Trucking

Things might be picking up a bit. I’ve actually had a couple of trips back to back. Reloading the same day or the next day instead of two or three or more days later. But now I’m in Florida and it’s usually tough to get out of here on a good day, but there are a couple of possibilities so we’ll see. And there was enough money on this trip to be able to deadhead or drive empty back to Georgia if I have to.

I needed a day to recover from this trip anyway. I loaded yesterday it took six hours to load a bunch of office furniture, drove most of the night and had to go around the I-95 closure in Florida because of a wildfire. Woke up early and helped unload and still have blankets to fold. I was going to fold them tonight, but not too motivated and no immediate prospects, so will wake up early while it’s still cool and spend about two hours folding most of my blankets.

I was listening to one of my evil conservative talk shows and the subject was fuel prices and a trucker calls in. Says, he was an owner operator and had to sell his truck because of fuel prices. But, he’s now a company driver. What he doesn’t realize, is that he’s still driving a truck. It’s still buying fuel, he’s just not buying it. He couldn’t afford the fuel but whoever he’s driving for can. The host was a little confused expecting to find a truck driver that couldn’t afford the fuel.

I personally know of two owner operators that wanted to park their trucks and drive for someone else and another one that has. Their trucks are paid for and they can’t afford the fuel prices? But think they can do better driving for someone else. If your truck is paid for, that’s a big expense you don’t have to pay for. Your operating expenses are lower than owners that have truck AND trailer payments. Maintenance on older trucks is an issue, but the maintenance cost I heard from them were still lower than my payments and especially lower than my payments plus repairs.

We are struggling through this, but if my truck was paid for, it would be a lot less stress. From owner operators that have no idea what they’re doing, it’s no wonder companies can take advantage of people wanting to own a truck, from actually ripping them off through leasing programs to nickel and dimeing owners to death. Once you’re an owner operator everyone wants your money. From the panhandler that wants to shine your chrome to people in truck stops hollering like Carnival Barkers wanting to sell you the latest, greatest program to save you money, as long as you spend your money with them. It’s an insane business. Anyone want to buy a truck, cheap?

The last few weeks have actually seemed like things are picking up. I actually had a few loads where I was empty one day and loaded the next. So at least I was kept fairly busy. The pay wasn’t as much as it should have been for $4 a gallon fuel, but it wasn’t horrible. For right now, I’ll settle for “not horrible”. Once things get to the horrible level, I’m parking for awhile.

During the days and days of sitting around waiting for loads and since I’m online most of the time wherever I happen to be parked, I came up with a few ideas of making some spare change and not by hanging out at street corners! I’m going into the Internet Marketing Business. That’s a vague term for making money online. There are so many scams out there, I’ve read them all. But with all of the research I’ve done to help Life on the Road perform better in the search engines and gain traffic I’ve decided to see if I can make more money doing it.

Adventures in Web Hosting

Right now I’ve got about 30 websites I’ve either built or planning to build with plans for many, many more. During all of that, I’ve had to expand my hosting requirements. I’m in the process of moving my websites to, not quite a dedicated server, but close. Because of the plan I have, I can sell the space and bandwidth I’m not using to someone else. I’m connected with the best web host with the best support. Right now, I can match and probably beat any web hosting plan out there. Some web hosts advertise unlimited space and bandwidth, in the real world, if you need an outrageous amount of space and bandwidth, you’re not going to be happy on a shared hosting plan. My plan will be cheap, but realistic. But if you need outrageous space and bandwidth we can work something out.

For anyone that wants to move up to a WordPress website, I will install Wordpress, one theme you choose and some of the essential plugins to expand the functionality of WordPress. Plus assist you in moving your content from your old blog. Billing will be by Paypal so I can save you money by not paying for a merchant account. Billing is secure and professional. Tech support is 24/7 (not by me, but you can contact me if you have questions and don’t need immediate help.)

Get Your Websites and Domains Right Here

Any other type of website or blog can be moved and installed if you really don’t want WordPress. You will have complete cPanel access some of the features will allow you to create databases, email accounts with access to your files and directories with a file manager or FTP.

In order to get cheap domains for myself, I’m going to be able to sell domains also at a discount. I’m not going to spend a lot of time promoting web hosting, I need to concentrate on other things, but the opportunity is there if anyone wants to take advantage of it.

I’m still setting things up to be able to actually have customers but should be done soon. If anyone is interested in cheaper web hosting, help getting started with WordPress, on a less populated, better quality server or have any other requirements for your web site, let me know at the normal contact email.

Over a 1000 miles that’s a record for me, but it was work getting it. Between a light tailwind and no hills from Nashville to San Antonio and not idling or even running the generator at night, it was pretty good.

