#682 

My son gave me a Super Trucker Dan travel mug for my birthday. I hope that it puts a few pennies in your pocket.

I left mercer in april. Was there for 19 years.seen the way freight was going and found a local job home every night. Been driving for 40 years. What a change being home every night. PS when katie left it wasn't the same.

That scale is there and open because Tyson Foods ( formally I.B.P.) meat packing plant is in Storm Lake, IA. That scale has been there for years.

Bailey is always so happy because she never worries about money. 💰

Hang in there Dan. Too many drivers (from COVID surge) these days and readjustment in what we consume and produce going forward. Shippers think they are in the drivers seat, that too will change with time. Change is inevitable and those that adapt will survive. Keep on trucking and thanks for taking time out to let us ride along.

Sorry times are so bad for truckers. World in a mess. Bailey loves life with you. Stay safe. Prayers for better world.

Staying in business keeps you informed about everything in the business world. Your skills experience help you during the good and bad times. Your giving everyone a first hand view of the state of our economy . Thank you for posting all the interesting informative videos on your RU-vid channel.

Thanks for video and comments. Stay safe.

Park it. I did…. Go hang with family. Sell the other 2 trucks for now. Dont work for free… I parked truck in 1978 and worked in a Cummins shop. Go love your bride. If it dont pay?go home Dan. Its not worth it. We parked my flatbed and they called 1 month later. I ran covered wagon 45 years

All the comments wow. Quit, stay, park, run local lol. People dont get it. Not every one wants to work for another. He's an O/O. Its his own business. I don't think Dan's complaining as much as he's just trying to educate those who haven't ridden the tides of this industry. Just thinking and saying while loading in Minnesota.

Been in the owner operator business 37 years, working when loads are not plentiful and rates are lower than what you like is just part of it keep some cash flow moving

Hi Dan, Teresa, Bailey, Coordinator and Viewers, Working in Mfg. right know we are saying the same thing you are saying, but "THEY" call it NWA (no work available) and we are going day by day whether there will be enough products for us to work on. Especially since the recondition/service work we do are for consumer goods in home, construction, Lawn & Garden and hand/power tools. I do not care what the MS news is saying, but the "R" word is here now and WE know it when it comes to shelling out our greenbacks!

There is a set of pads under that concrete there on 71, never have to stop on it, latest and the greatest

Own my own truck for 35 years the last 5 with mercer in May park it against the barn and took a job driving walmart benefits set schedule no worries and home regularly

Know exactly where Storm Lake IA is.... I deliver John Deere Lawn tractors and Gators to a John Deere dealer there. Right beside Walmart

I can’t believe that scale was open. I passed that 100x

I got out last year. You know its getting real when you’re going to Florida to make money!!! I’m rooting for ya!!

DAN I SINCE THE WORRY IN YOUR VOICE. IM PRAYING FOR YOU, YOUR BUSINESS, THE FREIGHT IN THIS COUNTRY, MOST OF ALL I PRAY THE CONCERN YOU FEEL WILL BE GONE LET OUR LORD WORRY ABOUT YOUR FRIEGHT. YOU WILL NOTICE THE FREIGHT WORKING OUT IN YOUR FAVOR.... GOD BLESS ALL THAT YOU PLACE YOUR HANDS TO. GOD BLESS

We’ve all seen these dips in traffic, it all goes on a cycle, it’ll come back again.

The life of an owner operator...you've gotta operate to own !

Stay safe my friend. God bless you. 🙏🙏🙏🇺🇲🇺🇲

when i was in Miami i'm glad i wasnt near the main drag, i hear its like LA, never sleeps and its loud. got there a day early and slept across the street from the delivery point. then i had to cross aligator alley, didnt see any gators on the road, then back up north to pick up tropicana orange juice fro some place in NJ. hated NJ to close to NYC.

Passed you on 64 in Indiana last week. Hollered at you on 19 but no luck. Safe travels sir!

Have a safe trip Dan!

Theres a big beef plant in Storm lake, that scale is there I believe for that. I ran for PRIME and would grab my load at 2 or 3 am so that scale would be closed.

Freight comes and it goes. But you just have to stick it out, it will get better.

Hang in there Dan safe travels 🙏

Always enjoy your content. Thanks, Brother.

keep on truckin!

Hey Dan. Early Iowa is on old Hwy20 west of my hometown of Waterloo Iowa. Another 100 devree day here in Bama.

