Sorry to break it to you but container freight is the lowest paying freight there is and if you're driving your own truck, the pay can be bad. If you're driving someone else's truck the pay can be dismal. Who is this owner operator working? What's the average trip length? How many times a day are you in the container terminals? Where are the terminals located?

Unless you know what he is getting for the load it's pretty hard to say whats what, and when you say "profits", does that mean after he has deducted everything that he can? If his "profit" is $200 on a load and it takes you 12 hours to do that one load, not a good deal. Does the % take into consideration lack of benefits?

Originally Posted by Diesel Dave

If your a newbie and trying to get experience, don't expect much pay and LONG hour's. WELCOME to the world of trucking!!!!

agreed......bend over and grab your ankles son..

You would be much better off working for company with a set pay scale, bennies, 401k, etc...

you need to think long term if this is seriously what you want to do for a living..

Company horizon lines palametto ga just found out I'll be in out the terminal at least 3 times a day

Hope you like: bad tires, missing lights, overweight loads, 14 hour workdays and low wages. I tried as an o/o for three months, bout starved to death working six days a week and with a paid for truck. It came down to feeding the family or doing maintenance on the truck (but not in the same week). You can probably do ok if you have a very, very low cost of living

well, now that you've heard from the peanut gallery.

I've pulled containers as a company driver for the same company for 13.5 yrs, so let me chime in. Most O/O's are paid either by the mile or as a percentage of gross (in my area (Denver) O/O's are paid a percentage of gross, depending on the company between 70% and 95%. 70% is for the guy who buys a truck and relies on the company for everything, 95% is what my company pays, but we require our O/O's to be independent and use the company as a broker service, hence the 5% broker charge.

As a driver for said O/O, will you be paid by the mile? by the drop? or by the hour? or as a percentage of what he gets? If he's paying you by the drop, you'll be broke in no time. If it's a percentage what he get's paid, depending on the amount, you might be okay, if it's by the hour you'll be alright, if it's by the mile, you'll be broke.

Yes, expect long days, container hauling is probably the easiest trucking job, it's pretty much a true 99% drop/hook (in 13.5 yrs I can count on one hand the number of loads I have been forced to fingerprint), detention pay is common.

Now, the downside, long days, junk equipment (although getting better), blowouts (getting better), railroads, steamship lines, ports, longshoreman, stevedores, dispatchers, customers.

Also, you said your pulling for Horizon Lines, or that is who the truck is leased to? Horizon Lines just paid a $45 mil. price fixing fine and is facing Chp. 11 reorg. bankruptcy, expect them to cut pay to drivers and owner operators as a result.