- Joined
- Mar 10, 2025
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 0
No sir lol, and im not a bot
transportation advice
- Thread starter Dhruv Patel
- Start date
Help Support Arborist Forum:
I see.
VirginiaIron
ArboristSite Operative
I think his post is fair in the sense he doesn’t know much about the industry. So, let’s help him out with things to consider.
I see the industry as necessary and a way to make a good living if I’m smart while I have fun entertaining myself.
Some things to consider, IMO:
1: Load/ Timber?
2: Who is selling/ buying for how much?
3: Cost of CDL, Truck, Insurance, Taxes, fuel consumption vs. Distance?
4: Logging locations: Will I damage my truck?
5: Maintenance and Repairs.
6: Time on the road? I like to drive and see the different scenery.
7: What do you consider a reasonable income after all these things are considered.
My first log truck, 1942 Federal 6x6, with full air, 5 spd, and 855 cu in flathead Hercules motor.
This was summer of '71. No CDLs back then. I was 18, had just graduated high school that spring.
Back-in-the-day
View attachment 1741973564724.jpeg
View attachment 1741973468611.jpeg
This was summer of '71. No CDLs back then. I was 18, had just graduated high school that spring.
Back-in-the-day
View attachment 1741973564724.jpeg
View attachment 1741973468611.jpeg
What did it take to pull that out of the mud?My first log truck, 1942 Federal 6x6, with full air, 5 spd, and 855 cu in flathead Hercules motor.
This was summer of '71. No CDLs back then. I was 18, had just graduated high school that spring.
Back-in-the-day
View attachment 1249779
View attachment 1249778
Actually only got stuck once. Delivering a load to an old homesteader (13 kids!) in Soldotna, got a little bit too close to the left edge the driveway, and down she went. Once the left front wheel went in it just sucked the whole truck over. By the time she stopped moving she was listing HARD to port. Come to find out that road never had a gravel base under it. Like a lot of early access roads it was cribbed with small logs laid cross-ways, and then dirt on top of that. And it does makes a half-decent road, BUT if you let that front tire get too close to the edge of the log crib a heavy vehicle will auger in. Lesson learned the hard way
Can one of you regulars please show me how to post pictures so they show up in the post as an actual picture rather than a link? I've been using copy-paste, and that just puts a link there instead of the actual picture. I like the way Mark Heimannm posts full-size pictures, good close ups, and lots of them. Way more fun that way
What are you posting from? From on my Mac, I click on the attach files box in green down below here and follow the prompts. See what happens .Can one of you regulars please show me how to post pictures so they show up in the post as an actual picture rather than a link? I've been using copy-paste, and that just puts a link there instead of the actual picture. I like the way Mark Heimannm posts full-size pictures, good close ups, and lots of them. Way more fun that way
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2025
- Messages
- 12
- Reaction score
- 0
Ok gotcha, I plan on opening a business like this partially but as of now, I'm trying to get a sponsorship from a company and start from that.
I'm on a desk top PC running Windows. I'll ty it right now
So looks like the same thing. I see two attachments there, but HOW to post so the actual picture is in the body of the post? Copy/Paste works good in my e-mail, but when I do that here on the forum it only puts a link
The images are too large. You'll need to make them no larger than 20480 KB.
"Sponsor" as in buy your truck?
You probably need to start with a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) - Class A.
You may find a trucking company who will hire you as an employee and help cover the cost of that if you are willing to commit to them for a period of time. That is honestly probably the best place to start. It doesn't sound like you know much about the industry. Learn under somebody else's umbrella.
If you have a CDL and some experience, you can might find a logging company who would help you buy a truck if you'll haul logs to the mill for them.
I'll try that next time, thank you
just know, theres a LOT of expense with operating commercial trucks, everything has to be 100% or DOT can shut you down, and you're looking at about $70-90K per year operating expense between fuel, insurance, tires, taxes, etc, don't forget big trucks can have a heavy use road tax (anything over 55K pounds I believe, atleast where I live) so theres that ontop of everything
most companies won't even contemplate hiring you being 19, CDL or not, no nice way to say it but you're a liability and insurance will be over $30,000 per year just to add you to drive their trucks, nothing personal, been running my company since I was 14, but theres not a chance in hell that I would hire a 19 year old to drive any of my trucks
if you know you can make $150-200K per year with that truck, then buy one, otherwise don't, its not worth it, I've learned the hard way that equipment NEVER makes as much money as you want it to, and when it breaks, its BAD, I lost $70,000 in work over a 10 cent O ring a few years ago
most companies won't even contemplate hiring you being 19, CDL or not, no nice way to say it but you're a liability and insurance will be over $30,000 per year just to add you to drive their trucks, nothing personal, been running my company since I was 14, but theres not a chance in hell that I would hire a 19 year old to drive any of my trucks
if you know you can make $150-200K per year with that truck, then buy one, otherwise don't, its not worth it, I've learned the hard way that equipment NEVER makes as much money as you want it to, and when it breaks, its BAD, I lost $70,000 in work over a 10 cent O ring a few years ago
100 % correct on all counts. Owner-Operator used to pay pretty decent 20-30 years ago. A lot tougher now. Long-haul folks have to spend a LOT of time on the road to make that truck payment.
