Some may think that ownership of a truck is a “Frill”, that supports an image a person desires to create. I won’t refute the idea, but ownership of a Commercial Vehicle is like any other small business, and no matter how beautiful, tricked up, and artful an owner makes that image, the business end is still a 24 hour, seven day a week, 365 day a year business. Any ownership of a business is the planning that goes into keep the plan in motion. A day off is a day without profit. Somehow the time not rolling has to have some investment shown. Blogging about the experience may be a variation of this relaxing time, but there has to be so much more. In a sense, you work hard, and you play hard. The effort to time down is still to build the same energy into investing your time towards the business, even when it is a day, or weekend, with no profit to be made.

      Like all businesses, records keeping an fill a day, since a ledger, budget, and inventory can fashion up a needed day of investing into, to know what you have, what you need, and how much you can do in the future. Even taking time to “tinker” with the truck, to spend that extra time to look over the machine, from bumper to bumper, will open opportunities to foreseeing troubling issues that may be repaired now, rather than when the issue becomes a breakdown. Then, it all comes back to records keeping and more planning. The only thing that seems to be at the bottom of the list is backing up those records, not only in a redundant fashion, but as a methodical one too.

      Writing about the importance of making a redundant back up system is not a new blog. In the past, I have written about making generalized copies. I stopped after realizing that constantly copying the same unchanged files is in a way excessive, but definitely redundant. If nothing else, each scheduled backup is a milestone that show what has changed, and what has not. Even I was looking to see if building a database that records all backed up information, and where that backup is stored for later retrieval, a plan to develop, but still falls short from the initial idea. Making the time to add to my time down period is even a work in progress for this writer. But I still make the effort to work towards managing that time in the future, while still focusing on my continued business development (yes, even in a truck, there can be developing stages).

      Recently, I did start pointing out to others I work with that I am not a truck driver, and make humor at being a “Computer Geek, whom so happens to have a CDL license, and now, a truck”. Still, here I sit, on one of those periods of “Time Down”, and where so much time helps in having a rest period from the highways, my time no longer is sitting and finding something to entertain myself with.  This was no easy change either. It took years to reach this period where I wake up, and start planning my “invested work day”. In a short period of time, I have a list of tasks that need to be accomplished, and time stops looking like a luxury.

      While writing this Blog on a third computer, I have the first two mini computers swapping files to build a replicated “back up” system, should one computer stop working, my work day could stop too. So, have an active replica of information is a safe guard that prevent me from shutting down to resolve issues. The next process will be backing those most important files onto an external hard drive to have an alternate plan to retrieving files “on the fly”. This process concludes with that process of burning a permanent copy of files onto DVD, and marking it as the most recent of a series of milestones. With the most recent with me, planning on putting the older files in storage, and in other locations assures that I have various places to retrieve my work, instead of it all being in one safe place.

      It sounds like so much, but without a plan in place, losing the records would be devastating, and could end my business if records cannot be presented. If I don’t invest the time today, I could be out of business tomorrow.

      I have expressed the truck as a rolling office, or cubical, since the computer is the true office, and as long as it is on, the office is where I am at. Having three mini computers held two important business planning. The first, redundancy. I already mentioned that a replica is being passed onto another. Of course that redundant computer is not just a storage area. Each computer holds a primary role. The originating mini naturally is the one that keeps the originating records, expenses, mapping, and email. The second is actually on all the time, and even though it is not the primary computer, it is the better of the three to make pc-to-phone calls, and it runs the GPS tracking software (the sole reason it is on all the time). The third mini computer is the business planning and developing machine, and the primary computer for writing articles, for blogging. It primary goal includes the visual files, such as pictures and videos. /since it is not what makes the money on a regular basis, those picture and video files are not replicated, but a small redundant backup is placed on an external hard drive, while a larger backup process is focused on going right to a DVD. Since there won’t be much changes to the original picture or video, it does not need to be a replicated process. By placing it on a DVD in its initial form, also falls along the concept of your own copyright, with dated period and time. It expresses true ownership, and may be used for profitable projects at a later date.

      I mentioned two roles of having three mini computers. The first now written in detail. The second, is not to be limited to specific computers. If on a pc to phone call, I don’t necessarily have to retrieve files and run two computers. While working with my records, I can still use the first mini computer for phone calls (but the quality of the call is not as good). By having a small replica of the most recent pictures and videos on an external hard drive, I can now begin or continue a project on any of the other two mini computers. Thus, in my planning, I am not limited to one computer for its primary roll, and I don’t have to carry three computers wherever I go. This need for more than one computer actually spawned from the first years, when I did have one computer for all aspects of personal and business. It did breakdown, and panic was my first reaction. The second, was to get to the nearest retailer, and purchase a new computer. I was on a timely load, and now time was needed not only to buy a new replacement, but to quickly install the essential programs to get rolling again.

      To be a professional Driver, keeping the truck maintained is common sense. It is the main machinery that allows you to commit to a service of moving large quantities of goods and raw materials. As a business, the computers hold an equal importance since records keeping for revenue and taxes, communication and information; are all the tools and that edge that makes a person different from the next and how they operate their business. The advantage of computers is weight. Sure everything still is done on paper for the older professionals and business owner/operators. But to maintain all the paperwork in a truck adds weight, and weight is an issue when it comes to being as light as you can, to be able to carry more of a load. The federal law only allows the common semi-truck to be no more than 80,000 lbs. Paper can add 100 lbs i a quarter year period. My 9 lbs. computer, which my files are scanned into file form holds six years of records, and complete records of my business.  That is about 2,400 lbs of paperwork,. And there is some organization. Trying to hold that much in a truck is not done. File cabinets at home, in a drawer, or on shelves (in boxes) is the traditional way. Having everything on computer makes it that much more available not only for business, but for audits and inventory. With three mini computers, two printers and scanners, a few accessories (such as mouse and wireless keyboard), and a wireless internet card combined weighs approximately 95 lbs. And in six years time, the weight will remain the same. Six more years of paperwork is 2,600 more lbs., stored somewhere.

      It is taking time for the two minis to replicate the information, and instead of passing the time in front of a television, or watching a movie, I have been passing my time with a panoramic photography project…and these blogs. At current, my interest in family and the east coast is due to the post period time of Hurricane Sandy. Not all family members are online, but with friends outside the area, making physical contact, all family members are located, and in good health. It is good to have internet connection, and being a computer geek, having all the message software helped track as many family as I could on my own. Still it looks like a week without power for some.

      I do take breaks from these projects, but it is a business. So, time away, is no work being done; less prepared for when it is time to run, or a financial issue delayed. A business is a 24 hour, 7 day a week, 365 day a year project.