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My wife and I are buying a new truck that we need to equip with ratchet straps, load bars, furniture pads, dollies, etc. The equipment we use now belongs to the fleet owner we drive for and will go with the truck when we turn it in. Where do you go to buy your equipment? Any tips would be...

carstea, redytrk, says, "You will probably save your self from a lot of mistakes by staying away from dealers who dont have a clue how to set up your rig." Amen to that! Like you, I once spent time calling truck dealers to learn more. After wasting a lot of time talking to dealers that knew...

When we meet and visit with other teams on the road, most conversations include: "Where are you from?" "How long have you been doing this?" And, "Ain't it aweful about dispatch?" While most drivers have dispatch horror stories to tell, I have yet to meet one that hopes to be a dispatcher some...

Thank you for introducing yourselves and sharing your positive view of expediting. I believe the industry will see many more teams like you (white collar workers becoming expediters) in the near and long term future. My wife and I entered the field from white collar professions with no previous...

The thread title is perfect, "Learning from the mistakes of others." This site and other trucking forums stand as great resrouces for newbies. Newbies like ourselves don't have to learn from our own mistakes. We can learn from the mistakes experienced drivers have made and talked about...

OOPS! Forgot the link to the state publications I mentioned above: Here it is. http://www.dps.state.mn.us/dvs/Registration%20Guide/Guide%20Frame.htm

Your current carrier or the carrier you will run with is the first place to check. Carriers offer varying levels of help with permits, base plates, etc. Check with your carrier first to avoid obtaining permits or doing paperwork yourself that your carrier may already provide. My home state (MN)...

From a report recently issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics: "A total of 1.4 million injuries and illnesses in private industry required recuperation beyond the day of the incident in 2002...." Truck drivers and nursing aides were the professions with the greatest number of such injuries...

The only thing I suggest is that you plan >you're truck purchase so that it can be modified to meet the >dynamic needs of the industry without too much out of >pocket. Very interesting suggestion. Please elaborate. We like to think we've done our research but you never know for sure. What...

In response to Davekc's and RichM's comments about truck expense, please note that we're not proceeding unaware or unskilled. We know what our expediting revenues and long term costs are. As a former stockbroker and financial planner of eleven years my business planning and financial analysis...

Davekc's analysis (above) is sound. I especially like his ten-year perspective. After our Class 8 truck purchase is complete and we have some real-world operating cost numbers to compare, it would be fun to do, side-by-side, a ten-year life cycle analysis that compares class 8 and class 7...

Yep! We're limiting ourselves in the amount of weight we can carry because we don't want to drive an E-unit (tractor trailer). We prefer the mobility straight trucks provide. That mobility comes in handy when we're not under load and we want to explore the area we're in for flea markets, tourist...

It is common to meet expediters in your age range. You are wise to be concerned about fatigue. Young or old, a tired driver is a dangerous driver. Sleep management is important in expediting since you never know what time of day or night your next load will run. Make sleep a top priority and...

I wouldn't be overly concerned about the feelings associated with purchasing a reposessed truck. As you stated, the truck has already been reposessed. The truck may have been reposessed due to a driver's misfortune. More likely, it was reposessed due to a driver's mis-management. Either way, you...

I've read about air tabs too. Sounds good in theory. I'd like to know more about them in practice. I'd be willing to gamble the price and try them myself if I knew they could be easily removed without leaving marks on the box. But I don't know that so I'm holding off. Like they say, don't be the...

Great to hear from you. It's a visionary and pioneering thing you are doing. My wife and I have learning to read and speak Spanish as one of our mid-term goals. We meet enough Spanish speaking people in our travels to make it worthwhile now. We view it as a good learning experience, personal...

This is not meant as negative input but as a positive suggestion. If you are new to expediting, drive a fleet owner's truck for a while before buying a truck of your own. My wife and I could have purchased a truck when we first started. We're glad we didn't. By running someone elses truck(s)...

I hope you share what you learn here. It seems that every carrier hauls freight for other carriers at one time or another. I'd love to know more about the brokering that goes on behind the scenes. My wife and I once picked up a load inside a huge terminal for a moving van company. When we went...

If you do not now have the equipment referenced in this thread, and if your only reason for buying it would be to send and receive faxes, you might be better off paying the dollar a page. You can transmit a lot of pages for the cost of the equipment and monthly service fees.

My wife and I will order a new class 8 straight truck soon. It will have not a tag axle but two drive axles; that's twin screws, 10 tires, just like tractors. We had the same question you have. We researched it carefully and concluded that in our case, with our specific truck, two axles will...