what you deal with in OTR: Sitting around being delayed by customers and dispatch(which you generally won't get paid for), breakdowns you don't get paid for, driving down some deserted road in the middle of the night trying to find some customer who may or may not be there, dealing with jerk customers and greedy lumpers, living in a box for weeks on end, getting home sort of on time if you're lucky, and if you really want to stretch the truth on your log and never see your house, you might make a bit over $65K per year.

LTL: You pick up a set of trailers. You run them on an established route to another terminal. Swap them for another set. Go back. That's it. If you're delayed, you're paid. You never--never--have to fake your log. You get home on time, and can even be home every night. Far less hassle, great benefits, and >$90K per year!!

Truckload is for suckers. As long as there's an LTL company left on this planet, I'll never go back to being exploited like that. And I urge every driver who thinks his time is worth more than minimum wage to go for it.

Now, there are some caveats to this. If you don't like wearing a uniform, too bad--you will. If your idea of trucking is picking up a load, driving 100 miles to the Petro and screwing around for three days, you won't last long. If you have issues with following safety and scheduling rules, don't bother. But hey--I chafe under lots of rules myself, and I figure I can stand a whole lot of chafing for that kind of money.

Truckload rates are artificially low because, due to our exemption from the Fair Labor Standards Act, trucking companies can screw you around all day long without having to pay you. Truckload is where you work 100 hours a week, log 70, get paid for 50 if that, and sleep in a box for no money. And if anything goes awry, you get blamed. Why go through all that to make some trucking company president rich? I'll put on my uniform, drive my plain little single-axle, and laugh at all those Supertruckers who end up having to sell their radio so they can eat.

Yep, I'm smug. :)

The Real Basics

Some folks on a bike board I frequent asked me how to get into an LTL gig like I just got. So, since--like most drivers--I can't shut up, here's what my answer turned into...

OK, a little primer on the trucking industry.

Most of the trucks you'll see out there are hauling TruckLoad. One truck. One trailer. Sometimes, you'll have several stops, but the majority of these vehicles are hauling one load from A to B. You have local(truck has no sleeper, home every day), regional(truck may or may not have a sleeper, home every weekend), or Over The Road(truck has sleeper, you're out for >=10 days at a time).

The main types of freight are: Van(it's a box), Reefer(temperature-controlled box), Flatbed(duh) and Tank(either chemical or food-grade). Most companies specialize in one or two of these, some (Schneider comes to mind here) haul anything you've a mind to ship.

Most of the companies constantly advertising for drivers run Van and Reefer. And a great majority of these companies suck. They treat you like garbage, pay you for shit, run substandard equipment and don't care if you ever get home or not. I got my start running for one of these--not the worst, but they weren't great either. Browse around through here and here and you'll find horror stories of people with ruined credit, less money than that guy with the cardboard sign, and trainers that ought to be in the nuthouse. (Try looking at Covenant, Werner, Swift and CR England and your hair will stand on end!)

If you want to go into driving, and don't mind being OTR, here's a few tips:

1) Stay away from any company with their own driving school. It may or may not be acceptable to other companies, and they usually try to rope you into a slave contract, where you must drive for them for a predetermined amount of time. This is not good--at this point, they have you by the balls and they know it. I recommend finding an accredited independent driving school, but make sure they're truly independent--some of these outfits are simply shell companies for the big Coolie Carriers.

2) The best deal you'll get in TL is in tank hauling, specifically chemical tanks. These folks run a lot of HazMat, and take great care to follow the law to the letter. You won't get pressured to put your license, pocketbook and the general public at risk, and you'll be paid well for everything you do. Superior Carriers has a great reputation, and they will take people right out of school. I've never driven for them, but when you can go to a trucking forum and never read a bad word about a company, that should get your attention. Yes, truckers like to bitch, but the more complaints about an outfit you read, the more you want to stay away from them. Far away.

3) Those of you who are tougher than me, might find delivery driving an option. Places like Core-Mark, Sysco and other restaurant/grocery/convenience store suppliers pay pretty well. Most routes are home every day or two, and it'll damn sure keep you in shape, but it's ball-busting work. I did it for four years, and finally just couldn't do it any more.

4) Another alternative to truckload is what I'm doing now: Less Than Loaded. This type of outfit runs double/triple trailers, and has all kinds of freight going to all kinds of places. Some are union, some are not. FedEx, UPS, Roadway, Yellow, Central Transport and many others fall in this category. Unlike TL, where any swinging dick with a truck and trailer can undercut you, LTL is a big-time operation requiring enormous outlays of capital. Where a TL from, say, PHX to LAX might end up costing a shipper $2000, five hundred people will gladly pay $10/ea to ship their own little package LTL from PHX to LAX. (I'm leaving out a lot of details, but you can see how these places can afford to pay well.) Rather than being at the mercy of the customer, or waiting for dispatch to figure out what you're doing next, everything is planned out and scheduled in advance, and everyone involved in the process has a vested interest in making sure things are done on time.

There are two ways to get into LTL. You can do it the way I did, by paying my dues in TL, keeping a safe and reasonably clean record and waiting for the right opportunity...or you can go in as a dockworker and have the company train you to drive(all the places I've seen have some sort of dock-to-driver program). That's about it--it's unheard of for an LTL company to take folks straight out of school. They don't have to: people are beating the door down to drive for them.

Man, I got long-winded here. But if it saves just one prospective driver from the Coolie Carriers, it's worth it.

Things Take A New Turn...

...and I quit my job today.

When you come right down to it, I have done worse jobs for less money and far worse people. My company even gave me a newer truck a couple of weeks ago...an old TA truck--underpowered and overgeared--but at least it wasn't breaking down every two minutes and leaking every time it rained.

But I never wanted to go back on the road. I jumped on with this tanker company because every local/regional job I applied for either didn't want me or paid shit. And then, in May, I got a call from a very large LTL outfit I'd applied for previously.

"We're looking for drivers out of Holbrook. You should reapply!"

So I did. And now I gotz teh jobb0rz. Orientation starts in four days.

My truck's turned in and I'm sitting in a motel waiting to get on the bus back home. I'll have a day with my wife, then I'll jump on the bike and ride down to El Paso for orientation. Once I'm actually employed and driving, I'll start letting you all in on how things work at an LTL company.

Another adventure, and hopefully the start of a career, rather than a job.