The Island of Misfit Toys

Sure your both thinking habaneros?

I use pablano because they have more flavor than bell but normally no heat for this Minnesota boy...

View attachment 61691
They aren't supposed to be hot, but I've had some really hot ones. Sucks when you aren't wanting heat. Only thing I can figure is maybe something else got mixed into the pile (?) but I don't know how that could've happened. Poblanos don't really look like anything else. *shrug* who knows.
 
Don't be surprised when it happens...
Well color me dumbfounded. I got there at 6:30am because I was a slacker and overslept. Got a dock immediately and had papers in hand at 7:55am.5 minutes before my appointment time. I guess there's a first time for everything, that's never happened to me on a Pepsi load.
 
Well color me dumbfounded. I got there at 6:30am because I was a slacker and overslept. Got a dock immediately and had papers in hand at 7:55am.5 minutes before my appointment time. I guess there's a first time for everything, that's never happened to me on a Pepsi load.
I've always had good luck with Pepsi. So this doesn't surprise me.
 
While I'm sitting here in my parking spot, I just had a great idea. This truck stop has wicked tight parking and I imagine there will be some trucks and trailers getting damaged tonight. I think that I'm going to get a set of walkie-talkies for situations like i just witnessed. Give one to a struggling driver, keep one for me, and make helping another guy out much easier. No more hand signals, no more yelling, just talk them through it and be done. Dunno why inever thought of that before but I'm gonna make that happen when I'm home next.
 
While I'm sitting here in my parking spot, I just had a great idea. This truck stop has wicked tight parking and I imagine there will be some trucks and trailers getting damaged tonight. I think that I'm going to get a set of walkie-talkies for situations like i just witnessed. Give one to a struggling driver, keep one for me, and make helping another guy out much easier. No more hand signals, no more yelling, just talk them through it and be done. Dunno why inever thought of that before but I'm gonna make that happen when I'm home next.
Good idear... but reliable ones might be a bit pricey
 
Decided last night that I wasn't gonna repeat the same mistake I made last time by waiting too long to make a choice on my future path. I did that by waiting too long to leave my last job and it killed me financially. I'm not letting that happen again. Called a company this morning that I was looking at a couple years ago. An acquaintance of mine had coincidentally gone there a couple months ago. Seems to like it, reports were all good. Half of their freight is contract freight with companies they've been doing business with for a very long time. The other half is their own freight that they produce themselves. Every single report I've read in the last couple days is forecasting a dismal 2nd quarter for guys like me running spot freight off load boards. So I've decided to go where the safe money is. More importantly, reliable money. Perhaps some day I'll get my own authority and do this again. I love the company I'm with now and I'll miss them dearly. But I need to eat, and I'm not waiting until it's too late. I'm smart enough to know that I'm not the only person who will come to this conclusion. So I'm getting the hell out of Dodge while there's still places i can go. Very soon, those spots are gonna get filled by people who seeing the same things I'm seeing. I'm doing it right now before my life gets trashed by this situation. I'm not a veteran driver by any stretch of the imagination, but I packed a ton of learning into the time I've had. I'm smart enough to know, based on that knowledge, that the time to act is right now. Gonna miss the boards and the freedom. But paid bills, a full belly, and a happy wife are more important. Told her everything half an hour ago and she was incredibly supportive and trusting. She also feels it's the right choice. Damn she's awesome. I was afraid she'd freak out, but she was unbelievable.
 
