Me and a good friend of mine are planning to go into business together, and have researched all angles that we can think of. Our plan is to purchase (pay cash) for two trucks, and lease them on with a major carrier (ie: KB transport, Shuster). However we plan to keep our jobs driving for an owner operator, and hire drivers to operate our trucks. Like I said, we have researched every angle that we can think of, and was wondering if anyone out there had done something of this sort, and ran into some unforseen problems, or situations that we may need to know about early on. Thank you for all your help!!!

I have just one question. Why would you want to buy trucks and hire drivers for them and keep driving for another owner operator? To me this is nuts but what do I know.

I'd say for the extra potential income stream.....

Diversity.

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If you're not a part of the solution............


You're OBVIOUSLY a part of the problem.

Thats exactly correct, by working for an owner operator, and keeping our trucks on the road with other drivers, we are not having to live off of the revenue generated by our trucks. We can continue to drive for someone else, and live off of the pay that we make, it is a larger profit margin to put back into the company.

Good Luck!

My Dad owns three trucks. He tells me that a truck owners best chance is to own one truck and drive it your self.
He drives one, I drive one, We had a long time driver in our third truck with 45 years of experence.
On Labor Day our driver died of an unexpected heart attack. He was an great driver. Never late,No accidents, We could not of had a better driver.
After his death we hired a driver that came with high recommendations. He had already been driving for the company we are leased to. We thought he was the perfect fit for our situation.
He was a nightmare. Week one he was stopped for speeding in a construction zone. Week two he was late on two loads. Things just were not getting off to a good start.
We decided to let him go and hire our second choice.
So far so good with driver number two. He is on his second load.
My point is buying the trucks are the easy part. Getting the right driver is the hard part.
We have lost a bundle of money on truck # 3 since our driver died. Hopefully, our new driver will work out.
I wish you well. I just wanted to tell you our situation.

Thanks for the reply, dually noted. That is a factor that we have taken into consideration, and by leasing on to a larger carrier, they will find qualified drivers, and loads for the trucks. A late load will affect the driver and not the owner of the truck, and its also noted that finding a good driver is a hit and miss process, but none the less once found can be profitable.

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The difference between fear and excitement is perception

Good luck to you. Please keep us posted on what you do. I am sure it will be a learning experience. Hopefully a good experience.

I hope you have some say in the hiring process lol. They could put someone in your truck that they would not put in there own.

<<A late load will affect the driver and not the owner of the truck>> Better read that lease real well, every single lease I have read states any cost impacting company from the lease operator will be chargeback the truck...........unless you are going to dock your driver the cost passed along to you. Might not have drivers long doing that. Seems you guys are fixing to open up a huge libility nightmare with very little profit in return. If you have the cash to buy 2 trucks paid for best find a good 5% return on that cash & invest it. Just my 2 cents from the school of hard knocks. Good luck with your venture.