How to make it as an owner operator

Been an O/O 4 years now. Got my own authority 1.5 years ago. 1 Year ago I figured things out. At first I was all about MILES MILES MILES. All that got me was a look at a lot of cool places I will never go again and a lot of low margin (profit) miles on my equipment.

Spend your time looking around your local lanes, where you live, and I can almost guarantee you will find that 3-4 solid loads per week are all you need. I consider a week 5 days, not 7. If you are an O/O you eventually realize that weekends are meant for fishing, not working since the whole system shuts down over the weekends anyway and who wants to get stuck with an issue on Fri evening after everyone else but you has already gone home. Solution, be home yourself on as many Fridays as you can!

Learn to sift through the BS and learn to say "good bye" to the schmucky low rate brokers and low ball rates. I guess they hear it in my voice now. I tell them my rate, wait through 2 seconds of silence, then ask "yes or no, I got to go?" usually they say "got to check if we can do that " and 60% of the time I get my rate. I don't ####-chat, I don't act weak or nervous or confused and I sure as he-ll don't act like I am uncertain AT ALL about the rate I just quoted. Over the phone 95% of brokers think I am the dispatcher, not a driver, and I let them think that. In fact I WORK TO MAKE THEM THINK THAT!!

Your presence over the phone is critical to this process. Sound like a dispatcher and act like a dispatcher and WOW you get treated totally different!! I am an educated man and I handle myself over the phone just like a professional should, so they almost always assume I am anyone BUT the driver. Watch your grammar and language over the phone. Learn to talk more like a Yankee than a Southerner (no insult intended, but it is the way it is, sound like a huckleberry redneck Cajun spicy hillbilly and you will have problems. I was lucky to grow up in Kansas, so my vernacular (my accent if you will) helps me out a lot. I don’t have an accent. I don’t get judged or discriminated against just because of the way I talk. I don’t sound like the typical driver and I don’t negotiate like one. I sound like the guy that used to book you loads before you started trying to do it yourself, before you called yourself an O/O.



I am not trying to insult my rural heritage country oriented brethren here, BUT, it is the unfortunate truth. If you are an O/O, your ability to communicate clearly and professionally OVER THE PHONE is critical whether you want to admit it or not. I was a little worried about making this post, so maybe some of you can chime in here and help me out. When you can manage to sound like a dispatcher over the phone, and not the typical driver out on the road, it will help you TREMENDOUSLY when looking for loads!! For some it will help a lot and for others, it will be a make it or break it deal. You need to think from several angles if you want to succeed as an O/O. We have to wear many hats and sound the part when we do. You have to have great skills in negotiation over the phone. To get the best rates, your phone skills need to be on par with a stock broker who is an expert at making and closing deals _ SOLEY OVER THE PHONE. Think about this for a minute. Working the boards means you HAVE to be very good over the phone and you need to be professional and you CANNOT act like a novice and you CANNOT let a broker rep screw you, play you, lie to you,scam you, manipulate you, or waste your time when chasing loads. BE PICKY AS HELL!! It will pay off. Don't be a push over. Have patience and hold your rate.



I know some of you are thinking “what the he-ll does he mean hold your rate? What should my rate be, that’s what I need to know”. Well that is a whole new discussion here but I do touch on it briefly. I am assuming you already know how to establish what the spot rate is in different lanes or locations.If you don’t know how to do that, then you need to learn that as well as learning how to act over the telephone. This post is for the guys out there who I have personally OVERHEARD loosing deals over the phone because they wont take the time to learn the art of phone negotiations and deal closing and they are not willing to change their behavior and how they handle themselves over the phone. If you are not to this point yet, still keep this in mind: THE DAY YOU GET YOUR OWN AUTHORITY AND THINK IT IS GOING TO BE EASY TO PICK UP THE PHONE AND GET GOOD PAYING LOADS IS THE FIRST DAY YOU START GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! You will get screwed and it is NOT easy at all. You need to get this covered or you will just have another handicap which will contribute to your eventual failure.

If you can't get your rate when you ask for it professionally and matter-of-factly, then move on. When I get slammed with calls I act just like a broker. I am pushy and bit rude and to the point. I tell them my rate and say "gotta go, I am getting slammed with calls on this truck right now". Funny how they start to act when they realize , or just THINK, everyone else is calling on the same truck that they want to book!! Knowing the rate for a lane is key. Don’t sit on the line and #### chat and BS...MOVE FAST! Brokers will respect this and see you as knowing what you are doing.