Lately, a lot of my loads have been kind of short and several days to get there, mainly because I would be loaded on Thur or Fri and couldn’t be unloaded or to my next drop till Monday. I usually drive the speed limit. If it’s 70, I’m driving 70 or a little over. If it’s 65, I’m driving 70 or a little over. If it’s 55, I’m NOT driving 70 or a little over. Usually under 65 keeps me out of trouble.

This time with a total load of 15 very light pallets I had three days to drive 900 miles. I drove to the next Flying J and parked Friday night, got up Saturday, after walking Willie, eating breakfast and getting fuel I started driving 60 mph in a 70 mph state. Agonizingly slow for me. Since I had the time, I wanted to see what the most mpg I could get. I loaded up the iPod with talk shows and headed out.

I don’t mind being passed, but at 60-63 you get passed by most everyone. I didn’t care. After getting used to it, it was actually more relaxing. I didn’t have to worry about getting in the left lane as much, most merging traffic could get ahead of me and if they couldn’t, too bad. I wasn’t going in the left lane and causing a wreck. I saw the same flatbed with a torn tarp pass me three times, hauling ass from one truck stop to another.

I usually get between 6 and 6.5 anyway. I’m usually really light compared to other trucks, but my trailer is heavier than the regular trailer too. 9.0 is pretty good, but I’m not this light all of the time, I wanted to take advantage of the weight since I couldn’t take advantage of the space. Back in the good ole days, if there was this much time I would have been able to fill the rest of the trailer and make some extra money and not worried about the price of fuel, those days are long gone. I guess I’m supposed to feel lucky I have one load and I’m not sitting somewhere waiting for something to happen, let alone try and get extra. So I feel lucky, keep driving and try not to worry about when or where the next load will be.

When I first got out of CDL school my second company was USA Truck. A huge company, their main business is east of the Mississippi, but they said it wouldn’t be a problem getting me home which at the time was Wichita, KS. They formed my belief that large trucking companies suck. From being on hold for 30 mins every time you called in, to being treated like a number. They always asked what your truck number was, they couldn’t care less what your name was. Plus waiting forever to get your truck screwed up worked on then have to get it fixed again and generally being treated like crap.

This was way before GPS. I think I had a city map of almost every city on the east coast. Directions were given over the Qualcomm and were from one direction and you had to figure out which one. They were updated by drivers and you were supposed to let them know when the directions were wrong. Myself and everyone else probably gave up on that waste of time.

I forget the details, but you were out three or four weeks and got to be home two or three days, it wasn’t much for all of the time you were out. One time I was 500 miles from home and told to go home empty (company truck, I didn’t care), except my home time started right then. 500 miles in a 62 mph governed truck, that was my time off.

What brought this up was I got a load from a broker that just called themselves USA. Could have been any one of a hundred places with USA in their name. When I saw the confirmation it was USA Logistics, a division of USA Truck. Of course the load was screwed up. I get to the pickup and the shipper already loaded it on a trailer. I wasn’t going to pull a different trailer unless I’m paid to go back empty or bobtail back to my trailer. They didn’t like that idea and the load was canceled. And of course they didn’t give me the normal “Truck not Used” fee. I almost told the guy to f-off and never call me again. I know I would have felt better getting all of that pent up frustration from 10 years ago out in only seven words. I missed a great opportunity trying to be a nice guy and I wanted their $100 which was better than nothing but I wanted to tell them where to stick that too.

The text in the post is completely serious in between photos and videos of men doing the most incredibly stupid stuff. It makes you wonder how we’ve survived as species.

Why Women Live Longer than Men

Check it out.

I’m working, but not working as much. I’ve had a few things cancel / reschedule / underbid on, all with the same result. I needed something else. The trip I’m on is short, but it pays well. A lot of times because of minimum charges, short hauls will pay better than longer trips. This is only 500 miles, but it’s paying over $2.00. I picked it up Friday afternoon and can’t deliver until Monday morning.

I actually have another trip scheduled to pick up on Monday that’s only 800 miles, but because of all the pickups and loading time, it takes four days to finish it. But it’s better than sitting for four days. I should be able to decent fuel mileage and shouldn’t have to get any more fuel until the middle of next week, instead of the normal every other day.

I haven’t been reading any of the trucking news lately, it’s too depressing and no one really knows what’s going to happen, but I have a few ideas that need some research before I put anything over at Life on the Road. Since I have all of this spare time between trips and even during some trips, I’ve been learning about building websites, the best ways to get listed in search engines and hopefully the best ways to make some money. There are a ton of websites that will sell you their techniques on making money. Kind of like all of the real estate buying / flipping and stock buying ads you hear on the radio. The only way someone makes their money is off the backs of others. After sifting the information from the scams, I’ve got a few ideas.

