1 Year Anniversary Celebration!

Our first year as a full fledged independent carrier is amongst us y'all!!! Doesn't even seem possible that we have come full circle, and for the most part, have come out relatively unscathed!!! Albeit we finished our first year as a company with a totally unexpected blessing of pregnancy, a major loss in profit due to poor market conditions, and a hell of a lot stronger as a couple than I think either of us expected. All in all I'll say it's a win lol

For those who aren't familiar with the journey we've been on for the last 365 days, I'll give a little recap....

I'm Nicole, nice to meet ya! I'm 4th generation in trucking in my family and a registered nurse by trade who, post 'Rona, found myself completely burnt out, losing myself in a broken healthcare system that honestly drained my cup to the point I was just lost.

Daryl is a truck driver with 15 years of experience under his belt across all fascets of the industry, holds a masters degree in operations managment and has a background in criminal justice and law enforcement. He too was lost in his industry, tired of perpetuating a cycle where drivers are treated like 3rd class citizens in a highly dangerous, overly demanding, little rewarding profession for little money and even less time at home. For being at home was in a sense punishment, ya don't get paid when those wheels aren't rolling.

So for years we had talked about the idea of starting a little company of our own where we could hopefully grow into a small fleet that provides the type of environment that drivers actually deserve to be a part of. One where they are respected, treated with dignity, held to a high standard and treated like the professionals that they are. We made the decision after some serious soul searching to take the leap into the complete unknown. Me stepping out of a high paying, steady career where I was on track to continue to move up the chain to even higher paying positions...Daryl walking away from a stable position in trucking, both of us with health insurance, job security, ya know...All the things that rational adults have and strive for, yet we were absolutely miserable living those lives and it was taking a toll on our family, marriage, sanity, all the things of importance.

So with that fire burning in our bellies we set out to research "how to start your own trucking company" lol I also branched out into homeschooling Drake after witnessing so many red flags in the public schooling system compliments of "remote learning", and that has been an adventure in and of itself!

After several months of planning, we finally did it, we made all the necessary preparations to get the ball rolling, took our life savings and poured it into getting this company up and running! And let me tell you, it has been an uphill struggle since that first day lol I've had to essentially learn how to be a CEO in an industry I'm still learning about. Learn how to negotiate with brokers, navigate the trucking world and all it's intricacy's as an outsider, in a male dominated industry with really only my veteran driver husband, my veteran driver dad, YouTube and a handful of amazing people I've met while in the business as a guide.

And what better way to learn about how to own and run a trucking company than to actually hop in the truck and hit the road and getting first had knowledge and experience? So that is what we have done! Splitting time between homeschooling and running the business side from home during our "school year" and then me taking time out on the truck during times when we take breaks from school, Daryl has been teaching me the ways of the road, showing me the side of trucking I honestly didn't even know existed. In turn, I've taken to blogging about my experiences in all of this, finding a passion in educating the non-trucking people in my circle about the absolutely fascinating and sometime terrifying and tragic world of trucking!

Daryl handles all of the safety and regulatory side of the business, keeping us legal and operational while being our only driver while I handle the customer service, back office and broker negotiations sector of our business. And in this whole thing I think we've learned we work better together than we really ever realized. Personally it's shown us the weaknesses we had in our relationship as spouses, parents and partners, and helped us to reflect, repair and heal those parts of ourselves. Professionally, we've learned that we are much smarter than either of us ever gave the other credit for lol Where he is weak in certain aspects of business I am fiercely strong, in areas where I stumble he handles with grace and ease...Yin and yang, not perfect by any means, but learning to work together like a well oiled machine.

Some people may find our transparency off putting, but frankly I don't give a damn lol This is real life, not sugar coated, and the cost that hundreds of thousands of family run independent carriers and owner operators endure to get the great public all their needs and wishes...So here goes the breakdown of our annual stats to put into perspective what it is like for 1 truck operations like ourselves , the first year in a crashing market...

Total Gross Revenue - $195,649.61 Total Miles Operated - 95,060 Total Fuel Spent - $59,775.47 Gallons Pumped - 17,768.51

After the cost of overhead expenses our net profit is abysmal at best lol We are broke and borrowing from Peter to pay Paul in our account every month in this current market and industry with the rising costs of living, fuel, life expenses, etc.! Like legit, it is not uncommon for a company in this day and market to be 1 major engine failure away from bankruptcy, and living at the poverty level income threshold in a billion dollar a year industry. But honestly, as financially stressful as this has been, we have never been happier. We work on our terms and are building our little empire, hopefully setting the precedent for our children that we can do anything that we put our mind and hearts into. We may fail, but we will never give up. The one thing I've learned in this industry is that the market is ever changing and that pendulum will swing back in our favor as it has since the beginning of trucking. For those of us that can survive in this market, hunkering down, trimming fat and unnecessary expenses where we can, thrive like kings and queens when the pendulum swings the other way. Saving saving saving for the next big swing out of our favor. To be honest, there is not a real "good time" to get into it, just a thorough examination of the size of your cajones and the drive to do better for yourself on your own terms.

Over the last year a few of the trials and tribulations we have come up against and learned from in trucking would include: blown tires. shifting loads while in transit, near miss accidents compliments of inattentive drivers in passenger vehicles, cracked windshields, the true cost of routine miniatous and the importance in educating ourselves in performing our own truck maintenance to save thousands of dollars in labor, shady brokers, poor communication skills in an industry that requires impeccable communication skills and follow through, cheap rates, the swinging cost of overly expensive fuel, a huge spike in scammers trying to steal money every time you turn around, little to no safe parking, the absolutely insane amount of price gouging for basic amenities and a whole novel's worth of things that I've posted on our blog and FB page at Virago Transport.

If you've made it this far, thank you! And if you've been along side us this whole time, we thank you for enduring all of our shenanigans, learning curves, snafus', WTF moments and all the amazing sights and experiences in between! We hope to continue to have many more years of life in this industry! A huge thank you to our family and friends who have stuck by us through all of this, continue to love us even though we are probably crazy for doing all of this, and continue to support us with positivity, reality checks, brutal honesty and unconditional love!

Daryl put together this montage of our first year as we went through it, one picture at a time! We hope you've enjoyed a little peek into our lives on this crazy adventure we have jumped into feet first!

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