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Truckers who run on hopes and dreams are the first to be forced out of the industry when business slows down. Success in this business is a function of one's accurate perception of it and one's choices, far more than it is a function of a carrier's fleet count. If the recession has taught us...

For someone who wants to learn more about expediting and get a feel for the industry, there is no better place to spend a couple of days than the Expedite Expo. Arrive early. Leave late. Soak up as much information as you can.

Exactly right, and easier said than done.

That is an impressive list for a new EO poster and expediter wannabee. Good job! Clearly, you are researching the expedite opportunity well. I would add only that researching this industry is not a sequential process. It is ongoing and your questions will shift in focus and depth as as your...

The photo below shows our truck when it was new. We treated the floor with a products called Crack Filler and Floor Restore and loaded our equipment. (Details here and here) The crack filler filled the cracks and screw holes to keep the dirt from accumulating in those recesses and make for...

Diane and I drove fleet-owner trucks as independent contractors for the first three years we were in the business, and have been driving our own truck since then.

My wife Diane and I are a straight-truck expediter team. We publish our monthly trip maps here. Notice that we only traveled through Idaho just once in 2010 so far and have stopped there zero times. If getting home is important to you, you will have to make plans and a special effort to get there.

Our home express center is Minneapolis, which is generally a good one. In seven years with the same carrier, we have never noticed or had reason to wonder if on-road trucks get dispatched ahead of us when we are home. The dispatch experience seems the same as any other good express center...

May I ask what prompted your question? Just curious. It has been clear for a long time that if there ever was an accepted definition of expedited freight or an expedite carrier, it has become muddled over time as technology emerged that made fast freight and monitored freight services easier...

Having recently purchased a house on Florida's Atlantic Coast, and as a reefer truck contractor, I'm daydreaming about a dedicated run on I-10 and I-95. Expediters home every week under load, and in Florida no less! That would be one for the books! Think of it. When the little baby turtles...

As I understand it, if a driver of any experience level gets tagged with a violation, CSA points for that violation count against both the carrier and the driver. Brand new drivers fresh out of school with no experience will have clean records as they have not driven before. If not for the fact...

OK. And what about thanking Canada for the active members of this forum who hail from that part of the continent?

Getting back to the incident that prompted this thread, Diane and I delivered a load to Ft. McGuire/Dix on Wednesday -- one week after the lockdown incident. It was as routine as any other delivery we have made to this location. There were the customary steps to go through but nothing different...

I enjoy the cost of bagged green tea too. I think it comes down to about $0.10 to $0.15 a cup, where a bottle of diet soda, which we now drink less of, is much higher in cost. I don't know how much the bottled tea costs that is being discussed here but if it is similar to soda, the green tea...

You are correct. If a driver who is committed to zero CSA points has the misfortune of a badly timed lamp failure and subsequent ticket, the driver will live to drive another day. However, a crisis would exist on a personal level because of the broken commitment the driver made to oneself. At...

We should also thank Canada for Lawrence McCord, should we not?

Our "tour" came as a complete surprise. We were waiting at a dock for an hour or so while the consignee was processing the electronic devices we brought. When they were finished, we would take the empty special container in which the devices were shippped back to the airport where we first...

I'm glad to hear you got yourself back east under load from Los Angeles. I just want to add my vote to what the others have already said. If you are in Los Angeles and want to get back east, it is better to wait for an offer that takes you there. Taking a load to another express center west of...

I believe you once said you are a Firefox user. Try the Internet Explorer browser to see if it makes a difference. Sometimes Firefox updates cause problems like this and it takes the developers a few days or weeks to de-bug them.

I agree with the others who say the revenue potential of a big-rig is greater than that of a straight truck but note the word "potential." I have met numerous ER-unit drivers who say they could gross over $300,000 a year if they chose to and I believe them. But I have yet to meet one that has...