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Once upon a time Joe and Jane Driver purchased a new truck to haul expedited freight. They worked hard, ran well and did everything their accountant told them to do. When they had their income taxes done in year four, they noticed they had to pay in because, as their accountant explained, the...

One of my brother-in-laws, who has no trucking experience, once read this site for an hour or so. He asked me why everyone was looking for or talking about straight truck drivers and wondered if the business is saturated with gays.

How many times have you actually leveled the $250 or $500 charge, and after you do, how many of the charged customers use you again?

That's a cool school bus conversion indeed but there does not seem to be a lot of head room for the snowmobile riders on the lower level.

This whole notion of hate or resentment between van and straight truck operators confuses me. I hope those of you who mention it are joking, and I hope expediter wannabees reading these threads don't get the diea that such a thing exists. On the road, at the truck stops and other places where...

Van operator John Schlimmer wrote an informative piece for Expedite NOW magazine in 2008 entitled My Million Mile Chevy. He tells how he got one million miles out of his Chevy van. The piece is not about a Sprinter van but I have to think that the same principles apply. When someone gets a...

How so? Do tell!

In this case, the dispatcher did not tell me the broker screwed up. She told me there was a problem with the paperwork that could not be resolved until the broker returned to work the next morning. She did not tell us to turn around and drive about an hour to return to the shipper to get...

When we go to a campground with our truck it is to rest and get ready to run again. We'll use the showers, do laundry, use the dump station, refill the water tanks, read, write and get lots of sleep. Depending on the spot and schedule, we might also cook out or take a hike. Friendly chats...

That option makes sense to us. As to the ashes, scattering them in a meaningful place is one idea. Another is having them made into a diamond (see this). Don't know if we'd actually go for it but it is something to think about. More info

Well, Lawrence, it's been over 48 hours and you got only one reply. Maybe you should check the Pappa John's lot to see if they left the show early and broke into the hooch.

The threat of such a suspension would get a carrier's attention to be sure, but I have no way of knowing if our carrier is anywhere close to reaching the threshold that would trigger such an action.

It is a molded plastic chair without arms in the harshly lit waiting room of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office; one of several prison-like chairs that do not have legs but are mounted on frames that are fixed to the floor to keep people from moving or throwing the chairs around. I...

Can you tell us what kind of truck you are talking about and who the manufacturer of your air dryer may be? A quick Google search of "truck air dryer" yields a lot of information about the various kinds of air dryers and how they work.

Cool pics! That scale was probably common in its day but special now because it is unique. Interesting to see how such an object evokes warm feelings where a modern day digital scale is nothing special at all.

It must vary more than you realize depending on the carriers and shippers and freight. It is not unheard of for us to sit 2, 3, even 6 hours at a shipper waiting to pick up. In those cases, the loads are either very complex in themselves or part of a larger, coordinated project. The thought...

You don't have to be an owner-operator to write a book about trucking any more than you need to lose your virginity to write a book about sex. All that is required to write a good book on any topic is the ability to gather good information and present it in a reader-valued way. You don't need to...

With our carrier, D-time is not specifically addressed in the lease agreement that contractors sign. The policy is stated by dispatchers and contractor coordinators when we ask, but it is inconsistent. Sometimes we get paid D-time and sometimes we do not. For example, we got paid for a delay a...

In another thread, the question came up about what the different carriers pay for detention time and under what circumstances. That being a topic in itself, I started a new thread for it here. For expedier wannabees and newbies reading this, detention time (D-time) is not the bad thing you...

I can't speak for our carrier about why they don't pay. That is an inside policy decision that I am not privy to. I can say that our contract does not specifically address detention time. When a circumstance develops where a truck is delayed and a driver might reasonably expect D-time pay, we...