Please help me. Is this a good deal? 60/40 split

So with that particular scenario, you'd make $1200 off the load? I don't think its that bad myself. How many miles is this $4,000 load in this scenario though that its costing you $1,000 in fuel?

 

I understand that. If you want to know if you are getting screwed or not you need to know what you are getting paid. Either per mile, per hour, per week or whatever.

 

This

you just do the math and calculate your pay per mile and or pay per hour or whatever
If it works out that you’re earning 75-85 cents a mile or more I’d say that’s good .
If you’re earning considerably less than that then you need to decide if what you’re learning is worth it .

I have no idea what the average per mile pay for a driver with your experience and driving record is
If you have eight years experience, all the endorsements like haz mat, tanker , doubles and twic , and no accidents or tickets , you could be earning about $80-90k driving someone else’s truck, and not having to be concerned with finding the loads and the cost of fuel .



don’t worry about someone else talking you you’re working too cheap

you need to calculate the average pay per mile for a week and for a month etc

you’re also getting to learn the business side of trucking with none of the risk .
That’s worth something . But only you can decide what the opportunity to gain that knowledge is worth .

if you’re booking the loads and having to do the math and figure the fuel costs and distance and time etc , you have a chance to learn what it’s like to be an owner operator , with none of the risk . And you get to decide what places you want to go to and how long you want to be out etc

 

Ok, so you are the one booking the loads, so you know how much is actually being paid. You also know how much is going to fuel, so you dont have the issue of being cheated on what the trucks makes vs what you are being told the truck makes.

So since you want to be an O-O let me give you some numbers that you dont know about:
1) If its a new(ish) truck the payments are in the 2500-3000 a month range. The insurance is in the 3-500 a month range. Trailers are cheap, but if its a refer and new those can cost in the neighborhood of 50k.
2) Oil changes are about 500 a pop. How often do you do them?
3) Tires. a set of steers can run 1500-2000. Drives depends on how much you want to spend. You can get cheap ones for 2000.
4) Any number of mechanical things that can go wrong. Newer trucks have warranty issues, older trucks just have worn out parts.

These are all costs that you dont see. Now add to that the fact that he is risking all that by letting you drive it. If there is an accident (your fault or not) he still has truck payments to make while its down getting repaired. How much would YOU risk to let someone drive your truck? (Personally I would never let anyone drive my truck, but thats just me).

But the biggest question is, do YOU feel that you are making good money with 40%? No one can answer that FOR you. I worked for an O-O ONCE when I first started (running teams with him) for 10 days. He cheated me, so I quit on the spot and never worked for another again.

 

The one and only time I was ever paid 60/40 I got the 60% but I also had to pay for fuel and tolls in the truck. That was years ago when I first started driving and I was doing expedited freight. Are these other drivers telling you this stuff, that you should be getting paid more than the guy who owns and pays for ALL the costs of the truck? If its new drivers telling you this I would take what they say with a grain of salt. I saw one guy on facebook trying to say he had 150,000 miles with only 7 months experience. He was asking for pay that people with decades more experience probably don't even see very often.

 

Percentages are meaningless. I'll hire you for 90%...... and you'll make $50 a day doing local hay runs, two days a week. Deal?

How much money do you take home? How much money do all these people you talk to that know so much better take home?

Unless you know how much money your "advisors" take home, their "advise" is just chatter. And the fact you are here to get clarification rather than just running with the herd and quitting shows that you are WAY smarter than they are.

Now, objectively, TODAY, $1,600 a week isn't altogether awful on a 1099, but you could do considerably better as a company driver. However, if this is a ladder towards a larger goal, such as becoming a successful owner operator, then it may serve a purpose by getting you a livable wage while you learn the marketing part of the business. That has value, but I wouldn't get stuck there for more than 6-9 months without a road map to the next step.