How to haul rock

hit the internet!

 

Are you wanting to run dump bucket close to home or over the road? It makes a big difference since no one I know runs rock over the road. Also what type of equipment do you own?

 

theres good money in aggregate,dirt and salt. it really helps do be near a quarry.however, it is very seasonal. u can gross $2500-$3000 a week thru the months of April to December. pretty much sucks Jan thru Mari see sleeper trucks picking up loads for OTR, and some of them are farm trucks running local. my tractor-trailer set up weighs 31k empty. if u get a frameless trailer, it will make you 6k pounds lighter. however, i feel frameless trailers tip easier then full framed trailers. contact the quarry directly for work, if u have your own authority, or look for brokers(ugh) in the area. check the classifieds and also the internet. also chk other trucking companies to try and lease in.....try to get 84.5% of the load...makes it easier in the winter i hope this helps, sincerely, RJ

 

Definately contact, and considering contracting with a quarry. Also call CONCRETE and ASPHALT companies.
If you haul for the quarries, make sure you understand how much say you have in charging the customers for the loads.
I am a dispatcher at a Ready Mix plant, that is located in a rock quarry. We have our own trucks, who are company drivers, and the quarry has O/O's. There are also alot of escavating companies hauling rock that I see on a daily basis.
I've seen an O/O take a load (when diesel was almost $5.00 a gallon) almost get to the customer, and then I heard the quarry dispatcher calling him back, cause the customer cancelled. He got back to the quarry, and the customer decided he wanted it, so he had to drive there TWICE. Guess who got to pay for the fuel? Yes the O/O.
You got to be prepared to lose somewhat, at times, and not let that get you down.

 

It will also be helpful to for you to know the various sizes of rock aggregates. Examples: 57's, 68's, 8's 610's etc.
I doubt, that no matter who you work for you will be hauling only rock aggregates, you will also be hauling sand if you want to or not.
The two main types of sand you should be familiar with are River sand (natural sand) and CIS (which means Class I, and is a manufactured sand aka crushed rocks.)
If you want to REALLY open up your options and can get a gig doing that, and have a town close by that you can haul aggregate too, and pick up a load of coal to take back, (that's something our company does).
Then you can make money going in both directions, and have less wasted miles. However if you haul coal, you need to clean as good as possible the bed of your dump bed, because the coal which contains carbon, will contaminate the aggregates you haul, mainly the sand, and the State can and will reject your loads. The state has the final saying in what comes in and out of the concrete and Asphalt plants. Something else you need to be aware of.
The quarries will keep up with the specific gravities and the percent of absorbations etc of the aggregate you haul, and you need to be aware of this, and to some extent what they are, if you haul to concrete or asphalt plants.
If you do haul coal in addition to the aggregates, you need to be familiar with the exhaust systems you are allowed to have on your tractor. The wrong exhaust system can ignite the fine dust of the coal, and that wouldn't be a pretty site.
If I can help you with anything else, or answer anymore questions then please let me know. You can PM me anytime.

 

You can get really rich hauling stone.. You should buy my dump trailer I have over in the for-sale section

 

if you only gross 3000/week you're doing something wrong. i have two trucks one straight truck with a pup amd one bellydump and gross a thousand dollars/day per truck on a ok haul as much as 1500 on a good haul. i would start by talking to the big construction companies as they usually pay the best and are usually looking for trucks

 

It all depends on what you are up against. Around here, you can't compete with the mexicans driving crap trucks. They just underbid the heck outta everybody! So much so infact, I notice that alot of them sleep in their trucks on the job sites at night! No joke.

 

where i am from we don't really have to worry about the mexicans. there are always people that are hungry and will under cut you but we have learned that they don't last long. in iowa you have be very good at planning ahead because the winters are so long you only get about six months work. we have been in the buisness for forty years and it just gets tougher every year. the good thing is ther are always people that need rock it is just about the only trucking buisness that you can work with the private people on a day to day buisness that is the part i like