Owner/Operators at Roehl

I know, I know. It's the height of arrogance to quote yourself. This is the thread that the post was originally made in: http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...thing/266324-setting-yourself-up-failure.html

I cannot stress enough that when you buy a truck and lease it on with a company you are no longer a truck driver, you are a business owner. That you happen to still drive just means you now have a new boss. Everything becomes a numbers game and if your numbers don't add up you are out of business. It is stressful, especially since a truck can break down at anytime without warning. I've had 4 times my truck did that to me while at Roehl. Twice the loads had to be repowered. It's part of trucking and if you are going to own your own trucking company you had better be prepared with a plan. I went in for a simple PM and ended up down for 3 days and out $1800 for a new oil pan. Later I found out that if I had gone to Truck Centers in Springfield they had a tap kit that would have saved me a ton in time and money.

Do not start with the truck and then try to build a business plan around your payments. Build your business plan first using the lowest revenue projections you can and the highest costs. Then you know how much truck you can afford. Just remember when the miles and freight aren't there, the truck payments, insurance, household expenses, taxes, plates and everything else still is.

 

Just learned the other day there are only 4 of us trainer o/o's in the entire company. I went through Foundations with the other two. Haven't met Viking yet.

 

Before I left there was a big drive on trying to recruit o/o's to become trainers. I think part of the problem is that for many of us this truck is our baby and our moneymaker. The last thing we want is a newby ripping the tranny out. For me personally I was a trainer with a previous company and I heard enough stories from other drivers that I wanted nothing to do with training. In my case I'm a loner, I won't sleep in a room with anyone other than my wife, or daughter. Even if I could I wouldn't take anyone else in my truck for more than a day trip.

 

How much per day having a student pay you?

 

Was it Danny?

 

It definitely takes some patience, but I can say I've never had a student I feared was about to do major damage to the truck. They usually come out to us quite prepared thankfully. I enjoy meeting new people, and while sharing the truck can be interesting at times, I'm not big on being alone all the time either, so it works for now. Don't get me wrong, I do like my "me" time too.

 

I've only had 1 in about 30 or so quit during training. Trucking just wasn't for him. It's not for everybody, but credit to him for at least giving it a go.