SoCal vs NorCal

Personally I would take a drive around Sandy Eggo way before a drive in the Bay area.

 

Money wise you'll probably get good rates out of either. Me personally I'd base out of Stockton/Sac area and avoid the traffic and tolls.

 

The chances of you dying in a massive earthquake are better in San Francisco.

Actually, where you live with one truck is not a big deal. Are you planning on just staying local? Where is the freight you want to haul at? That should be your deciding factor. If not then the quality of life issues should be first on your list. Housing is cheaper in San Diego but fires are a real problem.

If you only have one truck and want to settle down in an area where you will make the most money and have the most home time and enjoy life to the fullest, Louisville, KY.

 

Congrats on your new rig.
Unless you're going to work locally in either of these areas and have a direct customer base you may want to reevaluate where you want to base your business out of. San Diego is the lessor of the two evils but IMHO if your not already CA based and don't have family or other commitments that would require you to be based there it makes no sense to double your cost of operating and living by basing in CA. There are cheaper areas in CA to base out of but still wouldn't make sense in comparison to other states if you plan to work long haul.
We are based in San Francisco and despite the fact we are extremely versatile servicing multiple types of trucking and other services, have a large direct customer base and are armed with the knowledge and experience gained over a very long time it's still a nightmare operating out of this area.
Our operating cost would half just by moving to the Central Valley and probably almost half that again by moving out of CA altogether which I would do in a heartbeat if it wasn't for my wife being from the Bay Area and having a lot of family here.
What type of work do you plan on doing, eg flatbed or reefer?

 

Well spotted, if your working off of loadboards the extra insurance, purchase price and running costs of reefer over dry van are clearly not worth it. However if you have a direct shipper or broker that keeps you profitable and has consistent work for a reefer then it's wort it.
On another note heres a link to a thread worth reading as it has references to areas vs cost of living.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...r/251194-i-see-why-trucking-going-way-15.html

 

Why not central california?

 

What advantage would it offer?