Thx for the vid.

it will be 5 years to six years in your country. try outback where roo-s run. road train for mines. the start rate will bring you. fly in flyout

another great video dan/bailey from across the pond now im fully retired after 30 years driving uk -spain was my last job now my son as taken over the jobs i did

I Don’t think your Sidekick, Bailey, would be too Happy if you Parked the Truck. She Likes Running the Miles just like you and your Viewers like you to do. Thanks!👍🙏

Keep it working Pal ,👍🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

When you left Storm Lake on C49 and if you drove it over to Hiway 4 then to Sparkey's you were 1 mile north of where I used to live before I retired farming. You could have gone and hung out with Schmidt

Staying at home is not an option , you'll probably get bored within the first week and the bills will start piling up. Two main reasons to keep you on the road. You said it perfectly, we need to get the most of what the market offers. 👍

Best Wishes!

I was in the USN with a shipmate from Stormlake Iowa. He was from a farming family. He got out in 1968. Never heard from him again.

You the Man Dan kind regards

Always positive. Thanks for the video.

Thanks for the great video and ride and hopefully things will turn to the good and stay safe and God bless from GA

Keep on trucking

Nice to see you in my area of the state. Stay safe.

As an afterthought, the adage of take care of your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves keeps you going while others sit idle.

Thanks Dan , I know that not having a reload can make a guy anxious, but you keep things together quite well

Crossed paths with you in Dubuque yesterday. Safe travels.

Thank you for another interesting and thought-provoking video. I hope things improve soon.

Welcome back my friend 😺 and you guys have a great day

Good luck Dan,

A lot of drivers hauling out of Tyson's would get loaded and and couldn't weigh your wagon. Lol. That scale would be open at 2 a.m in the morning . Lol

Nice use of the adjustable hammer!

2:08 Man that's something you never think about...how many bugs you collect on the radiator grill/screen...lol On your way to Florida be careful going through Georgia (where I live), DOT have been doing a lot of checks/inspections over the last couple of weeks. I've seen trucks pulled over quite a bit. Be careful out there in that heat, it's the dog days of summer right now. 😎👍

keep your chin up Dan really enjoy your vlogs regards John

HELLO DAN BEAUTIFUL RIDE TO DAY BE BLESSED STAY SAFE !! 🐾🐾🐾❤️🐾🐾🐾🙏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

I traveled from West Ark to S.E. Kentucky today, I saw quite a few flat bed loads on the road.

Freight rates really suck coming out of Florida so good luck Dan.

I love your truck

Always learn something from your videos. Saw a Mercer rig on I-5 in Washington state. Thought about you "guys". Keep the faith Dan.Bailey looks great!!

Hi. As always a great vid. It was nice to see what we in the U.K. call a football pitch at 8-47 Stay safe

Thanks for the video Dan Chin up the trucking industry is a good indicator of the economy. Your professional attitude will see you through Stay safe 🌵🇬🇧👍

Lack of water in the Panama Canal will probably impact fright tonnage again....

Good morning Dan. I love all your videos. Good luck coming to miami. Not that many loads coming out. It's not getting better. Best wishes.

I FOLLOW CURT TOO HE IS A GREAT PERSON GOOD MAN !!

Saw the CRST truck reminds me of Cindy 💡

Thanks Dam

Dan Dan the professional flat deck man. By the look of things it’s getting pretty ruff out there. I used to hate being laid over. No money coming in if the wheels are not getting paid to turn. Same bills come in every month so parking it as you said is not an option. Just cause the going gets tuff well as they say the tuff get going and Dan you are one of those tuff ones. Keep rolling is what I always wanted to do. Well Dan I hope you fair well in these tuff times. Love every video you put out. Have a great and a safe day. Happy trails and happy motoring.

Great video Dan. It’s really rough out here right now. I believe if we can make it through the next few months. We will be fine. Good luck and stay safe out here.

About parking the truck---Time is Money and Money Is Time 🤑

Elkhorn. ..Wisconsin. my home state. . Things are tough right now but thankfully I've a 2017 that I bought new but no payments for the last 2 years , so fixed overheads are low.... doing Midwest van regional we have seen s downturn in rates and volumes even on contract freight.. My strategy has always been concentrate on what we can control as supply and demand will determine the rates.. fuel has always been my main focus and in times like these , slowing down, not rushing all helps and off course buying fuel smartly not just when you need it... The market will correct itself and a lot of these people who jumped into trucking and bought overpriced trucks and trailers in the last 3 yrs will dissappear as they don't know how to run an efficient business as they came in at inflated rates.. it's all cyclical and the good times will return again. It's survival of the fittest and the strong will survive. You just need to do everything in your control to make that happen

Hey Dan, yea you need to buy a Fox Tail, remember them? for those long reach to get places..

