The Keystruckers

A little over 3 years ago I answered an ad on Craigslist.  It said that I could buy a truck through them for nothing down and own it in three years.  Well, the three years passed and I now own the truck.  I had thought early on that once I got my truck paid for I’d be leaving J.B. for greener pastures.  I was gonna go and get my own authority, buy a trailer and start making some real money.

Then I started looking more closely into what is involved in that.  I would need to do a little extra work to make this dream come true.  These are the steps I’d need to take.

First, I’d have to get my own authority, my own base plate and insurance.  Authority: $500.00, base plate $1`,600.00 insurance $500.00 monthly.  Add to that a fuel tax reporting service, a 2290, a load matching service or load board, and operating expenses for a month and that would probably wind up to be around $15,000.00.  Then I ‘d have to have a factoring service to get my money within a certain time frame to keep the cash flow coming in.  In addition to that I’d have to pay full price for diesel fuel and tires.  This dream is sounding like a nightmare.

So, here I am with a paid off truck and still at J.B.  Why am I still here?  Well, lets see why.

First and foremost it’s the people over here.  I have never had the pleasure of working with such a stand-up company before.  I have the greatest support system behind me at all times.  To top it off, everyone I have gotten to know here on a personal level are some of the best folks I’ve ever met.

Now, the business reasons.  My fixed costs over here are just for my insurance (including health, bobtail, cargo), monthly 2290 deduction, and eobr monitoring fees.  These deductions run $175.00 a week.

Now my variable expenses.  I pay $.01 cents per mile into a fuel tax escrow and get the difference back every 90 days.  They keep track of the miles per state and I don’t have to worry about it. 

My cost for diesel fuel is less than it would be with just about any other company.  I get an average of $.35 cents per gallon off of the pump price because of the size of the company and the volume of fuel they purchase each month.  This puts an average of $400.00 back in my pocket each month if I run through 1,200 gallons.

Parts and tires.  I get a huge discount on tires and service.  I usually get a 25% discount off of tires.  This puts about $350.00 back in my pocket annually.

On top of all that, I don’t have to call any brokers or set any pickup or delivery schedules.  I just pick out a load off of the company load board instead of searching for one or waiting to be dispatched by a load planner.  They do take a percentage of load but for all they do, it’s more than worth it.  I don’t wait for my money because when I put in the unloaded call, the money is credited to my account and they don’t wait until I trans-flo the paperwork to them.  I’m never asked to do anything illegal.  The loads that are on the board are set for achievable travel times.  I hardly ever get pulled into a weigh station.  The company has a great safety rating.  When they see the JB Hunt sign on my truck, they know they would be hard pressed to find any violations with me or my equipment so they just don’t bother to do an inspection.

So, in summary it’s good folks, discount fuel, good freight, low insurance rates, and a whole team of experts working for me and my truck to keep it rolling and profitable.  I have a bottom line to be proud too. I can’t see myself working for any other company because the advantages of being leased to JB HUNT far outweigh any other company I have been with.  If you have any questions on how to get leased on to JB you can e-mail me at keystrucker@yahoo.com and I’ll give you the heads up.

Stay safe and profitable,

Jim

AKA Bobby Boofay