Every trucker I know that prioritized trucking over family either regretted it sooner, when the wife left. Or later, when they realized they weren’t home enough to see their own kids grow up.
Having trouble getting my wife on board with being a Owner Operator
Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Last_over_hill, Aug 14, 2021.
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Do you have any suggestions on how to better look to see the typical loads that are available in my area? The DAT Load Board is the only one that I can find which shows the loads without needing to be a carrier.
LTL is the field of trucking we work in and in some cases even though we may have linehaul runs some of us still on occasion do city Pickup and Deliveries. We do refer to it as linehaul or road internally but not externally. Not really sure as to why.
I uploaded my cost per mile breakdown. I have the insurance included with the ELD charges for subscriptions. I wasn't completely sure of ELD costs with monthly so I allocated $1,000/year (which I know is high) and the rest of the subscription charges is my insurance with $1million liability and $100k cargo coverage. I would be working to pay my Truck and trailer off first so that I could bring my cost of operations down. All my numbers I tried to put on the high side for worst case scenario operations. The Truck and Trailer payments are based on a rate of 10% on a 3 year loan.
Toxic work environment and hours are the biggest reason why I'm looking for other options. LTL is great but it's not working for my family and myself.
Yes, I uploaded my cost per mile spreadsheet and between maintenance and repairs I'm having $2,300/month allocated.
I'm attempting to allocate most things on the higher side that way even in the worst case scenario I have the funds allocated.
I'm in a very similar circumstance to where you were. We have about $60k in savings and not much hope for my career at my current job. Once I'd get enough seniority I'd have the option of working days running 600+ miles but that run takes 11 solid hours to do without any breakdowns or delays. I'd be getting home about 2000 every day if I did that. The other options are all overnight runs which my wife and myself have strong desire to get out of. Yes I would make more money sticking with it in my job but to both of us it's not about the money. We could do just fine off of $50k or $60 per year. Time is something that's more important with us.
Other than the DAT Load Board I don't know a way to find out if ping-ponging across Missouri is a realistic option. If there were sufficient loads going to the Kansas City from the St. Louis area (visa versa) it would make it very easy for me to be home every night. Like I said in my initial post there are a large number of big cities within 300 miles of Columbia that make it likely to be able to actually be home most nights if not every night.
There is a shop very close to our home that I would use to get repairs done that I couldn't do but that is very true. There would be some time that I would have to dedicate when home to maintain and repair the truck.Attached Files:
blairandgretchen and Banker Thank this. -
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Your wife has very valid concerns and i will use my experince as a worst case example of what can go wrong. I became an O/O back in feburary. I got a 380k mile 2017 pete 579 for about 70k with a 2 year warranty. Put 25% down and paid up front for 3 months on a leased trailer and still had almost 50k in funds left over for maintaince. Had the truck dynoed. compression and oil tested plus a full inspection from three diffrent and competeing places and told this truck is golden and ready to run hard. You would think i was in a great position right? Company i lease to you can easily make 7-10k a WEEK if you run hard amd i have spent literal YEARS planning to do this. Surely i cant fail right?
Wrong. In 6 months i have had one major wreck when a 4 wheeler ran a red light into my path and did over $50K in damage to my rig.
i have had to put almost $65,000 in repairs that DONT include the wreck (towing is included in this and makes up almosy $25k now on its own) into my truck because i have a parts list longer then your average womans dream shopping spree list. When my ECM was replaced my milage jumped by 200k and may be evidence of ECM tampering. I have lost 3 months total out of 6 in work being down waiting for repairs. And i am still running into things going wrong. Just to make enough money to make my payments on my normal bills and my truck incidentals like insurance and payments i have had to pawn nearly everything i own and put every single penny i have earned back into repairs and without help from the AWSOME company i am leased to and a dear friend i would be bankrupt right now and it has taken this long to claw my way to a position where i MIGHT be able to survive. Ontop of that i have not been home ONCE aside to move in almost 5 months.
Granted my case is about the worst posible way for things to go but it IS something you need to consider can happen. If your wife doesnt support you and your journy goes half as bad as mine has it can put a HUGE strain on your marrage and may break you. Sure if it works out you will both be happy but that is a big IF. You need to ask if its really worth it to you and the strain it will put on a marrage already strained by trucking in general.
Dont get me wrong for ME even with all the setbacks being an O/O has been my dream since i was a small child and i will ride this ship to the dirt and love every single second of it good or bad. Because it is my dream so the headaches, fear, and stress is worth it to ME because god #### it i can at least say i TRIED to make my dream happen. But is it worth it to YOU?Last edited: Aug 14, 2021
SL3406, dunchues, Gearjammin' Penguin and 7 others Thank this. -
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