What amount makes it worth it?

Been O/O for 4 years running local dump trailer. Truck paid for, trailer has low payments. Recently thinking about going back into foodservice.

What percentage over being company driver makes it worth while to you?

Right now I feel like I'd be better off making a little less and not deal with owning anything but I also like having my truck, knowing what I'll be driving everyday. Going back into foodservice doesn't bother me as the physical part I need again. Benefits like insurance make no difference at this point either as I have a good plan that covers the family fairly cheap.

Not looking for how much you earn or should earn but how much of a difference makes it worth it to you whether you stayed in the same industry or different.

 

Not having someone tell me where to go and when to be there as well as dictating my pay makes the difference to me. For me being a owner op isn't about the money. The above is.

 

Money isn't everything. Its the freedom. Remember we have an election coming up, whichever way you believe puts you and yours in best position if the worst happens,do that.
70k with benefits and being left alone would almost be "enough" for me to be company driver.

 

You're looking at local food service? If I were going local, the truck wouldn't bother me. If I were going OTR I'd have to be owner op. Especially if you've driven a largecar before. Company trucks are almost always moron spec'd, underpowered, anemic, crappy, and chocked full of cattleprods designed to remind Stupid not to be stupid. Bet you don't have G.O.A.L. on your mirror. Bet you don't have orange seatbelts and tattletales. Bet you don't have to play phone tag between your road service people and the repair shop.

You don't know how difficult driving a POS company truck is until you drive a largecar that can actually perform.

 

Local foodservice with a company I've previously been with. Only part about the truck is I don't like slipseating them otherwise I could care less as its not mine. I've had company 379s when I started out so I know about that. Currently own an underpowered 2004 Columbia so not losing much going back into a company truck.

Unfortunately I'm leased to a company so they have control of where I go and my pay (even though they claim they don't dispatch on pay)

 

It's possible that the time you spend doing business work associated with being self employed , you could be getting #### face drunk when you are a employee and time off starts when the clocks off.

 

The being able to take time off whenever I need to, or simply don't feel like working this week or month, is why I'll never work for anybody else, but that's just me.

 

This is SO true... I learned to drive in old iron, and then cut my teeth pulling bullrack with a tuned W900L. Now that I'm driving OTR for a company I really miss the large car and that big HP. Even though my company specs thier trucks pretty decently, they still don't even hold a candle to a real rig. I really miss the days when I could blow the doors off company trucks on even the biggest, steepest grades.

 

I’d stick with it and get your own numbers before i went and worked for a company. If you go out on your own numbers you will start making significantly more and be more independent. You got the hardest part done, a paid off truck.

 

After doing it for a decade I'm fairly tempted to go reenlist. Who doesn't want to go back through basic and infantry school at 38?