Do you run slip seat or pickup dropped trailers? When I worked for a place that did bulk fluids I used my points for load bars/straps when a truck or trailer was missing them.
That could work, assuming they would reimburse you. Companies I have worked for in the past would not, so I never bought equipment for them, that they wouldn't reimburse or com check for.
That's wild. It's been almost a decade since I ran OTR as a company driver, but I feel like they'd have to pay for equipment to secure the load. A lot of places will refuse to load you without a way to secure the load.
Getting reimbursed for this is very common. The issue guys run into is they use points, which has no cash value in the eyes of the government. Therefore it is not a tax deductible business expense. You need that revisit that shows it was paid for in a forum of us dollars. Credit card, cash, check whatever.
I don't think it matters for them as a company driver. Love's and Pilot still give you a receipt, you just rip off the part that says how you paid for it if the company asks for a receipt. Nobody ever asked me why I tore that part off, but if they had, I'd just say it had me personal credit card info on there which they don't need for their system.
Yeah, I agree. I wouldnt use my points for it unless they compensated me. The companies I worked for wouldn't have compensated me for using my points so I just made them pay for it, however they wanted to do that, just not from my own pocket or points banks.
If you have a bunch of points, the easiest and fastest thing to sell is inverters. Those 3000w inverters will fly like hotcakes.
Other than that, stock up on the weird useful tools. Fuse tester, gladhand air pump, broom, cooler , headset, GPS, the seat air blower attachment, idk if loves sells squeegees but I always have a telescoping or long handled one in the truck.
Those inverters they sell at truck stops are trash. They will greatly shorten the life span on any electronics you might have, like your game system TV laptop or cell phone. They don't create clean sine wave power... they create modified sine wave power which is terrible for modern electronics. If all you use it for is some cheap microwave from Walmart it will be fine. If the microwave burns up, who cares, they are cheap enough to just throw away and buy a new one every so often. Cell phones tho, have gotten absolutely ridiculous in price and many newer ones you can't even replace the battery when it dies.
You're just selling them so you probably don't care.. but this was a good chance to try to inform new drivers.
I have seen true sine inverters at truck stops. They have more lower priced modified wave (square wave output) but they are hard on electronics and won’t run appliances properly.
Right they don't sell true sine wave inverters at truck stops. Which is why I said those truck stop inverters are trash.
The best place to get an inverter is at a medical supply business. 2nd best would be an rv dealership. True drive wave inverters are expensive as hell. But buying a new cell phone every 6 months cause the cheap modified one ruined your battery is more expensive.
Never pass up a chance to sling some knowledge lol.
I will say though that I fuck with redneck solar setups more than your aveeraaage bear and while what you're saying is definitely true, it's not quite as dire as it once was. Most modern electronics have much better tolerances and safety circuitry than they used to. Basically, if it has a brick between the plug and the device, it's gonna be fine even with some dirty power. Unless the inverter itself is malfunctioning and surging.
At least, as far as my knowledge and experience goes.
>Unless the inverter itself is malfunctioning and surging.
That's literally a feature with modified sine wave inverters. Look up how they work...
In the spirit of slinging knowledge... not everyone studies calculus in school so you might not know what a sine wave is so I'll try to explain it in real basic terms everyone can picture in their head.
When you plug an appliance into your wall at home (assuming everything is working right) the electricity flows out of that wall socket in a sine wave pattern. We all use the term 110v.. but it's not really 110v. It goes from 90 to 120. In a wave like pattern. It's a sine wave. Picture the waves on a calm day in the middle of the ocean, they gently go up and gently go down over and over and over with relatively equal peaks and valleys. That's how electricity works. A true sine wave inverter mimics this almost perfectly.
On a modified sine wave, instead of a gentle wave pattern, it's a block pattern. It surges to 120 stays there for x period of time then surges down to 90 sitting there for a period of time and repeated the pattern over and over. And while it's all happening in milliseconds, faster than you and I could detect, heck it's even faster than a regular voltmeter can detect and read. But those surges ruin electronics. It will shorten the life of anything you plug into it. For a 50 dollar microwave, who cares. But your cellphone, dewalt or Milwaukee batteries, lap top battery, ps5/xbox/ whatever. Some of those things are expensive enough you don't want their life shortened and it's better to spend the money on a good inverter. Basically it's like many things you buy... spend more now, or spend less more often. In in the camp that is rather spend more now and not have to replace my expensive shit all the time.
