06/08/2023
Home at last and finally all settled in. We thank all of you so much, honestly our clients are amazing and it feels great to have all the support behind us so that we can do this for all my fellow animal people out there. Breeders, sellers, and buyers. I’ve got to meet a lot of very kind people, and everyone has just been amazing to us when we’ve had bumps in the road. Transporting is hard work. It takes at least a month and a half to prepare for (typically) 1 week out of a month. Coordinating, communicating, forms, spreadsheets, then being on the road for days straight non stop to make our deliveries. Other than the driving itself, I do everything to make these trips happen start to finish. It’s not a job that can be taken lightly either. It’s up to us to get the animals safe and healthy to their destination. We are always really honored when anyone trusts us with their animals and I take a lot of pride in the condition that the animals arrive in. I do my very best.
The June trip was a rocky one. We had family emergencies halfway through that almost made us have to cut it all short but we decided to keep on and do as much as was possible for us. At one point the van began to have issues. It turned out to be something that needed immediately fixed to preserve the engine. We had to take the time to take it to a mechanic and have it fixed. We were extremely fortunate to be sent to a mechanic that took us right in and got us back on the road in under 2 hours. The problem was fixed and we were go to got. It did mean having a repair bill that we had not planned for. Despite everything, we successfully completed 7 out of the 8 days and delivered 50 or so animals in LA, TX, AR, OK, KS, MO, TN, MS, AL, GA, SC, KY, OH, MI, IN, IL, and WI.
Despite the issues everything went really smoothly as far as the route went. I made some changes to my stop scheduling which made it easier for us to keep close to the schedule, even early at times, without it being so tiring and go go go 24/7. And with any set back, we could easily make up time lost and stay close to the schedule. It made the trip easier on us and if not for the issues we faced, it probably would have been a really good trip for us. It is definitely something that I will be implementing from now on.
With that being said, let’s talk about the future of Haulin’ Tails. The only way this can be done is full time. I am fully committed to this work. I want to continue this for as long as I can, but there are things that need to happen to make that possible.
We need a van solely for transport.
The van used currently is also a personal van that is used very frequently when home. Not only is it causing a lot of wear and tear on a relatively “young” van, it’s putting my grandmother at risk of being out of a car eventually (soon at this rate) while still having years left of payments to make on it. The poor van needs to be retired from this job asap. That means, we need to work towards getting a new transport van as soon as we can. Not only would it be good for the current van, it would be great for us and would drastically improve the transport experience for everyone. The only catch is vans aren’t free so we need a game plan that will not only set this goal, but will determine the future of Haulin’ Tail. We hope that in the time we’ve done this that we have proven ourselves enough to earn all the support given thus far and to ask for more in this endeavor.
My plan to make this happen is to increase the prices I hope for the last time. But it’s essential. Truth of the matter is that our routes aren’t making enough to justify the wear and tear to the car or the time invested. We aren’t necessarily looking for a huge profit, but there needs to be enough to justify it all and to make it possible because I could not possibly do it all while working elsewhere. I tried to at the start and it just did not work so I had to make a choice to continue working for a regular and sufficient salary, or pursue this dream of mine. I want to do all I can to keep it alive.
Our goal for each run will be to gross at least $5000. That would allow us to pay for the gas/food expense, put some money aside for a down payment/make payments on a new van, and make enough to support myself and my own animals at home. Generally we gross between 2500-3000 which is barely enough to go on after covering expenses. I am hoping that with a slight increase in our price it will help us reach that number. So when I post my august run, I will need to gross that amount to take it. I will set it for early to mid March, if I have not reached the gross minimum by that time I will reschedule the run for late august/early September. If still not reached at that point, I believe I’ll have no choice but to throw in the towel for the sake of my grandmother’s car lasting. So please do share our transport with your friends!
This is the van that we are going to invest in. We have also been sure to include a feature that could allow us to pull a trailer. So livestock transport could be in our future!
