Enough lurking, first post, looking to become owner.
 

Hey All, been lurking around this site for a year or so reading up on the threads gathering up the information to make the plunge into ownership of a truck.

Difference I have with most is I have a full time job as a company driver at what I feel is one of the most lucrative jobs around pay wise, benefits, pension, vacation time, etc. For that reason my plan is to continue with the company job, buy a truck and put in some quality drivers that I gained experience with and have no loyalty to the company jobs they drive for as they have not had the fortunate luck I have had with my division that has not hired in years.

Wondering if any owner/operators are in the same position and just fill in driving their own truck on occasion and not run the truck full time?

Take care, some interesting characters on this site and pick up tons of valuable information on the industry. I am convinced there is serious money to be made out there with a common sense approach to the industry, much like any business. Having real estate business experience in rental properties the big difference I see is the dang truck depreciates to nothing while a building does the opposite when you are done with it, ouch. Have to run 'er hard to overcome that little obstacle!

Keep her between the rhubarb.

If you want to buy a truck, I suggest you drive it yourself. It is very difficult to find good drivers, especially for a single truck. Why would you not drive it yourself? How long have you been driving and have you ever owned a truck before?

yea i dont understand that one either. If your going to buy a truck why would you put drivers in that are not happy with the company just because theya re ina different division. Do you think because they are driving your truck they will be happier?

thanks for the replies guys,

Several lifelong friends are just cruising along at various carriers with no loyalty to them and would be willing to jump over to slipseat a long 18 hour run into 2 runs for 2 drivers, running the truck relatively hard, one guy days, one guy nights, repeat the next day.

They do not work at my company, would love to but they have not hired in over 6 years and I can not toss out the wage I am paid nor being halfway to a company pension with them.

I would jump in around my dedicated company run as needed to give someone a day off as needed but would mainly run the business end of running the 1 truck hard while keeping my company driver job is the plan.

Getting bored of the daycab daily routine and would like to try owning a truck, being in the position to fund the operation of the truck out of pocket from my company lane if needed until things are rolling, pun intended!

New a truck mechanic once - he did that and made it work. Don't know how but good luck.

Go for it!! Either you swim or you sink, but you will never know if you dont try it.

3 am
knock knock knock
"yes, who is it?"
"It's Joe your driver"
you open the door
Joe is holding a large steering wheel in his hand
"er....here's your truck back.................."

haha Sonny, that would be the nightmare come true, ouch, maybe Joe would have salvaged a crate of tomatoes off the wagon so I could make some sandwiches at least!

While I appreciate the nice packages that I see daily, I feel, like most businesses, their is a limit to what one person can take on, in this case miles. At some point you have to turn the workload, whatever it may be, in this case miles, over to those that you trust. Multiply that story many times over and the serious money starts to flow. To each his own, but as a business if I see the shiny rims of the rig in the driveway it means the fixed costs are still being paid on a piece of equipment that is not producing income. Doesn't mean the things run 24/7, but a 1000 mile day into 2 10 hour workdays for 2 drivers I think would be a nice annual of about 250K a year, that would work the numbers nicely!

I don't know, but those numbers;-"1,000 miles a day", and "250K annual", looks like a recipe for disaster to me! :roll:

Cause, if it's "gross", it wouldn't enough, even cover expenses, for that kind of mileage. :sad:
And if it's projected "net".... well, i'd suggest, you look on your numbers again! :roll:

ahhhhhhh, the 250K was miles per year, at around 1.30 or so is the going rate for brokered miles, more like $325K gross in income for a well driven truck.

.40 cents to the driver(s) is around a $100K, and I have worked out around $175K in expenses leaving $50K net profit per truck, those sound remotely ballparkish to reality?????????????