Wanted to add in that Ive now sold 4 inverters and gave away 2 to solar users, car guys that want a big stereo, 1 went to a construction dude to not have to use his generator as much.
Put it on Facebook marketplace for 100 bucks with the brand and model number and it will be gone in a day or two. Try to get 200 and you will waste a ton of time dealing with a bunch of nitwits asking a thousand questions they could easily have answered themselves just by googling the model number. Also have it hooked up to your car with a tv or something to prove it works before they leave with it so you don't need to deal with some moron that blows the internal fuse bad mouthing you to your neighbors.
Depends what you got nearby, I got a pretty wide in person social network so I usually just get word out that I got another one and someone gets a hold of me.
But Facebook marketplace would probably work. I hate using it cause everyone wants to waste your time with insulting low offers, or asking a million questions to end up not buying shit.
Hell if you live in a city, could probably sell it to a pawn shop or a small electronics shop for them to resell.
Oh for sure, but truck stop points don't hold any monetary value. So anything about $.01 is still profit.
I mentioned it because I got a local small tech place that I sell unwanted or lightly used tech to and they resell it for a markup.
Loves has a substantial mark up on everything they sell compared to Amazon or anywhere else.
Buying and selling merch, you'd be lucky to get a 2-1 cash out and that's putting hours of your time into it.
Use them for things you'd buy anyway like food and you'll be further along by saving your actual money.
Emergency 5 hour energy and emergency water is the only thing you should ever *need* to buy from a truck stop. Everything else is cheaper and better elsewhere.
I've got a microwavevpopper but passing it and hungry limited time. I'll use my points for it like once every 3 months. I do the driving gloves and they last me 6 months usually.
I just use a pot (pan if I want a very small amount) with a lid and coconut oil (olive oil also works). It works hilariously well if you need the pan heated and oiled to cook anything because you can wipe it down, throw food in, and continue cooking.
As for gloves, yeah actually that's a really good idea. I like to use standard driving gloves and I've found bulk packs online of other glove types work wonders. Chaining though... it's worthwhile to have one Wells Lamont pair just for chaining.
Trucker life hack: put that extra thick 5th wheel grease in an empty vitamin water bottle or any wide mouth bottle, and you now have lot lizard simulator in the palm of your hands
Not really. That's not much more than truck stop mark up on them. So if the truck stop is selling one for 500 that you can use points for....I could find the same one at a normal retailer for 300 to 350.. So the choice is give you, some dude I've never met in my life, 250 plus shipping or buy it from a retailer for 350 free shipping and get a full factory warranty.
But anyway you aren't interested, that's cool. Peace be with you.
I'll take two of the oreo pudding cups, if they don't have that the banana pudding is fine
Oh and two Chester's spicy chicken sandwiches and sweet tea to wash it down, thanks
I've never had any issues, one of the best spicy chicken sandwiches I've ever had and the quality is pretty consistent across all the places I've got it
So.. what you can do is keep an eye out for people looking at CBs or electronics and ask them if theyd be willing to pay you cash for you to use the points to buy it for them..
Had a buddy do this before he went back to local.. he made $600 on approx $700 worth of stuff because he offered slight discounts to get them to bite
buy CBs, Sat radios, other electronics and sell them on (online marketplace of your choice)
Does your company reimburse for wipers, oil, antifreeze, washer fluid, glad hands or anything else purchased for the truck?
If you're a company driver and they don't, it shouldn't be getting replaced.
Wouldn’t work, they buy all that in bulk for a cheaper price. Not a bad idea for someone who can do this
Do you run slip seat or pickup dropped trailers? When I worked for a place that did bulk fluids I used my points for load bars/straps when a truck or trailer was missing them.
Great idea, but I wouldn't pay or use my points for those, make the company buy them.
You'd use the points for load locks then get reimbursed by the company as a way of covering points to $.
That could work, assuming they would reimburse you. Companies I have worked for in the past would not, so I never bought equipment for them, that they wouldn't reimburse or com check for.
That's wild. It's been almost a decade since I ran OTR as a company driver, but I feel like they'd have to pay for equipment to secure the load. A lot of places will refuse to load you without a way to secure the load.
Getting reimbursed for this is very common. The issue guys run into is they use points, which has no cash value in the eyes of the government. Therefore it is not a tax deductible business expense. You need that revisit that shows it was paid for in a forum of us dollars. Credit card, cash, check whatever.
