british380
Rene' and I started our journey in expediting in 1989 in a Chevrolet cargo van (B1230) with Roberts Express. Since that time we have gone thru two Ford diesel vans and are now on our third Chevrolet. We've never owned a C or D.
We started expediting as a means to travel around the country for the primary purpose of selecting a location in which to retire. I was eligible for a no cost move to anywhere in the US of A for one year following my retirement from the US Coast Guard, so this seemed the ideal way to find that dream spot. We decided on either the south side of Lexington, KY or the Ashville, NC area, in the smokies. Having made our decision, we were faced with the dilemma of why. We couldn't come up with a good answer to the why, so we stayed in the St Louis area that was the location of my last duty station. This leads me to the answer to your question "What would you do different?"
We often looked back on our first five or so years driving for Roberts Express and reflected on the huge sum of money we could have saved by avoiding the cost of a $1400 mortgage on a house we only visited, from time to time. Additionally, we were paying all the utilities needed to maintain a household. We had an irrigation system installed to keep the lawns watered; we paid for the fertilizer guys, the lawn mower/snow removal guys and the trash collection guys. The bottom line is we spent a lot of money that we could have saved by devoting just five years to the business, easily in excess of $150,000 plus compounded interest.
What do we like about the truck? you ask. I think you're leaning toward a straigh truck so my answer would not apply to you, but for those that are eavesdropping on our conversation, I like the Chevy because of the automobile-like handling and the lesser operating expense over the Ford diesels that we owned. Not much I don't like because I'm so used to expediting in the cargo van; it works well for one or two skids and the 2500 pounds we occassionaly haul.
Keep asking the questions and someone here on EO will have an answer or an opinion that you might be able to use later.