If you can find a truck driving school that is not a rip off you would be way ahead to see if you can pass the training just to find out if you are material for that kind of job.
its VERY easy to get a CDL, if you can back a trailer and remember stuff from a book long enough to pass a 3 week school, finding out is just something that comes with really driving and time behind the wheel, I just started driving on my own and I found out, driving a semi vs a car is so different that you cannot even in the slightest compare the 2
driving anything bigger than a pickup, people try to kill themselves with your truck, they don't know it but they are playing with fire and its 100% on you to drive in a manner that prevents them from doing that, along with managing a 40-100ft long truck in traffic, I drive like a complete ******* for a reason, I don't drive like people want me to, but in such a way that it makes people so scared to be around me that they don't hang out next to me, I'm a "bad" driver on purpose, refusing to signal my lane changes is one, people will try to stop you from changing lanes, the instant you announce that you plan to get over a lane, someone ALWAYS flies up next to you and stops you, so I quit signaling till the last second
also, hauling timber will have you in nasty places constantly, I take my truck into places that most people I know won't even attempt to take a car or pickup, its just part of the job, narrow twisty mountain roads, idiot cars that brake check you, cut you off, try to push you out of your lane, its crazy
just from the last 2 months of driving maybe once a week I've had multiple incidents that almost resulted in an accident, one was a subaru cutting me off and slamming on their brakes, sucked the seat of my truck so far up my ass you couldn't identify it anymore, almost killed them
put my truck in the ditch 2 weeks ago because a schoolbus came around a corner 100% in my lane (2 lane road), had to ditch the truck to not kill anyone
had a semi stop me from merging onto the highway one night, came to a complete stop as I was trying to filter in behind him, stopping traffic
last week I had a pickup speed up to get next to me when I tried to merge to the right lane to make an exit 2 miles ahead, he was yelling and flipping me off, best part is that he was so far back I couldn't see him in my mirrors till I put my blinker on, I pushed him anyways, he took an unscheduled exit and was extremely mad, not my problem, I was half way into that lane when he flew up next to me, too bad for him, I'm in a bigger truck, making a move that was planned and announced ahead of time and he thought he could just police me, he ended up being forcefully pushed off an exit ramp while flipping me off
I've also had a few times where people don't want to get stuck behind me, so they fly out infront of me giving me almost no stopping room, I've come around blind turns and theres people sitting there on their phones, not a problem in a car, but in a 40,000 pound truck that takes me a LONG time to stop, that's a problem
if you want to get into truck driving, get on with a shorthaul company that hauls from your town to the next or something, specifically pulling 28ft singles or a straight box truck, then after a few months go onto bigger stuff or running your own truck, but I can say from my experience, you do NOT want to get in a truck with no experience and try to drive it on public roads, and I started off with more experience in these than OP by FAR, and it still surprised me how hard it was
the amount of people I've almost killed in the last 3-4 months of driving my little 26K dump truck is staggering, sure some may be my fault as a "new" driver, but, MOST of it is morons in 4 wheelers that have never been in a big truck and they either freak out, or assume they drive like a car, and trust me, the car people WILL cuss you out, flip you off, brake check you, call the number on the side of the truck, etc, every friggen time you take your truck out, its just part of being "the ******* in the big truck that we hate but we can't live without"
driving anything bigger than a pickup, people try to kill themselves with your truck, they don't know it but they are playing with fire and its 100% on you to drive in a manner that prevents them from doing that, along with managing a 40-100ft long truck in traffic, I drive like a complete ******* for a reason, I don't drive like people want me to, but in such a way that it makes people so scared to be around me that they don't hang out next to me, I'm a "bad" driver on purpose, refusing to signal my lane changes is one, people will try to stop you from changing lanes, the instant you announce that you plan to get over a lane, someone ALWAYS flies up next to you and stops you, so I quit signaling till the last second
also, hauling timber will have you in nasty places constantly, I take my truck into places that most people I know won't even attempt to take a car or pickup, its just part of the job, narrow twisty mountain roads, idiot cars that brake check you, cut you off, try to push you out of your lane, its crazy
just from the last 2 months of driving maybe once a week I've had multiple incidents that almost resulted in an accident, one was a subaru cutting me off and slamming on their brakes, sucked the seat of my truck so far up my ass you couldn't identify it anymore, almost killed them
put my truck in the ditch 2 weeks ago because a schoolbus came around a corner 100% in my lane (2 lane road), had to ditch the truck to not kill anyone
had a semi stop me from merging onto the highway one night, came to a complete stop as I was trying to filter in behind him, stopping traffic
last week I had a pickup speed up to get next to me when I tried to merge to the right lane to make an exit 2 miles ahead, he was yelling and flipping me off, best part is that he was so far back I couldn't see him in my mirrors till I put my blinker on, I pushed him anyways, he took an unscheduled exit and was extremely mad, not my problem, I was half way into that lane when he flew up next to me, too bad for him, I'm in a bigger truck, making a move that was planned and announced ahead of time and he thought he could just police me, he ended up being forcefully pushed off an exit ramp while flipping me off
I've also had a few times where people don't want to get stuck behind me, so they fly out infront of me giving me almost no stopping room, I've come around blind turns and theres people sitting there on their phones, not a problem in a car, but in a 40,000 pound truck that takes me a LONG time to stop, that's a problem
if you want to get into truck driving, get on with a shorthaul company that hauls from your town to the next or something, specifically pulling 28ft singles or a straight box truck, then after a few months go onto bigger stuff or running your own truck, but I can say from my experience, you do NOT want to get in a truck with no experience and try to drive it on public roads, and I started off with more experience in these than OP by FAR, and it still surprised me how hard it was
the amount of people I've almost killed in the last 3-4 months of driving my little 26K dump truck is staggering, sure some may be my fault as a "new" driver, but, MOST of it is morons in 4 wheelers that have never been in a big truck and they either freak out, or assume they drive like a car, and trust me, the car people WILL cuss you out, flip you off, brake check you, call the number on the side of the truck, etc, every friggen time you take your truck out, its just part of being "the ******* in the big truck that we hate but we can't live without"
Similar threads