I don't think it matters for them as a company driver. Love's and Pilot still give you a receipt, you just rip off the part that says how you paid for it if the company asks for a receipt. Nobody ever asked me why I tore that part off, but if they had, I'd just say it had me personal credit card info on there which they don't need for their system.
Yeah, I agree. I wouldnt use my points for it unless they compensated me. The companies I worked for wouldn't have compensated me for using my points so I just made them pay for it, however they wanted to do that, just not from my own pocket or points banks.
What about cat scales? You can pay them with points and then get the 13.50 back from your company.
If you have a bunch of points, the easiest and fastest thing to sell is inverters. Those 3000w inverters will fly like hotcakes. Other than that, stock up on the weird useful tools. Fuse tester, gladhand air pump, broom, cooler , headset, GPS, the seat air blower attachment, idk if loves sells squeegees but I always have a telescoping or long handled one in the truck.
Those inverters they sell at truck stops are trash. They will greatly shorten the life span on any electronics you might have, like your game system TV laptop or cell phone. They don't create clean sine wave power... they create modified sine wave power which is terrible for modern electronics. If all you use it for is some cheap microwave from Walmart it will be fine. If the microwave burns up, who cares, they are cheap enough to just throw away and buy a new one every so often. Cell phones tho, have gotten absolutely ridiculous in price and many newer ones you can't even replace the battery when it dies. You're just selling them so you probably don't care.. but this was a good chance to try to inform new drivers.
I have seen true sine inverters at truck stops. They have more lower priced modified wave (square wave output) but they are hard on electronics and won’t run appliances properly.
Right they don't sell true sine wave inverters at truck stops. Which is why I said those truck stop inverters are trash. The best place to get an inverter is at a medical supply business. 2nd best would be an rv dealership. True drive wave inverters are expensive as hell. But buying a new cell phone every 6 months cause the cheap modified one ruined your battery is more expensive.
Never pass up a chance to sling some knowledge lol. I will say though that I fuck with redneck solar setups more than your aveeraaage bear and while what you're saying is definitely true, it's not quite as dire as it once was. Most modern electronics have much better tolerances and safety circuitry than they used to. Basically, if it has a brick between the plug and the device, it's gonna be fine even with some dirty power. Unless the inverter itself is malfunctioning and surging. At least, as far as my knowledge and experience goes.
>Unless the inverter itself is malfunctioning and surging. That's literally a feature with modified sine wave inverters. Look up how they work... In the spirit of slinging knowledge... not everyone studies calculus in school so you might not know what a sine wave is so I'll try to explain it in real basic terms everyone can picture in their head. When you plug an appliance into your wall at home (assuming everything is working right) the electricity flows out of that wall socket in a sine wave pattern. We all use the term 110v.. but it's not really 110v. It goes from 90 to 120. In a wave like pattern. It's a sine wave. Picture the waves on a calm day in the middle of the ocean, they gently go up and gently go down over and over and over with relatively equal peaks and valleys. That's how electricity works. A true sine wave inverter mimics this almost perfectly. On a modified sine wave, instead of a gentle wave pattern, it's a block pattern. It surges to 120 stays there for x period of time then surges down to 90 sitting there for a period of time and repeated the pattern over and over. And while it's all happening in milliseconds, faster than you and I could detect, heck it's even faster than a regular voltmeter can detect and read. But those surges ruin electronics. It will shorten the life of anything you plug into it. For a 50 dollar microwave, who cares. But your cellphone, dewalt or Milwaukee batteries, lap top battery, ps5/xbox/ whatever. Some of those things are expensive enough you don't want their life shortened and it's better to spend the money on a good inverter. Basically it's like many things you buy... spend more now, or spend less more often. In in the camp that is rather spend more now and not have to replace my expensive shit all the time.
that's some nice thorough analogies you got there. thank god for rectification and switch-mode power supplies lol
At least for laptops its fine, they shorten the lifespan up the charging brick instead. Which sucks, but its better than replacing a laptop.
Wanted to add in that Ive now sold 4 inverters and gave away 2 to solar users, car guys that want a big stereo, 1 went to a construction dude to not have to use his generator as much.
I have retired have 3000w inverter id like to sell whats a good price to sell it for.
I only sell them new in box, but I sling em for around 200-250. Could probably get more but I don't have the patience to fuck around for $20 lol
Thanks for info if i can get100 150 id be happy. Money in my pocket is better than the inverter sitting on a shelf
Put it on Facebook marketplace for 100 bucks with the brand and model number and it will be gone in a day or two. Try to get 200 and you will waste a ton of time dealing with a bunch of nitwits asking a thousand questions they could easily have answered themselves just by googling the model number. Also have it hooked up to your car with a tv or something to prove it works before they leave with it so you don't need to deal with some moron that blows the internal fuse bad mouthing you to your neighbors.
