Owner Operators: Who is a good compamy in FL?

LOL home most nights good one. Greatwide you are home some nights.. I honestly tend to work more days at greatwide but get less miles and make less money.

 

Back when I was an O/O I was pretty lucky.I was divorced at the time so I could stay out as long as I felt like it.Normally that was two week trips,however there were several times I stayed out four to six weeks at a time.This was my choice,cause once I hit the button for hometime I was headed that way.Do you wanna make money,or do you wanna be home every night?To my way of thinking its one or the other.

 

I have never done it, so this is not first hand, but I have talked with some owner operators at Smurfitt in Fernandina and they have said they make decent money. And they all drive daycabs, so they are home every night.

Go over to the nearest paper mill and ask the log haulers there. See if they make the kinda money you are looking for...

Also, if you live in Florida, you might live near a port. Container traffic. If you don't, you might live near a Walmart DC or something that takes container traffic all the time.

Just some ideas for you to kick around...

 

move............

 

2 for move!!

 

Just about every week someone is asking for advice about , getting work out of FL.

 

Move closer to Georgia because thats probably where you'll be going to find a load, what little that comes out of FL pays nothing..

 

I also live in Florida, not sure what your looking for but here is my take so far, if you want local or home every night, not much money to be made, not many opportunities, if you want to go OTR expect to deadhead out of Florida or be prepared to accept $1 per mile ish or less, not many companies are hiring O/O out of florida, Landstar will, but its a tough company to get on with, took me 3 weeks to get approved, by that time i had already got hired with Jones Express out of PA, so im staying put to see how it goes, you could run under your own authority, however insurance is expensive, as well as plates/2290 etc, ive been out a week so far, this is my first week, just to give you an idea of possible problems, i purchased my truck from Select trucks in Tampa, its a 2005 freightliner century with 511k miles, i paid $28k for the truck including taxes and 60 day assurance warranty, i paid another $4k for 1 year 100k mile warranty, i delivered in NYC on friday, the clutch gave out on me, ive been in a hotel for 3 nights so far with 2 more to go before i get the truck back from service, they are replacing the clutch, clutch brake and starter, its all covered under warranty, without warranty it would have cost me $3000 + to get fixed, even so it has cost me almost a week out of service and $500 in hotel room + $150 in car rental expenses, i have owned the truck for 3 weeks, there is allot of cheap freight around, how the f--ck people can try and pay around a buck a mile or less to drive a semi is beyond me, it cost me $2.35 a mile to get a cab in my town, so i have told many brokers/agents what they can do with their cheap freight, i would rather deadhead for nothing than take a cheap load like that, that being said i got $1600 for my trip from Carlisle PA to NYC 220 miles + $100 tolls, also got $1.66 per mile loaded from GA to CT, as it turned out with the snow in CT, and the breakdown in NYC + tolls, as well as cheap freight coming out of both places, i wont be coming to the north east again anytime soon!!!! anyway good luck, be prepared for the worst and hope for the best, there is allot to learn, it is very different from being a company driver.

Rich

 

what ever you do DO NOT WORK FOR ARL INC. in lakeland fl !! read my post in the bad company section! Im not sure what kinda of money your looking for but running local you can bet on bringing home 900-1250 a week give or take a 100 bucks. deff. not the place you wanna run if you have a truck payment. Good luck