Decided last night that I wasn't gonna repeat the same mistake I made last time by waiting too long to make a choice on my future path. I did that by waiting too long to leave my last job and it killed me financially. I'm not letting that happen again. Called a company this morning that I was looking at a couple years ago. An acquaintance of mine had coincidentally gone there a couple months ago. Seems to like it, reports were all good. Half of their freight is contract freight with companies they've been doing business with for a very long time. The other half is their own freight that they produce themselves. Every single report I've read in the last couple days is forecasting a dismal 2nd quarter for guys like me running spot freight off load boards. So I've decided to go where the safe money is. More importantly, reliable money. Perhaps some day I'll get my own authority and do this again. I love the company I'm with now and I'll miss them dearly. But I need to eat, and I'm not waiting until it's too late. I'm smart enough to know that I'm not the only person who will come to this conclusion. So I'm getting the hell out of Dodge while there's still places i can go. Very soon, those spots are gonna get filled by people who seeing the same things I'm seeing. I'm doing it right now before my life gets trashed by this situation. I'm not a veteran driver by any stretch of the imagination, but I packed a ton of learning into the time I've had. I'm smart enough to know, based on that knowledge, that the time to act is right now. Gonna miss the boards and the freedom. But paid bills, a full belly, and a happy wife are more important. Told her everything half an hour ago and she was incredibly supportive and trusting. She also feels it's the right choice. Damn she's awesome. I was afraid she'd freak out, but she was unbelievable.
 
Decided last night that I wasn't gonna repeat the same mistake I made last time by waiting too long to make a choice on my future path. I did that by waiting too long to leave my last job and it killed me financially. I'm not letting that happen again. Called a company this morning that I was looking at a couple years ago. An acquaintance of mine had coincidentally gone there a couple months ago. Seems to like it, reports were all good. Half of their freight is contract freight with companies they've been doing business with for a very long time. The other half is their own freight that they produce themselves. Every single report I've read in the last couple days is forecasting a dismal 2nd quarter for guys like me running spot freight off load boards. So I've decided to go where the safe money is. More importantly, reliable money. Perhaps some day I'll get my own authority and do this again. I love the company I'm with now and I'll miss them dearly. But I need to eat, and I'm not waiting until it's too late. I'm smart enough to know that I'm not the only person who will come to this conclusion. So I'm getting the hell out of Dodge while there's still places i can go. Very soon, those spots are gonna get filled by people who seeing the same things I'm seeing. I'm doing it right now before my life gets trashed by this situation. I'm not a veteran driver by any stretch of the imagination, but I packed a ton of learning into the time I've had. I'm smart enough to know, based on that knowledge, that the time to act is right now. Gonna miss the boards and the freedom. But paid bills, a full belly, and a happy wife are more important. Told her everything half an hour ago and she was incredibly supportive and trusting. She also feels it's the right choice. Damn she's awesome. I was afraid she'd freak out, but she was unbelievable.
You got to look out for #1. :thumbsup:
I know I have stayed at a company for way too long as it was circling the drain.

I hope it all works out for ya !:thumbsup:
 
I know I have stayed at a company for way too long as it was circling the drain.
My company isn't circling the drain, but they don't have any of their own freight. All of my freight comes from load boards. DAT, Uber, CH Robinson, J.B. Hunt, etc. The spot market just tanked in an epic way on Monday or Tuesday depending on which board you were looking at. Projections are that it won't recover for 3-4 months and I simply can't wait that out. I haven't been O/O long enough to have the savings to weather that storm. I love every single person at my company, they are beyond fantastic. But as you said, I gotta look out for me. I'm going where it's safe. When this storm blows over I will probably go back to the spot market. Even when the overall numbers are just considered "average", you can do really well if you're diligent. Maybe in a year or so I'll go back to spot freight. But next time I'll be running under my authority, not someone else's.
 
My company isn't circling the drain, but they don't have any of their own freight. All of my freight comes from load boards. DAT, Uber, CH Robinson, J.B. Hunt, etc. The spot market just tanked in an epic way on Monday or Tuesday depending on which board you were looking at. Projections are that it won't recover for 3-4 months and I simply can't wait that out. I haven't been O/O long enough to have the savings to weather that storm. I love every single person at my company, they are beyond fantastic. But as you said, I gotta look out for me. I'm going where it's safe. When this storm blows over I will probably go back to the spot market. Even when the overall numbers are just considered "average", you can do really well if you're diligent. Maybe in a year or so I'll go back to spot freight. But next time I'll be running under my authority, not someone else's.

I will just throw out a quick thought (or thoughts) to consider here.

The move from one company to the next will cost you money, particularly downtime.

