UShip... how many of you guys have considered moonlighting?

[drewactual]

seems within reason to pick up a few side jobs, no? I know a retired feller that makes a decent wage delivering campers from Ohio (distributor) to the Southeast... like, to the tune of $5k a month after expenses.. not bad, huh?

What I was thinking would be a good gig, is catching the guys who actually ship for a living, and shortening their hauls when they are to deliver somewhat close to my locale..

example: hauler is on interstate xx, and has 200miles/four hours haul to deliver to recipient.. I'd drive up and pick up his cargo for a cut of his delivery fee- say, $300 for a few hours work.. after expenses, clearing $200 or so.. not bad for doing something other than sitting around watching sports on a Saturday or week day eve, huh?

thoughts?

[Clayton1985]

Cant say I havent thought about it. Wouldnt work for me as Im on call 24/7 and live aways away from all the traffic areas.

[drewactual]

yeah, I'd have to dodge the on call schedule too, but I've got a crew I would have cover me in that case.. I don't stay on call like I used to do...

the notion I have is basically to allow the contracted shipper, who usually has as many as four different shipments on his rig, to keep on trucking w/o losing time or expense of traversing the back roads.. I dunno.. Maybe it would work, maybe it wouldn't..

[wilsonw2]

Worth it if you can ya write off your wear and tear. Not sure it would be the cost of maintenance in the long run. As a self paid hobby yes. As a side job I don't think there is enough money after all the expenses to make a profit...


Sent from AutoGuide.com App

[rt_hawk]

Thought about doing that when I take off a couple weeks a year to do something with the family. Pick up a load that would pay for fuel at least and in a area we wanted to go that year....like out west or Florida or??? We usually drive anyway so I figure it's a good way to make some extra cash, be sure you have liability and some sort of loss protection insurance, it isn't cheap but I have to have it for the farm, it's a blanket policy, covers everything but my FFL sales...I'm guessing you could find a policy that would fit for occasional hauling that won't break the bank...

[drewactual]

a bond can be had for fairly cheap... if you did one a month or so, you could likely justify a million cap for the year- the trick would be trying to avoid a CDL..

I drove from coastal north carolina to upper peninsula michigan over the holidays basically unloaded.. if i had pulled an enclosed tandem axle trailer behind me, I could have no doubt recouped the fuel expense of driving up there and back empty..

the wear is marginal, when you think about it. PM is PM.. all you gotta do when using these rigs as intended is increase the frequency of maintenance.. not really a problem, by my way of thinkin'..

[rt_hawk]

Yeah I am not worried about the wear at all, I mean I already would be driving there, so like you said, do things a little early and call them good. My truck already is used for work so nothing really changes, except I actually leave the 10 mile radius around my property for a change...I will talk to my insurance lady and see what she says, it probably wouldn't be bad at all, plus I wouldn't want to get screwed paying for a load if it was stolen. I wonder how newbies do on uship getting loads? I'm guessing if you seem honest and knowledgable the reason people are on uship is to pay someone else to deal with it, so I don't think many people would care unless its a very expensive load...I might do this, but then again it's another thing to do, and I already have one ticket for hauling personal property without a CDL (guy was a jerk, hauling a trailer from tx to WI that i bought) would hate to get busted actually doing something illegal..

[drewactual]

that was a jerk move by the dude if it was personal property.. when times are tight, though, i've noticed rules that aren't usually enforced all the sudden become common, and rules that leave room for interpretation all of the sudden start leaning toward 'fine the guy'!!!

A CDL may be required, when it's all said and done..


shipping person to person is tricky, anyway.. 99% of the time, I would guess, it's straight up.. it's that lack of 100% that would concern me.. I used to own a cigar shop in greenville nc.. a customer of mine was a student at ECU, though he was a retired Marine.. He was from south florida.. on a trip home he was asked if he wanted to make a grand hauling tires back to Wilson, nc, where he would link up with a dude from NYC and pass them off.. he did this several times- even making trips down there specifically for that purpose instead of just for covering expenses (gas was around $1/gallon at the time- time he owned in abundance)..

he went to drop the tires in wilson one sunday eve, but instead linked up with a group of DEA agents.. whoops.. they completed the 'transaction', and picked him up heading back toward g-ville..

turns out those tires had more than air in them.. and it also turns out, this dude should have been suspicious of such an arrangement in the first place.. in actuality, he was suspicious, but he just couldn't pass up the $$$.. it cost him a lot more than he made, I assure you.. let's just say he has even MORE free time, now..

[fordpwrstroke7]

There's no one that can make any decent money "moonlighting" as a commercial hauler, if you're doing it legally. Talk to StarDriver on here.

[drewactual]

Originally Posted by fordpwrstroke7

There's no one that can make any decent money "moonlighting" as a commercial hauler, if you're doing it legally. Talk to StarDriver on here.

is this due to overhead alone? or is the market too competitive?