Columbus OH

I forgot. My company relied on DHL for the bulk of it's freight, and when DHL left....

The owner-operators are the outter branches on the tree. We dry up and fall off first as the company tries to weather the storm. Usually, the company's trucks are financed, and the company drivers are paying loans and other bills for them. I have been out of business for three weeks. This brings us up to date.

My APU is fixed, but because the technician was unable to get an answer from the appropriate party at the warrantee dept., he had to rig it to run continuously to avoid burning out the starter.

The problem was/is that in comfort mode, when it's supposed to keep me from freezing to death, the temperature range is factory-set at three degrees. As a result, it was literally starting every five minutes. All night. I'll undo what the tech did and just extend minimum "off" time. The reason I had that time-out time shortened was the fact that the bastard was stalling after so many hours of being shut down, and I got sick of waiting to try to start it again.

Shoulda did that before my fourth starter burned out.

Anyway, now I'm at the Super-8 because I can't get my truck in the shop until monday (it's friday). The transmission is showing signs of locking me in fifth gear; low range. When it happened before, it ended up sticking me at 15 mph. Ever try driving 15 mph? Through a cloverleaf? Better safe than sorry.

I've been productive with my time. I've checked out every load board I could find, spending about 11 hours on it, with three emails and a couple phone calls for clarifications.

www.truckbuzz.com is free, but amazingly good. Of that site, I called the listed broker about one of the loads, and determined that I could net about 320 bucks doing that one-day run, and I'd be in Savannah, GA for the next load.

www.realtimefreight.com is a paid membership site which I'm strongly considering (30 buck/month). Unlike other boards, which get their loads listed by brokers--who are commissioned middle-men--this site gets it's loads from the shippers themselves. Shippers are members, who pay their own monthly fees. Usually, these are whole networks--so the trucker can sometimes have loads waiting for them as they deliver, and sweet steady runs can be set up.

At first blush, you'd think you'd make more money hauling that freight because the middle man is missing, but I actually suspect that the shippers simply pay less, so the carrier makes about the same money. (Always see it from their side too).

Still, with this site, you make contacts with volume shippers. It's simpler, since the rates are (allegedly) often listed--or at least standardized. There are none of the complications there are with brokers, and most of the routes are well-established.

But it's sort of a three-way tie between this organization and two others:

www.directfreight.com, unlike realtime, was able to let me view their (edited) board and do sample searches. I found 151 loads within 150 miles of Jamestown. My target date would be the 17th, or soon after. I found about eight loads that I'd take a shot at (of course I don't know the rates yet...I just mean the weight, date, distance, and location).

www.expediteloads.com was similar. I found fewer loads there, but it was close. That one costs 39 bucks a month, too. For 50 bucks/month, you can look for expedited freight which pays more, and at which I excel. These are urgent or late loads. Because the higher rate on even one of these in a month would make the extra twenty bucks a joke, so I have to consider it.

The issue there is, I'm a solo driver. Runs longer than...so many miles on these (wink-win-nudge-nudge) are scheduled for two drivers.

www.123loadboard.com is telling me that there are no loads available in Ohio, but I must have done something wrong, and aren't about to bash them (yet).

GLAD I DIDN'T! It was my mistake on the sample search. They only cost twenty bucks a month after a ten-day free trial, and they have most of the loads the other guys do (including some identical ones). For a penny-pincher, this is the best deal. In reality, though, ten bucks a month doesn't matter if you miss just ONE load that you would have wanted.

www.getloaded.com is only 25 bucks a month and is pretty good.

For the moment, I like www.truckbuzz (free) and will sure keep it, regardless of which one or two boards I sign up with after I talk to Jamestown.

Here's the deal with that: Expecially with www.realtimefreight.com, I'll have to use Jamestown's permits and authorities with my subscription, and literally function as their authorized agent. I think if I'm out there finding them loads and business contacts, I should get a bigger piece.

Of course, I'm not dealing from a position of strength, and need them more than they need me. So I'll just throw it at them, and see what I can turn up. Greed isn't a big part of me, and the good will could make me better off down the road.

It's friday. My subconscious will clear it up somewhat before I get down there, and I'll have a definite proposal. Since all the other owner-operators are gone, I might be able to get eighty percent or something. Randy mentioned a potential raise like that when this all started happening, and is "one of us", so I think he might back me up.

After all--I might be saving the company.

At any rate, I need to talk to Wayne, Randy and those guys to find out how much more expedited tends to pay, make sure they know I'm throwing their permits and insurance information around, etc. before I can make decisions on what and what not to pay for in the way of memberships and access.

I have three days nere, waiting. Plenty of time to go over them with a fine-tooth comb and write stuff down for comparisons. I'll do my half-ass mathematical analysis stuff and rank the sites for my needs.

I'll look for redundant loads, highlight unique ones, count them, etc. and by the time I get to Jamestown will have most of my planning done.

Right now, I sort of suspect that the expedited load site, for twenty or thirty bucks more per month, might actually be a good one for me. DHL was all expedited, which is why it paid so well--and I had no problem running it. And www.realtimefreight.com. Those two for eighty/month plus truckbuzz might be best. Each offers unique advantages. But who knows?

Well okbye.