Contract rates, though mostly unaffected at the moment, will ultimately follow what spot market rates are doing. As fuel prices go back up, this could be magnified if the new company doesn’t have a solid FSC in their contracts. Many still don’t figure in a FSC, and this drop in fuel costs could really hurt companies as fuel climbs back up to normal and beyond.

In 2-3 months, if contracts are now low, and the spot market is rebounding, there will be another significant loss in revenue if you decide you need to move back to the spot market.

Each time the name changes on the side of your truck, it ultimately costs you thousands in lost revenue, and some cash.

1. Be as sure as possible that the place you are going won’t ultimately have worse rates than the spot market in a couple months.

2. Since this company moves their own product, be sure you put plenty thought into how valuable this product will be in a down economy. You don’t want to end up sitting constantly because they are no longer moving as much product as they have been during an economy that has done nothing but grow for the past 10 years.
 
@Mike It's 100% ag. All of it. Meat and grain transport, for starters. When I first started driving it was fun for me to look up companies I saw on the road if I'd never hear of them. So that meant i was doing a lot of searches early on. This company in particular caught my eye about three years ago and I've been casually watching them from afar ever since. Very small in stature compared to a lot of companies out there. But very strong and stable. Nary a bad word ever said about them anywhere, at least none I've found. In fact, any reviews I found from past or present drivers were all positive. Every single one. I was a businessman before I started this crazy ass job we do. Construction. I swung a hammer for the majority of my adult life. I didn't have a choice but to be completely aware of the financial climate and industry trends. If i didn't, I would have been dead in the water from the jump. Learning trucking, once I got away from being a company chump, wasn't any different. Nuances, yes. But the same jungle cat business rules still apply. I wouldn't be doing this if I thought for even a second that it was a hair-trigger response. It's a decision I made on a couple decades of experience observing and examining markets pertinent to my job. This is a zero-hesitation decision. It's a sink or swim situation. Am I overreacting? Maybe. Do I have a bazillion years of trucking experience? Nope. Regardless of anyone's opinion, I don't need it. I'm well versed in research on every aspect of this. And I've listened to the old dogs who are smart and watch trends and have learned the hard way. Their opinions matter. I've consulted my move with them, and they agree with me. I'll weather this storm because I learned from them and I listened. Hence the reason they still allow me to bend their ears.... I listen.
 
@Mike It's 100% ag. All of it. Meat and grain transport, for starters. When I first started driving it was fun for me to look up companies I saw on the road if I'd never hear of them. So that meant i was doing a lot of searches early on. This company in particular caught my eye about three years ago and I've been casually watching them from afar ever since. Very small in stature compared to a lot of companies out there. But very strong and stable. Nary a bad word ever said about them anywhere, at least none I've found. In fact, any reviews I found from past or present drivers were all positive. Every single one. I was a businessman before I started this crazy ass job we do. Construction. I swung a hammer for the majority of my adult life. I didn't have a choice but to be completely aware of the financial climate and industry trends. If i didn't, I would have been dead in the water from the jump. Learning trucking, once I got away from being a company chump, wasn't any different. Nuances, yes. But the same jungle cat business rules still apply. I wouldn't be doing this if I thought for even a second that it was a hair-trigger response. It's a decision I made on a couple decades of experience observing and examining markets pertinent to my job. This is a zero-hesitation decision. It's a sink or swim situation. Am I overreacting? Maybe. Do I have a bazillion years of trucking experience? Nope. Regardless of anyone's opinion, I don't need it. I'm well versed in research on every aspect of this. And I've listened to the old dogs who are smart and watch trends and have learned the hard way. Their opinions matter. I've consulted my move with them, and they agree with me. I'll weather this storm because I learned from them and I listened. Hence the reason they still allow me to bend their ears.... I listen.
Sounds like a well thought out decision is being made.
 
Tenstreet. I know it's supposed to be helpful to both the applicants and the potential employers. But Christ what a garbage app. Here we go... goodbye dream job, hello safe job. Think maybe it's time to get a little more stringent on travel allowances and trade policies? I am so sick of this crap. It's breaking my heart to leave this job. But the almighty dollar and the endless train of lobbiests keep us open for crap like this. Thank for the complete uprooting life change. I hate you all.
 

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