You need to know your bottom dollar rate and you need to know your break even point, just in case you need to move to another lane or get home for some reason. I don't agree that you should "always give a round trip rate" . This is just not realistic unless you haul containers or some other such thing where that is the normal rate calculation. If you do this, you will bid too high most of the time. Sorry but I just don't agree with some of the previous posters on this point. Not a good move in my opinion. Yes in some lanes, like south FL (where I NEVER GO even though I live in NW FL) you have to PREDICT the return rate to calculate your inbound rate, but to just say "I need x per mile so I will just double that in case I cant find good rate out of the area" is a bad idea. If you are building your return rate into a bid, YOU SHOULD be looking for other places to go, especially if you are not really familiar with a crappy area like South FL.

All I can say is if you don't take the time to investigate the outbound rates from ANY area BEFORE you go in, then you deserve to get what you get. If you F-up, then it is a learning experience. You are not going to be my hero by going into a bad area and then bragging about how you dead headed out because “you don’t haul cheap freight”. My question for those drivers is simple. Why did you go there in the first place? Didn't you know the current outbound rates? Want to see what rates are like in a certain area? Post your truck and pretend you are trying to book it. Figure it out BEFORE you go into a place you are not familiar with. If a broker gets pushy, BLOW THEM OFF. HANG UP!! Check the out bound rates where they want you to go. This is especially true when the rate seems way too good, because it probably is. You will learn WAY more working the boards and learning rates and lanes than you will hauling freight to break even or WORSE just to cover fuel to stay moving. Stationary time and layovers or even busted out days should be USED TO LEARN what is going on!!

Don't let a broker tell you you got a special rate for this or that when you do land a great rate. They WILL do this later and it is BS. Don't fall for it. Especially the next week or two later. Six months or a year later, well duh, I don't need to explain everything here do I ?

When you learn a lane, you will do well. Take the time to learn the lanes and rates. Little things effect the broker negotiations. Mondays are way to optimistic for the college kids, and their heads are fuzzy from the weekend anyway. When Thursday and Friday come around, start booking your loads for the end of the week and the next week if possible. The brokers all have weekly quotas to meet, and it sometimes makes them put up good rates for the next week to come if they are having a hard time in the current week. It almost ALWAYS makes them get desperate on THR and FRI. If you run the same lane for a while you will see how much more the same load goes for Friday vs. Monday. Again, REMEMBER the system basically shuts down over weekends. Keep this in mind. Call everything I just said BS, but once you have ACTUALLY done this, like I have, and not just ACTED like you have done it on some of the boards, you will come know these simple truths.

FYI, I hardly ever book loads on Mondays in my lane anymore. I wait until Tue or Wed to start my week and I always try to be in Atlanta looking for a load on home Fridays. The loads I do book these days on Monday seem to be Tue or Wed runs. At first this pissed me off because I wanted things to work the way I thought I they should, but then I accepted the ebb and flow of the situation and now I just go with the flow. This has been working well for me now for some time.


OK just wanted to take time to throw some things out there for those who might get something from it.
Hope this helps. Comments welcome, but those wishing to argue or fight can move on as well.

 

I am an OOIDA member and i use Members Edge load board 90% of the time. I also use The Internet Truckstop or ITS load board, but not as much these days. It is kind of a back up. I really believe you could get by with just one if you wanted to cut costs. The members Edge board is basically the same ad the TransCoreDAT board, but with less features. It is definately worth the membership fees to gain access to the DAT load board as an OOIDA member.

I run a dry van, so I really cannot comment on the rates for flat beds, but I will say this. Right now, I don't run ANYWHERE for less than $2 per loaded mile and most of the time it is more than that on average. I would assume that a flat will at LEAST get you that per mile, but I am not a flat guy. Maybe some others can comment, but be prepared for the "braggers" to show up and chime in.

I decided to get my own authority vs going with Landstar or some similar arrangement. 25% sounds like a lot off the top to me. I have learned that you make money with the trailer, not the truck. Something to keep in mind if you are going to someday consider buying your own trailer. I assume for the 25% CRST provides the trailer.

If yo uare allowed to use the boards to get some of your own loads, I would think that is a pretty good deal all around.