The bottom line here is that I’m going to be putting more ads up on Adventures in Trucking, but there are ways to show some people ads and not show other people ads. Since I’m experimenting (learning) with Adventures in Trucking, the goal is for regular readers to not see ads, or at least only a few select ads. You could subscribe to the feed or the newsletter, click on an orange icon under Subscribe and you won’t see any ads, at least not for awhile. I’m also going to be changing a few things so the site may look a little different but not by much, but it may make a big difference in how search engines see it.

And since Adventures in Trucking already ranks really well on a lot of trucking related search terms, I may even open up a few small square (125×125) ads on the top of the side bar. Even to Driver Job sites, which I’ve turned down before, but will reconsider.

Dr. Randy Pausch is Computer Science Professor at Carnegie Mellon. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2006. In his lecture he talks about achieving childhood dreams. He’s still alive thanks to chemo and other drugs but it has only delayed the inevitable. He keeps up his daily blog when he can.

This video has been seen over six million times. The video was taped when doctors gave him three to six months of good health. Many people are saying that watching this video has changed their lives.

It’s not a sad video. His goal is to have fun every day. His lecture is upbeat and inspiring. He doesn’t talk about cancer, death or religion. Okay, maybe toward the end it’s a little sad.

What does this have to do with trucking? Probably not much. It is more about life, about achieving your childhood dreams or enabling others to achieve theirs and the lessons you learn along the way. A few things that you might relate to in trucking -

“Brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to keep out other people.”

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”

Sit back for the 76 minutes, enjoy something besides our own problems and maybe how to simplify our complicated lives with what’s important. If it changes your life like it has for millions of others, great. At the very least, it’s an incredible story.

Here’s the link to his main site. Where you can download the audio or video to iTunes, download the transcript and order his book. Which he recorded his thoughts into his cellphone while on his morning bike rides and had the WSJ writer transcribe and put into a book.

His book website.

His daily update page.

The link to a piece on 20/20 last week.

The article in the Wall St. Journal that started the sensation.

And of course the video -

Here are my pictures from my trip to the 2008 Mid American Truck Show in Louisville, KY. There was so much stuff and so many trucks, this doesn’t even come close to capturing what the show was like. Most of them are from my little corner of the show. Just outside of the International tent there were several of the trucks for show competition. There were tons more spread out on each side of the convention center. Some are from the International booth on the inside of the South Hall were three Lonestars were and we had two Lonestars people could walk through next to our tent.

Here’s the direct link to the list of thumbnails.

Or go straight to the slide show.

I don’t have all of the descriptions up yet, but you’ll get the idea.

For those that are in the trucking industry, brokering, logistics, warehousing and anything Transportation & Logistics you’ll find a huge list of specialized magazines and white papers dedicated to Transportation & Logistics here and in the middle sidebar. It’s an incredible resource for the logistics professional. Did I mention most are free. Free subscriptions and white paper downloads for professionals in the Logistics sector.

Free Trade Magazine Subscriptions & Technical Document Downloads

I’m spending about a week at home (not by choice) before I go to the truck show in Louisville, KY on the 26th through the 29th. That’s a long time not working. I could have had a couple more trips if I didn’t have to be home to fly out to Louisville. And of course there’s nothing local or even within a few days to keep me close. Not the greatest situation, but the truck show will be fun.

For those that don’t know, I’m the editor for Life on the Road. I work indirectly for International Trucks. I really work for their marketing firm and they are in charge of the site and I even get paid a little. They are flying me out to the truck show and paying for my room.

I will be working at the truck show. Life on the Road is going to have a booth. Actually it will be an area within the International Truck booth where they will have some computers and a sitting area. I’m going to be between the trucks and some of the other services that International offers. Right next to the Lonestar and a Prostar. The Lonestar is their brand new truck released a couple of months ago at the Chicago Auto Show. This will be the Lonestar’s first truck show.

My goal is to talk to drivers and get them to read the website and hopefully some will want to write for us too. I’m going to have business cards to hand out with information or numbers that will enter them into a sweepstakes or where they can claim some International gear or something. Even though it was my idea, I’m not in on the details. I’m also going to have a much smaller stack of cards to hand out to drivers who I think are articulate and bright enough that want to write for us. (Did I say that out loud?)

Getting some of these guys to write about something in the industry besides the bitching and moaning everyone already hears everywhere is tough. I don’t mind a little and I try not to do too much myself, but you’ve got to back up your argument with something more than BS.