Two types of owner-ops

Sometimes the bigger carrier has access to work that a smaller independent can't get. In that case even though your giving up more of a percentage you might still make more money as a owner/operator leased to them than being a true independent looking for your own work or even using bigger companies as load brokers.

 

Yes if you can get insured then by all means get your own authority, including your own trailer. A lot of owner ops are leased to a carrier because they can’t get insurance for some reason.

I have my own authority. My friends offered me to take 20% cut on their loads and I’ll still refuse it. I don’t trust people really. I don’t want them messing up my insurance and getting my business violations left and right or have claims on loads.

There’s people that take chances and let o/o’s lease to them. You can make serious passive money but at the same time, you could lose your business in the blink of an eye.

They’re using your business name, their actions have consequences and the one who pays for that consequences is you the carrier.

Sometimes it’s better to be an o/o and let someone else deal with my F ups. If I get in a fatal accident, the family is not suing me, they’re B-lining to the carrier who has $1 million liability in their insurance.


Being independent means full authority, and full responsibility. Freedom comes at a cost.

 

Don't forget some o/o or independents trade off big bucks for quality of life. Meaning they might be home every night but still net 70grand after expenses instead of sleeping in the truck for weeks on end to net 100 grand.

 

An owner operator needs to have good business sense, too, as well as a good bit of cash put back for a rainy day. It’s not a matter of if it will rain, but when. (Speaking metaphorically). An excellent company driver has good business sense, and makes good, prudent business decisions too. In short, there is far more to this equation than just driving the truck. There is a lot of money on the line here, one would want to have the knowledge and skill set to manage in a profitable way.

 

I would imagine for a 1 truck operator leasing onto a company would generally be more profitable, because having ones own authority involves MUCH more in over head expenses... But I've never done either so I cant say for certain.

 

Well the question is really unique to each person. There are so many variables it's very difficult to just give an answer.

What type of trailer do you pull, what type of freight to you pull, are you OTR or Regional, what area of the country are you in, what would your particular overhead be as an owner-operator because we all have different expenses, there really are many many many many variables that you just can't give an answer to that.

It isn't necessarily true that if you have your own authority that you will make more money. Depending on your situation when you're leased onto a carrier they have a whole entire Salesforce that's out there tracking down customers and you tend to get better detention, you don't have to fight for your money, A lot of times you get fuel discounts and tire discounts and even discounts on Mechanic rates and other things.

I think sometimes if you are leased on they may give you some kind of an advance if you really had a big break down and your insurance tends to be cheaper, so it's really not one answer, it's the answer that works best for you.

I have my own authority but I would say that if you're really this unsure it would be better to lease onto someone at least for a while because it's kind of like having a safety net. When you have your own authority you are completely flying solo and it's 100% only up to you good and bad, problems and benefits.

To me it's kind of funny, because I think the reason a lot of people want to be an owner operator is because they think that's the road to riches. My own opinion is I think if you want to be an owner operator because of the money that's a big mistake. You can work at a company somewhere and make 75 to $100,000 a year maybe some guys make more, and you get a 401k and you get full benefits you get paid holidays etc etc.

I don't know if it's true or not, but many years ago I had someone approached me about being a union driver and they told me that out of that particular local they when you retire each driver got $8,600 a month. On top of their medical benefits and all that.

I'll try to wrap up this novel now but here is a quick guide to being an owner operator versus a company driver.

Company driver no headaches go to work come home when you shut the truck off your life is yours benefits 401K vacation etc. 75000 to 100,000 + per year. Some places you still get a pension.

Owner operator, work. Get up in the morning make phone call after phone call after phone call after phone call. Work. When you're done work do your paperwork, do your billing do all your legal paperwork. Work. When you're done working work on the truck. Your income could vary from bankruptcy to that of a good company driver, or it could be higher, or it could be higher in good times and lower in bad times, or it could just be lower overall. There is much much greater uncertainty.

Doing it because you simply think it's a step up to more money is the wrong perspective, in my opinion.

Way more important than money is that you need to like the lifestyle.

That's the right reason.

 

What does it matter if u make 250k in profit or 0 in profit ? If you dont love this business , the money will never be worth it .

 

When you were a company driver making $70k a year did you ever tell your boss "hey man, I think I'm gonna take the next 3 months off and I'll see you later!" because I do that all the time and I'm just leased on somewhere. Most recently I was out for 8 months and coronavirus!!! was responsible for about half that time off. When I got back to work the office people were shocked I was even alive they thought the rona got me or something. Ever done that as a company driver? Because I want THAT company job paying $70k a year. LOL