Cost vs. Spot Rate Spread (Dry Van, National Average)

@gentleroger ”You're not the 'typical' O/O”

I don’t feel like many people would walk away from 6 Figures and benefits as a LTL or Parcel Driver with a 401K or Pension to make less money long term. While more money wasn’t my number 1 priority, better quality of life was but I still had a personal goal to blow my UPS salary out of the water many years.
I definitely was not a typical owner operator, I definitely also don’t think I am better than anyone, but my goals tended to be higher than some folks on occasion.

 

Thank you!
I have posted my yearly profit and loss statements in the past on this forum, but I likely won’t do it now because not everyone can handle the revenue I did in the same way. There were owner ops at the same carrier I was leased to hauling the same contract freight I hauled for the same rates I was and couldn’t make it for one reason or another. That’s why I say not everyone is meant to be an owner op. I was a much better owner op from 49 years old to 59 than I was at 24 because I had more knowledge and experience than I once had.
I have mentored a few owner ops at the carrier I was with and one in particular is doing great, but he didn’t listen at first until he spent thousands and thousands of dollars on stuff I told him not to do initially. The others were better off as a company driver because they didn’t want to do the stuff that wasn’t flashy to make and keep their money. I used to see one guys rig at the hotel at 10 or 11 in the morning so I just assumed he worked late. Come to find out he didn’t work much later than me, but he couldn’t get out of bed. He also didn’t want to haul any of the less than desirable freight when our premium freight wasn’t available. The premium freight in particular only ran 2 weeks a month so he stayed home those weeks. The non premium freight paid the same or better but it wasn’t always as easy (one stop) but it would take him towards his house. This guy in particular did well as a company driver because the company wouldn’t put up with that BS.

 

The guy that bought my rig was 24 years old and had already been a successful owner op for several years. He wanted my rig because it was a glider and fairly customized and his was nice but it was a former fleet rig. He would routinely gross $3,000-$5,0000 a week more than I did and it was because he worked more than I did, was young and energetic and backhauled. I came back empty by choice for roughly the last 4 years of my career because I could. I built a new trailer and rack for my tractor that was about $215,000 to upgrade about 18 months before I retired. I sold my old trailer for roughly $100,000 to a co-worker who wanted an upgrade. I hadn’t planned to retire when I chose to do this. I backhauled 2 loads a week to get my upgrade money back and sold the rig for a premium versus what I would have sold it for without the upgrade.
My point in this comment is that we can’t just post numbers to give people an accurate picture of where they will end up. This is because the numbers going out are as or more important than the numbers coming in and those numbers will be different depending on who is controlling them.

 

The problem with that is that this is a public forum, heavily trafficked by marketers, dispatchers, etc. I'm not calling anyone out but I refuse to post what I actually make. I hint to it on occasion but I'm just not willing to hang myself by sharing all the data. Am I thankful some other do for comparison? Sure, but I'm just not willing to do it. If those aspiring owner operators want to make it in this game they have to learn to search for info, read between the lines, seek out relationships, mentors, etc. Harder and harder on this forum or anywhere since less and less people have any ethics.

About 10 years ago there were lots more seasoned owner operators and sharp businessmen frequenting this site. I learned a ton from them. There are still alot here but not posting as much and then there is the fact that people hang out here less when times are bad and there is nothing good to talk about. Personally I'm kind of a forum junkie so I have been a regular for a long time.

Then there's this, and it's HUGE. There are a million kinds of trucking. There are a million kinds of people who do it who have a million different backgrounds, and then there's the elephant in the room no one ever talks about on top of that. COST OF LIVING! We all live in different places with different costs of living but run the same roads for the same customers/brokers all over the country fighting for the same rates. Doesn't make any sense to compare hard numbers in most cases.

I live in the south where the cost of living is extremely cheap. I don't pay tolls, like hardly ever. Just when I run through WV usually. I don't pay for parking, at home or otherwise. I don't pay much in taxes, personal, property or otherwise. I have 4 personal vehicles on my property which cost me about $25 a year to tag, no inspections, no BS. My insurance (personal and commercial) are cheap because of where I live. Fuel is cheap here too, ALL fuel. I paid $16k/acre for the property I live on. You can buy a nice house here still for $300k. And with all this a lot of people think I live in a sh*thole. I'm glad they think so. Don't move here, it sucks! I started in this game after I had already earned a nice pension and nest egg from my life before trucking. I don't have kids at home. Etc. etc. etc. If you live and run out of Chicago or Jersey or CA most of this is foreign to you.

Me grossing $20k a month is a whole different world than someone in the NE or the west coast doing the same. There is not even any comparison.

If you are a dry van haulin' guy like me (by choice mind you) then everyone doing something specialized thinks you're just a bottom of the barrel steering wheel holder but it's not all in the numbers you show today. It's what you know, who you know, where you came from, what your goals are, when you run and where you run.

 

Some people say it’s not what you make. It’s what you keep. That’s a pretty blanket statement, but it is fairly accurate in the grand scheme of things. If you made $1 million and it cost you $1,000,001……

 

With $3 fuel my cost per mile was right at $1.50 for all miles, every thing associated with running my business. A carhauler has more maintenance than a guy who only owns a tractor. I was under a contract where I got 83.5% of the gross revenue and 100% of the fuel surcharge. The freight I hauled almost exclusively was bid very well for $3 diesel which is where diesel averaged most of the years I hauled it. However anything over $3 diesel the surcharge only kept up roughly 35%. If I were still there I would be back hauling another manufactures freight that did have a great surcharge but less freight rate to make up the extra fuel costs on my outbound freight. There was still enough fat in my regular freight to pay for $6.50 fuel and come back empty, but I had a daily profit minimum I wanted to make. I still would be bypassing what I considered cheap/difficult freight to get to better paying/clean more productive freight. Many people I was friends with hauled the cheap/difficult freight but I chose not to. There are so many different ways to do things and my way was not the only way to do something. Often people who knew me couldn’t believe I passed right by a backhaul. The people who know me well knew exactly why I did.