Where is Mike? Where is he going? Don't ask him, he's probably lost.

You should have asked me for advice.

Lol, I seriously didn’t want to take the load after booking it.

Thought I had an out. Load time moved from 1200 to 1600. Load has to deliver at 0200 on Thursday morning, so that was my out. Called to give the load back based on transit time, and they called the shipper and got an assurance that they would have the load ready by 1200 or earlier.

Wake up this morning. Hoping that 1200 load time would fall through and I could take another day off.

Nope, the broker calls me bright and early letting me know he followed up with the shipper again and that the load would be ready for pickup by 1200.

So, out of excuses, had the wife Uber me to the truck.

And as luck would have it, nothing was leaking and the truck started right up. No flat tires, absolutely zero excuses to work with.
 
Lol, I seriously didn’t want to take the load after booking it.

Thought I had an out. Load time moved from 1200 to 1600. Load has to deliver at 0200 on Thursday morning, so that was my out. Called to give the load back based on transit time, and they called the shipper and got an assurance that they would have the load ready by 1200 or earlier.

Wake up this morning. Hoping that 1200 load time would fall through and I could take another day off.

Nope, the broker calls me bright and early letting me know he followed up with the shipper again and that the load would be ready for pickup by 1200.

So, out of excuses, had the wife Uber me to the truck.

And as luck would have it, nothing was leaking and the truck started right up. No flat tires, absolutely zero excuses to work with.
That's what you get for buying a new one.

Since putting myself into "what if I had a payment mode" I'm finding myself less of a defeatist than in the past. So here I am at the second load even though I could have cut bait due to weather.
 
Ima da boss...

I do what I want...

Even with the crown having given me my permission tags on Saturday.
 
That's what you get for buying a new one.

Since putting myself into "what if I had a payment mode" I'm finding myself less of a defeatist than in the past. So here I am at the second load even though I could have cut bait due to weather.

In my best politician voice...

"Let Me Be Very Clear"

Ok, back to my normal voice, LOL.

I got my truck with nothing down other than the trade. That said, one thing I make sure of, to the best of my ability, is to never be in "make a payment" mode. I did that nonsense with lease purchase briefly, hope I never have to do it again.

For me, the payment is a choice made over using the money in the account that is there to pay for the truck. A payment is made every month (starting sometime this month, I don't remember when the first payment is due because the wife has all that under control). If I parked the truck for the rest of the year, a payment could still be made to the truck, as well as a paycheck withdrawn from the business account.

I would be sweating bullets because I'm not comfortable watching the balance diminish, but we would be ok.

I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying this to explain why I did it this way. Cash in hand is far more valuable than a paid-off truck at this point. If the economy were to nose dive into the nearest landfill, and there was no sign of things getting back to normal for a long time, pretty much everyone's credit will be destroyed. Trucks would have nothing worth moving, and the bank could come to get mine. At that point, I still have all my money and be able to work on another plan to make what I could be doing other things in order to take care of what is important.

One thing for sure. If I was at a point where I didn't have a decent nest egg put back, I would have never bought this truck. As a matter of fact, at this point, had I not had a nest egg, I would not only have decided against a new truck, I would have sold the one I had and find another line of work because I obviously would have been doing something majorly wrong.
 
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Now, where am I?

About 50 miles or so from home, and spending the night in the truck in Joplin. Wife was going to come get me, but the amount of time home would have been very brief, basically long enough to sleep, only for her to have to make the drive again early in the morning. No sense in 200 miles being put on the car and the time involved. Especially when I will likely stay home for almost a week again when I do get back home.

Loading in Joplin, MO tomorrow morning, and bouncing out to Phoenix (Goodyear) to deliver Thursday morning. I was actually in Topeka, Kansas unloading this morning, and drove to KC to pick up a load of chemical totes going to the Fresno, CA area. Two miles from the shipper, I get a call that the receiver will not be open on Friday, so I would need to deliver on Thursday, or wait til Monday. Could have done the Thursday had I had full hours to work with, but gonna be bouncing off my recap, so no way to make it there, and wasn't waiting til Monday.

Dropped that load, and dropped another load while at Sapp Bros in Harrisonville, then hooked up with this load going to Arizona. It was fun. I had three brokers I was working with for the same loads coming out of this place. Highest bidder won my services.
 
In my best politician voice...

"Let Me Be Very Clear"

Ok, back to my normal voice, LOL.

I got my truck with nothing down other than the trade. That said, one thing I make sure of, to the best of my ability, is to never be in "make a payment" mode. I did that nonsense with lease purchase briefly, hope I never have to do it again.

For me, the payment is a choice made over using the money in the account that is there to pay for the truck. A payment is made every month (starting sometime this month, I don't remember when the first payment is due because the wife has all that under control). If I parked the truck for the rest of the year, a payment could still be made to the truck, as well as a paycheck withdrawn from the business account.

I would be sweating bullets because I'm not comfortable watching the balance diminish, but we would be ok.

I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying this to explain why I did it this way. Cash in hand is far more valuable than a paid-off truck at this point. If the economy were to nose dive into the nearest landfill, and there was no sign of things getting back to normal for a long time, pretty much everyone's credit will be destroyed. Trucks would have nothing worth moving, and the bank could come to get mine. At that point, I still have all my money and be able to work on another plan to make what I could be doing other things in order to take care of what is important.

One thing for sure. If I was at a point where I didn't have a decent nest egg put back, I would have never bought this truck. As a matter of fact, at this point, had I not had a nest egg, I would not only have decided against a new truck, I would have sold the one I had and find another line of work because I obviously would have been doing something majorly wrong.
Wait what did you think I meant by "make a payment mode"?

For me it's a deliberate action to set the money aside since there's no payment. It's also a mindset to not slack off just because there's no payment to make.
 
Wait what did you think I meant by "make a payment mode"?

For me it's a deliberate action to set the money aside since there's no payment. It's also a mindset to not slack off just because there's no payment to make.

I said "let me be very clear" That means I don't have to repeat anything, LOL
 
I wouldn't mind a new truck but there's no way I want the payment or the work it'd take to make it and I worked too hard building my credit from shitballs to excellent over the past 5 years to just let it collapse again with a repo.
 
From what I'm gathering so far, we kind of all end up taking home the same amount anyway with similar effort. I burn a little more fuel but get more per mile and have far lower misc expenses and OTR folks average less per mile but get better fuel economy, run more miles, and have more random nickel and dime costs and the inability to stay close to home and DIY almost everything.

The game is rigged such that no one really has any secrets to massive revenue at low operating expense except the megas with their buying power, multiple terminals, and self insurance.
 
I wouldn't mind a new truck but there's no way I want the payment or the work it'd take to make it and I worked too hard building my credit from shitballs to excellent over the past 5 years to just let it collapse again with a repo.
Smart move.

For me, OTR is what it takes to get the income high enough to take care of what I need to take care of and put back what I need want to put back.
 
Smart move.

For me, OTR is what it takes to get the income high enough to take care of what I need to take care of and put back what I need want to put back.
Roger that. You must be in an area where local is hard to be consistent.

I'm surrounded by consumers and they constantly cut me off.

Don't need much truck, but I might at least need to get new enough for some of the better bigger brokers for more backhauls. Depends how things work out once spring and summer kick.
 

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