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If you are looking to drive for a fleet owner, you may already have access to the information you seek. If the fleet owner has been in the business for a while and is running a number of trucks, and he/she is reasonably competent and honest, he/she should be able to tell you exactly what the pay...

When looking at the miles number, Diane and I always regarded the "pay-per-mile, all miles" number as the most important. It did not matter how much the load paid per mile. It did not matter what the route was. It did not matter how far we would have to drive empty to the pick up. The only...

Uber is putting 100 autonomous (self-driving) vehicles (taxis) on the road in Pittsbugh THIS MONTH. Uber also just bought the self-driving truck company that was mentioned in the originating post of this thread. Details here

Another step forward. As some predicted, taxi drivers are on the way out. Ford to Offer Self-Driving Cars Without Steering Wheel by 2021

Here's the latest development in the ongoing train wreck that is Obamacare

Diane and I saw several dogs like that in our years on the road. We always thought they were strays that had been accidentally left behind, intentionally abandoned or local dogs that found their way into the truck stop. The ones we saw seemed to have an established routine, going from truck to...

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. Successful straight-truck expediters don't have hope, they have CDLs, meaningful goals, plans to achieve them and the work ethic to make it happen.

Diane and I never varied our service level with the price of a load. Freight on our truck was always well treated and we always did everything possible to pick up and deliver as scheduled. We never once accepted a load that we did not ourselves choose to accept. If a load was on our truck that...

What are your interests? The truck space itself is mostly the same whatever kind of truck you have. Custom sleepers offer more choices but the basic functionality remains the same among sleepers of the same class.The things that make the nights more enjoyable have less to do with what goes on...

Diane and I always filed quarterly when we were on the road. It is not difficult to do. You do not need to involve your accountant. It may be required (depending on your income level). And it's just a good idea to keep good books every day. The quarterly filing provides the discipline to take an...

Writers read, read and read some more. There is no better place to gain a sense of what Expediting is all about, and what the hot topics are, than right here at ExpeditersOnline.com. When Diane and I were brand-new to trucking and began to research this industry, I read every post in every EO...

I don't know about "the best" option but it sounds like a good option. It is widely stated by expediters to start with a fleet owner first. Don't let the experience thing bother you too much. After you have hauled your first ten loads you will know 90 percent of what you need to know to make a...

A fleet owner once moved us from one of his trucks into another. A few short months later, we happened to be in our motor carrier's parking lot with a bunch of other trucks for a multi-day meeting. The truck we left behind was also there but we did not realize it until we met the co-drivers. The...

Duwayne, when I view your photo and read the mobility limitations you wrote about, some of our gym members come to mind. Some of them weigh over 400 lbs and they come to us for help because they know, and their doctors have told them, that they will die soon if they do not lose weight and...

Thank you for sharing this, RoadTime. It is a nice summary. I have always thought that multitasking is overrated and is not a goal that is worth pursuing in and of itself. It is better to focus on getting your work done than it is to try to develop the non-existent "skill" of doing multiple...

I agree with those who are advising you to drive a fleet owner's truck for a while before buying/building a truck of your own. Diane and I drove fleet owner trucks for three years before building our truck. That gave us time to truly understand what we wanted in a truck. Had we plunged into a...

What depreciation schedule do you use for your van and equipment? How do you account for the replacement cost of such things?

Such a gauge is meaningless. It accounts not at all for your business expenses, taxes and your actual productivity as an expediter. By the formula you imply, an expediter could pay $30,000 for a brand-new van, run one load per year, derive from that load a $20 per hour value on one's time...

To bring this back on topic, it would be interesting to see someone familiar with cargo van expediting compare the opportunity before to the opportunity now: Communications: Before: Pay Phone Now: Cell Phone Typical Van MPG: Before: ??? Now: ??? Typical Pay Per Loaded Mile: Before: ??? Now...

Well said. Our generation rode a wave of prosperity that has not been seen since. We had the best schools, often in brand-new buildings. We went to the best colleges, when private-college room, board, books and tuition cost less than the price a new car each year. We drove on the best highways...