Kevin, most drivers have a desire to own their own truck when they come to this business. Many make the mistake of getting into a truck before they are prepared with knowledge or money. Some carriers make it sound easy to sign on the dotted line to lease one of their trucks. For most it is the worst decision they could make. Most are financially devastated when they lease a truck from their carrier. They will allow you to lease one of their trucks with little experience and no cash. When something breaks you are responsible for the repairs. You are also responsible for any and all expenses, including fuel. Compensation for owner operators who are leased to these carriers is usually very low. Most lease operators wind up taking less money home than if they had stayed a company driver. The reason most get into a company lease is because they have poor credit and no money. It isn't cheap owning and operating a truck. I had to put a transmission in one of my trucks a few weeks ago. The tow bill was almost $1,000 (for 110 miles). Repairs and transmission was over $6,000. I had a driver whom I put in a motel for a week and paid him a daily rate to sit. I lost several thousand dollars in revenue plus had the expense of a transmission and motel bill. I would have had those expenses whether I was driving the truck or not. The dealer would not take a credit card over the telephone so I had to arrange to get the cash to them in order to get my truck rolling again. Total cost including motel came to about $8,000. I blew a turbo on a truck earlier this year. The turbo cost over $1,500. Labor came to about $1,100. Last year I had to put a clutch in a truck. The cost was $1,700. These breakdowns can occur whether you have an old or newer truck. Unless you have the money to have repairs made you are out of business. These are things which had to be paid for before the truck was released. I have been fortunate on not having to make a lot of really expensive repairs over the years, but they will happen. About 3 years ago I had a rear-end come out in Reno. The driver made it to the dealer but the rear and a couple of other things I had done while the truck was down came to just over $4,500. One of the things I had done was replace a cracked oil pan. The oil pan was $800 by itself. I replaced the front power divider on that same truck the year before for a little over $1,000 by repairing it locally. Parts came to over $900. Labor came to only $100. I didn't use a dealers shop to make those repairs. It is usually much less expensive to make repairs locally. Unfortunately, breakdowns rarely seem to happen close to home. When you are on the road you are at the mercy of those who can make the repairs. I do have some contacts across the country that I have made over the years, but can't always count on making it to one of their shops in an emergency repair situation.

What I am trying to make you see is that you may or may not be able to make the weekly or monthly payments on your equipment. Unless you have money set aside or readily available credit you can access you will lose your truck and everything due to not being able to pay for it. I have had several former owner operators and lease operators who have driven trucks for me. Nearly all of them have told me that they made more working for me than they did in their own truck. Most lost their equipment due to having one or more major breakdowns and not being able to come up with the money to pay it out of the shop. They found a way to get into a truck with little or no money down and had no money set aside for emergencies.

There are no easy ways to buy a truck and keep it rolling. If you have the cash you can probably get a good deal with a truck right now. Tens of thousands have lost their trucks this year. The final count will likely be in the hundreds of thousands before the dust settles. Over 20,000 carriers have gone out of business this year. Rates are down all over the country. Freight isn't as readily available as it was only a couple of months ago. It is not the best time for an inexperienced driver to go out and buy or lease a truck. It can be a good time to learn the business. Business is slower and you can observe how others are making it work during a down economy.

There are many costs associated with running a truck that are not readily obvious. A 3 wheel alignment can cost $200+. I usually wind up spending around $250 for an alignment. I usually spend over $200 for an oil change. I have the oil changed around 15,000 miles. I know some who change at 10,000 miles. If you lease to a carrier you can usually buy tires through national account, but will likely still spend in excess of $350 for a single tire. Without the discount you could spend over $500 for one tire. I have a local tire distributor where I can buy tires for around $260 or sometimes less. A couple of months ago I blew 2 tires in less than 1,000 miles. Those are things which are unexpected and most people don't plan on having to replace in such a short period of time. Even if you buy a new truck there are some repairs that may not be covered under the warranty. One way to learn about some of them is to drive for a few years. While you are driving and learning, save your money and if your credit is not in the best shape work on that as well. You are just getting started. Give yourself some time to learn about the industry and whether this is something you really want to do. There is a high turnover rate with most carriers. Many of those new to the industry will not make it to their first anniversary. They find for various reasons that this is not what they want to do with their lives.

 

Listen to GMAN, he knows his shit.... he's a very profitable business man.

I got into this because it's what my father did, you need to enjoy your job to do it right, and not just think it "it pays the bills" or something along those lines.

Give it a year of working for the "man" before you try to become the "man" and either way, you wont like your boss most of the time

 

I have my own authority, but I do better leasing with a local company, I get a company trailer with all trailer expense paid by the company and he also pays the cargo and liabilty insurance, I also get a company fuel card and a company norpass, both at no cost to me. also in case pf problems, I have someone to help me out, when you first start, I would lease to a company, after you learn the ropes, then if you want to go on your own, go for it.
I agree about driving for 3 years, I think 1 year is not enough, you will have a tough time getting work and insurance will be sky high with that little experience. keep records for those 3 years, act like the truck was yours and see if you would make more by owning it.
in my case, I lease to the same guy I drove for for 3 years and after expenses, I make about $1000.00 a week more, but I also have a lot more reponsibility, I feel it's worth it.
one more thing, if you cant do a lot of the work on your truck yourself dont even THINK about buying one. I have a friend who just bought a truck and the first think he did was pay a shop to adjust the brakes and grease the 5th wheel. the next week, he had an air leak and went straight to peterbilt and payed 200 bucks to have an air line replaced, he could have done it himself for about 50 bucks, in my opinion, this was just money wasted.
if you cant adjust brakes or grease a 5th wheel or replace an air line, you got no business owning a truck!!

 

I would say if you don't know how to grease a 5th wheel, you shouldn't be driving on highways.

 

I agree with this comment more than anything!!!

It amazes me how many truck drivers have absolutley NO CLUE on how a engine works, let alone the name of parts, how they are replaced or even how they function!
I think it is crucial to know this stuff, and to be profitable you need to.

I was a master mechanic with Detroit/Allison and also worked for a freightshaker dealer until I was 23. We have been racing cars since I was kid and to tell you honestly I cannot count the times I had my truck breakdown on the side of the road and because of my know-how I saved myself from multiple tow bills.... alot of times thru inguntiy and rigging to get it to a dealer or repair shop for something major such as when the syncros went in the trans and once when the clutch rod snapped..... tarp straps will do amazing things

 

Let alone how to use a turn signals, change lanes.....don't get me started...!

 

To me, the cost of fuel shouldn't be a factor on going o/o or not. Having a little research and a plan to what commodity and/or equipment you want to haul is. And having a job lined up doesn't hurt either.

Don't get me wrong, fuel is our biggest daily expense most of the time, but an adequete FSC takes care of that. I would rather bring home 1K a week as a company driver than 1500 as an o/o. That $500 difference is big, adds up, but isn't steady. Once that truck is in the shop for 3-4 days, the downtime (loss of revenue) and bill easily can knock you down to 300 bucks (for better or for worse). This is just an example, and figure not to be taken too seriously, but you get the point.

 

I should have made it clear. he is perfectly capable of doing these things, he just thinks that now he is an owner operator, he can just pay someone else to do it. I say he is destined to failure.

 

I don't know... Personally, i believe you are "destined to failure", if you can't afford to pay, "someone else to do it."....

 

I can afford to pay someone else to do it, but why should I? the whole point of working is to make money, I dont pay anyone to mow my yard or wash my clothes or fix little stuff around the house although I could afford it. I would rather keep the money. when I need something done that I cant handle, Then I pay someone.
My whole point was dont start a business and then right away start spending money you dont need to spend