Category: Season 1

Overall, it was a pretty good month. Here is a quick overview, and we talk about all the details. There are a lot of things that happened this month and we talk about all of them in this episode, so give it a listen.

In this episode Craig and I cover two topics. First we talk about the UCR, Unified Carrier Registration, Fee and how it brings out the dark side of the trucking industry and then we talk about a life principle that is super important for anyone who runs their own business.

I thought it would be fun to see how much of a cost difference it would to eat out for a week versus eating store-bought food for a week. I was shocked at the difference. Listen to the episode for the full details, but some of the highlights are below. Leave a comment to let me know what you do to save money on the road.

What to Expect From Episode 22

In this episode Craig and I talk about my little experiment to determine the cost difference between eating at truck stops and restaurants for a week compared to eating food I bought at Walmart and was prepared at home or on the road. The difference was shocking.

A Week of Eating Out On the Road

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I’m pleasantly surprised I made money in August. If you have been listening to the podcast, you will know I am in the Army National Guard and I did my two-week training period during August. I was only on the road for 10 full days and two partial days in August. My total mileage for the month was only 6,645. Even with half the month off I was able to make all the important payments and the company made $595.65. The down side was, as a driver I earned half of what I normally would. Luckily, I get paid from the National Guard to make up for it.

Cost-per-mile is probably one of the most important numbers you need to understand when running a trucking company, but it is probably one of the least understood. Knowing how much it costs you to run each mile increases your likelihood of success. You don’t want just an educated guess, you need to know what the exact number is.

In this episode I talk about a very common topic in the Army, priorities of work. I use the example of setting up a patrol base. When you are out in enemy territory on a foot patrol and are going to stop for a significant period of time, you set up what is called a patrol base. The Army preaches the importance of prioritizing your tasks, so you do the most important things first that are going to have the biggest impact on your ability to survive and complete the mission. Here is a simplified version of what the priorities of work are.

This is probably one of the most important episodes you can listen to. Listening to the episode is just step one, what you really need to do is adopt the habits we talk about in this episode. Owner operators who live by the principles we discuss in this episode are the ones who are significantly more likely to succeed and ultimately THRIVE.

Drum roll please. This is the moment of reckoning. Did I make money or lose money the first three months out on the road? I answer that question during this episode. Okay, spoiler, I made $8,149.17 over that three months and that is on top of what I paid myself as a driver. Not too bad considering a lot of businesses lose money during the first year. Listen to episode 17 for more on how to take care of teh money in your business.

It’s time to hit the road, but before you do, you have to have some kind of Electronic Logging Device (ELD). An ELD can frustrate you and there are a lot of them out there, so you want to make sure you make a good decision when you purchase one. In this episode we are going to cover some of the things you need to think about before purchasing your ELD.

The drug and alcohol regulations for the FMCSA and DOT intimidate a lot of people. The DOT takes them very seriously and non-compliance is one of the areas that will get you in hot water with the government really fast. Following the rules is really not overly difficult or even too expensive, you just have to do it.