straight truck

[BIGDON220]

Do you have to have a sleeper to get into this business. I just have a 26ft straight truck and I wanna make some runs. Help

[Jack Jackson]

I guess it would depend on where your home base is and who you lease to. FedEx Custom Critical, for example has short haul trucks out of Chicago, IL and other large cities. The best way to find out would be to contact the recruting dept and see what's available.

[FlameMerc]

I have seen a couple trucks without sleepers at Express-1. Give Scott a call. Good Luck and Welcome to Expediting. Butch:D :D :D

[Rikk]

If you want to make any money you will want to stay on the road, sleping in motels, though deductable is not cheap. And sleeping in the seat can only be done so long. Most carriers require a DOT approved sleeper.



Rikk
Con-Way NOW
961211

[BigBusBob]

The 26 foot box is going to be good for backhauling and gettin' back into regular freight lanes. However, I too would recommend a sleeper, even if it's only a 36" sleeper. That will atleast give you a place to stretch out and get sleep. That seems small, but trust me you'll enjoy sleepin' in a 36" sleeper alot more than sleepin' in the drivers seat and/or across the seats.

You might consider looking into cost of switchin' out that 26 foot box with a new or used 22 foot box and adding a sleeper...
that is if you Really want to get into expediting. You will get offered some sweet loads in expediting, but they'll be much easier if you have a sleeper of some kind to get some quality rest.

Check out the sleeper manufacturer websites and price sleepers of various sizes... do the same with cargo boxes -
you might find a good "end of year" deal.

[highway star]

You need to have a DOT approved sleeper for your rest to count in the eyes of the DOT. When you don't have a sleeper, you need to provide motel reciepts(sp?) at a roadside inspection.

[greg334]

>Do you have to have a sleeper to get into this business. I
>just have a 26ft straight truck and I wanna make some runs.
>Help

Yes, if you really want to run legal and want to go beyond the 150 mile limit (correct me if I am worng about the local limit for logging).

Express-1 as I am told has no O/O day cab trucks, they are company owned, I wondered why I saw two of them, one in Ohio and the other in Kentucky. but I won't say anything else about that.

I had a chance to get a truck with a 24 foot box for nothing (well close to it) and asked a lot of companies if they would take this truck and I got a no. One local company wanted to pay me $40 per load but I would pay for fuel, which left me with nothing after the run.

I don't see an issue with putting a sleeper on the truck, I would think it may not be worth the hassle seeing a few straight trucks for sale are less than $15K with sleepers.

[simon says]

LIke someone said, depends on where you live. If you want to run the main freight lanes (OH,IN, MI, IL, KY) I know Tri-State would keep you running. However, you still need to sleep somewhere and doubtful you would get back home every night- even running mini's. It might be worth it to try, but when I started I got a 36" sleeper within a month. Later I had to move the wheelbase anyway@#$%^($5000 later all told). Hard choices- not a pot of gold and everyone is in your pocket: how's your credit?

[Broompilot]

A post just came up regarding marketing yourself. Run an add in the local paper and also all the tiny itty bitty papers will run freight $75.00 per load, says he does about $600.00 a day local business.

Almost can't wait to get home and try it (just the add) to see how well it would work. I like what I do but sure would be nice to make some $ at home once and a while.

I know that Adds work, my wife has built up one heck of a residential cleaning business with the itty bitty 6000 publication newspaper once a weeker. Everytime she needs two or three new customers to replace Mom's quitting, divorce or moving bingo she has to turn down more than she can take everytime.