jp207 if its working for you then it works for you, your right none of us here knows all the particulars of your situation so the comments are based on the info you provided and I don't think anyone meant any harm just giving you their opinion. take it with a grain of salt and maybe you can pick up something useful from it. I for one wish you the best.

 

Every thread has a certain amount of life and I'm not sure how much we've got left here. I was thinking about a couple things, however. I'm just winging this, I'm not going back to reread everything that was written.

First, there are some on the board who have and do run more than one truck so there is more for you to hear than guys like myself just thinking and figuring. Another thing, if you care, you can speak of your finances in general terms, I don't think anyone cares to hear anything too personal. If I remember, you said you thought you were making 25 cpm. Would you care to revise that in light what Vassago and I guess some others were saying? I'm not saying it isn't profitable for you, I'm just wondering if we can come up will some general numbers everyone would agree on.

Take 'shortest miles pay', that's my biggest gripe. You are being shorted maybe 8% from the get go. Then you have situations like I ran across the other day, Buffalo NY to Norfolk VA. Even the shortest route was more miles than I was being paid and that was a lot of stop and go, two lane, slow going, bad fuel economy miles. I decided against what would probably have been the better route- even more miles and some tolls but all interstate. Even practical miles compensates you fully only when everything is perfect. The deadheads to the house aren't paid and of course there is no fsc for fuel used iding.

It's interesting to think about building up a small fleet, but I'm still questioning how it's doable. If you went with Landstar you'd have a new, huge burden of choosing loads for all those trucks. Landstar doesn't guarantee an fsc (you get 100% if it's in the contract- big 'if') Deadhead mile aren't paid so you're always fighting to keep them down. And, I'm telling you right now, the guys are moaning and groaning about the rates (I just turned down 44k of potatoes today, FL to OH, 1.05 all in to the truck money).

You've got experience in all facets of trucking. You're obviously smart and ambitious and have some financial base and or backing. I'm not too worried about you succeeding one way or another. Even so, if you care to throw this around a little more, what would you give as a number for what a schneider fleet operator can realistically expect to make per mile? You can save just so much doing mechanical work yourself. Further, an owner operator can save a lot of money that you cannot save by hiring people- you can watch your costs but there is still plenty you just can't get around.