Iowa…beautiful state and video

Great video Dan I wouldn’t throw in the towel yet. Glad you found a load. Just watch out for tropical storm. Named Idalia I hope you can get in and out of Florida safely.😀

Friday 25 august headed too Orlando. Maybe I’ll see u running good luck to u.

A truck stop named "Sparkies" burned down... what are the odds? 🤔

Hey Dan, just saw you on 95. Around MM 29 I was headed North, finally saw you in the wild. Not sure if your camera was on but I have a medical road show truck, blue people and white. Safe travels wherever you’re headed buddy. Always a pleasure to watch your videos & seeing your truck in person was a awesome sight to see.

Saw you yesterday going through Waterloo loaded with dispatcher brains. Hope things get better but.......

I think I would diversify if I didn't have any other options. Mercer got them vans you know.

You have to do, whatever you have to do to keep your rice bowl full.

Just to park the truck isn't an option that's not the trucker way the world moves when those truckers move. How do you think the United States got started or was built it was built by truckers from the 30's until now and I appreciate what Dan does for the United States when he drives his truck and thank you to supertruckerdan for what he does 👍👍👍👍

I'm hoping for a reload myself I'm down in Baytown tx I need to be home this weekend so I'm sure I'll be deadheading home just north of Louisville in Indiana

Not gonna lie, I've become less picky as of late as well. I'm fortunate in that I'm power only leased on and paid my truck off in July, but I still have my mortgage and living expenses.

It is always the same, some booming years and then a big slowdown, keep it out of the red Dan good luck.

Farm crops look good and prices are reasonable so that should hold up that part of the economy.

Hey Dan try (Snap rings) instead of clip rings .thing You will find snap rings wont pop off , Safe driving .

I used to travel that area a lot. Most of US 20 west of Ft. Dodge was 2-lanes then. It’s not an area you want to be in when the storms are brewing. They’re angrier out there and hit a little harder. Had to take refuge in a car wash in Pocahontas once. Safe travels.

Mercer needs to hire a better Coordinator!.......you have not had a good one since Katie left!

Stay moving, work with what you have, can’t go wrong, sitting and waiting was never an option for anything with wheels, you’re connected to what works, no matter what, always was, always will be, it’s that simple 😮

Warehouse workers are in demand. Some are high paying.

Thank you for sharing your point of view about the economy. Who knows? I once had a landscaping business while also teaching Horticulture. I had wholesalers phoning me to buy some equipment at a discount. I almost jumped at the "opportunity". However, I hung in there picking up contracts. I was promoted to a dept. head. I am now on a pension. I still wonder what would have happened if I had gone into landscaping full time. I picked up side contracts. Who knows? . . . but the recession did come.

Dan, several years ago before I became a freight hauler, I worked for a guy that had several flatbeds and when the truckload freight got slow we would look for partials and did pretty good. Does Mercer do that or allow you to? We had tons of flatbed freight going to some customers in the LA area but nobody had freight coming out unless you had a reefer. We did good with partials there and up east too. Being that there has been a major LTL company shutdown recently there is a lot of LTL available freight. Some of it will go on a flatbed. The company I recently retired from is freight heavy now, cant keep up from what I hear. I never pulled a flatbed load out of south florida except once and it ended up in LA. Im like you, I didnt care for south Florida loads because its a long deadhead out of there to reload. Hang in there, hopefully this crap gets better. Be safe

US 20 is a good road all the way over to Rockford IL

The next time you're home, work on getting the two other trucks running. Then sell them. That's money that could be used for an emergency fund or pay off some bills. None of us are getting any younger

Hang in there Dan. I like your positive attitude, you always make the best out of situation. This is how it should be done, not whining, cursing and griping like some of these yahoos

Only the strongest will survive this!

Brother Dan, how about making runs up to Canada now like a trucker Rego she’s doing

I’ve seen them weighing and inspecting trucks at the scale at Early.

O-Pa-Lock-Ah ?FL not to be confused with O-Pe-Lik-Ah Alabama...LOL You are in Unincorporated Miami-Dade county... Se Hablamos Espanol! 😆

When freight is slow you need to stop running so far empty and start taking the short loads, but getting more loaded miles.

Being that you load Deere stuff out of moline, kind of surprised you don’t load out of some other Deere facilities, Waterloo, but would be tough with a flatbed there. But Dubuque has industrial equipment that you can load on a flatbed, usually get some decent weight out of there.