Facebook?
Thanks for the advice. Where is it best to sell?
Depends what you got nearby, I got a pretty wide in person social network so I usually just get word out that I got another one and someone gets a hold of me. But Facebook marketplace would probably work. I hate using it cause everyone wants to waste your time with insulting low offers, or asking a million questions to end up not buying shit. Hell if you live in a city, could probably sell it to a pawn shop or a small electronics shop for them to resell.
Yeah, you’re definitely right about FB marketplace but a pawn shop will definitely lowball and rip you off
Oh for sure, but truck stop points don't hold any monetary value. So anything about $.01 is still profit. I mentioned it because I got a local small tech place that I sell unwanted or lightly used tech to and they resell it for a markup.
Loves has a substantial mark up on everything they sell compared to Amazon or anywhere else. Buying and selling merch, you'd be lucky to get a 2-1 cash out and that's putting hours of your time into it. Use them for things you'd buy anyway like food and you'll be further along by saving your actual money.
purchase merchandise with points, then sell it
ty cuz idk what to do with my points.
Lube lots and lots of lube
You vant loob for a goot time?
Emergency 5 hour energy and emergency water is the only thing you should ever *need* to buy from a truck stop. Everything else is cheaper and better elsewhere.
I’ve bought popcorn. I’ve also bought gloves with my points. Flashlights and such also.
I suppose I might do gloves in a pinch but I'm usual very well prepared, even prepared enough to pop my own popcorn from bulk kernels.
I've got a microwavevpopper but passing it and hungry limited time. I'll use my points for it like once every 3 months. I do the driving gloves and they last me 6 months usually.
I just use a pot (pan if I want a very small amount) with a lid and coconut oil (olive oil also works). It works hilariously well if you need the pan heated and oiled to cook anything because you can wipe it down, throw food in, and continue cooking. As for gloves, yeah actually that's a really good idea. I like to use standard driving gloves and I've found bulk packs online of other glove types work wonders. Chaining though... it's worthwhile to have one Wells Lamont pair just for chaining.
Find an owner/op looking to get tires. I would do $.50-$.75 cents on the dollar cash depending on how much you had.
Need anew fleshlight
Your thinking the wrong Loves bud.
Trucker life hack: put that extra thick 5th wheel grease in an empty vitamin water bottle or any wide mouth bottle, and you now have lot lizard simulator in the palm of your hands
Ewww just ewww
Lemme get a couple pumps of that bathroom Drakkar Noir replica spray. Cmon back.
Wait until you see another driver getting ready to buy something, explain you can buy with points and sell to him or her for a discount outside.
If it's cheap enough... like 50% retail cost I'd buy a new rand McNally truck route GPS from you.
50%?? You trippin my guy.
Not really. That's not much more than truck stop mark up on them. So if the truck stop is selling one for 500 that you can use points for....I could find the same one at a normal retailer for 300 to 350.. So the choice is give you, some dude I've never met in my life, 250 plus shipping or buy it from a retailer for 350 free shipping and get a full factory warranty. But anyway you aren't interested, that's cool. Peace be with you.
Same to you
I heard from other drivers that you used to be able to used the points to get gift cards. I haven't done it myself though.
That’s a good idea. I’ll ask them, thanks
I'll take two of the oreo pudding cups, if they don't have that the banana pudding is fine Oh and two Chester's spicy chicken sandwiches and sweet tea to wash it down, thanks
Will the Chester's food give me chicken butt? I'm curious to try but I'm also hesitant. Dont lie.
I've never had any issues, one of the best spicy chicken sandwiches I've ever had and the quality is pretty consistent across all the places I've got it
Find someone going to buy a fridge or tv and offer them a half price from the purchase.
I could use a garmin gps:) been trying to save my points for that hehe
So.. what you can do is keep an eye out for people looking at CBs or electronics and ask them if theyd be willing to pay you cash for you to use the points to buy it for them.. Had a buddy do this before he went back to local.. he made $600 on approx $700 worth of stuff because he offered slight discounts to get them to bite
A shower :( I only have 37 points need 13
Buy something expensive and get a refund for cash Ask first if they can refund it in cash
If you buy with points all you can do is exchange it for the same item. I'm pretty sure you can't even return it and get the points back.