Need Advice on becoming an O/O

Sorry I have been MIA for a couple of days..but it wiped me out going to Green Bay, and back.

Snowwy, I understand completely where your frustrations are coming from, because my husband was a mechanic too and it does feel like some repair shops are reluctant to do work. May I ask what kind of problems you are having with your ISX? My husband said that there was numerous problems with the ISX, and that the Cummins was notorious for blowing out turbo's during certain years of production, so I was just curious. My other question to you is if no one wants to work on it, could you trade it in for something better that might have a different type of motor and save your $25,000 in repairs? I am not saying to go buy a brand new spanking truck, but maybe something that is a little newer with a different motor type might be better for you.

 

Mn, do you like the Century because that is the series we were looking at? Do you have any problems with the Detroit or Tranny?

 

Thank you Redman, I take all things into consideration whether it is bad or good. If you don't listen to what others say, and dismiss it as it "wont happen to me" it is going to doom the want a be O/O. I have read a lot of threads when it comes to the lease purchases, and I have to say that doing my own research is to stay away from these companies that offer it, because they are not there to look out for the driver. Any company that is going to pay .89 cents per mile and .39 cents per mile with fuel surcharge, along with $3000 escrows, 500-700 truck payments, and fuel purchased is not a good deal.

This is the first company that I have seen that has maintenance escrow only, they pay for the plates and insurance up front and deduct it on a weekly basis for a reasonable amount, pay 70% of linehaul, 100% fuel surcharge which ranges from.38-.41 cents per mile depending on the cost of fuel average based on the DOE, has no qualcom, no people net, no e-logs, no trans docs or trip pack, and you get paid the same day that you turn your paperwork in at the terminal. This concept is based on the ways it used to be in the old school days. They give you a chance to succeed, and I have seen pictures of quite a few drivers that have paid their trucks off through this lease company and the company in the past 6 months. So yes it is possible to do the L/P...if you do your research on the company, do the worksheet to figure up what your base mile needs to be in order to make some time of profit, and not have this big idea that breakdowns will never occur. I don't anticipate him bringing home $1000-1300 per week, but I did figure that he would make 600-900 with the figures that I used for my worksheet, and that was going on the high side of things(costs to the truck).

So thank you all for your advise...because it has been taken into consideration. He will start D&T next week and I will let you guys know how things go, but this decision wasn't made on a whim, it has been something that we have been looking into for quite some time, but this is what suits our needs the best.

 

You can be as negative as you want to be with a lease purchase or becoming an o/o as you want to be..the fact remains that is a choice. It is a choice on whether a person wants to finance it through a bank or if they want to do what they call a lease purchase.

Let me tell you a little story... You see this man below...that was my father n law who was an owner operator and had been in this business for over 40 years before retiring. Many, many years ago he was working for Central Transport in Toledo Ohio as a company driver with a day cab, and the company was having a company meeting letting the drivers know what changes were coming about. My father n law didn't agree with it and stood up in the middle of the meeting and told them to take it and shove it. There was a guy there who said buddy...you know you could buy the truck from the company and not have all the regulations that they are putting on you. So guess what..that is what he did, and he made weekly payments on that truck to the company until it was paid for. He then took that truck and traded it in on a 69 freightliner cabover..and made his payments on it until it was paid for. He worked on his own truck in the driveway, and if it broke down on the road he would make the repairs to it himself, and if he couldn't then he would have it fixed at a shop.

You also see the MACK that is in this picture below: He bought it brand new (4th off of the assembly line), and he thought he was getting a good truck. Well guess what? It wasn't...it was broke down more times then he could keep it running. He went back to the MACK dealer ship, and a guy asked him what he needed. He said I am bringing this truck back to you..because it is a piece of ####. The guy said well how much money did you make with it out on the road last year. He said I made $80-90000 last year, and the guy said well that is pretty good. He said buddy...I should have been able to make twice that in one year...and I am here to tell you that I am giving this truck back to you and don't think about coming after me for it, because I will hire an attorney and turn around and sue you for selling me a lemon. Guess what...they never came after him. I gained a lot of knowledge from that man, and I wish that he was still here for me to ask his advice because he would give it to me exactly the way it was in a way of telling me stories about this guy or about this company.

Trucks break down whether they are brand new or not, our drivers received all of their escrows accounts when they left the company including the maintenance escrow, and to be honest most people do a lease purchase because it gives them an opportunity to become the owner operator. I didn't come up with the term lease, but I imagine it is because O/O lease on to companies, and a driver wants to lease on with a company to buy a truck from them. Lease can also mean rental..if you want to rent a trailer instead of purchasing a trailer. I also think that you can get a shady deal from a dealership like my father n law did. Yes, you can't just take money out of the escrow to pay for your home bills...it is used to pay for repairs out on the road. The way it is done is that the company pays for the repairs with a comdata check, and then they deduct the amount from escrow. If there is not enough in the escrow, then you have to make payments to pay for the repair along with replenishing the escrow account.

You know snowwy, you never did answer my question above about your truck?

 

Thanks for the offer Vampyr...but I will keep it in mind if it doesn't work out. I have a program called Business Plan Pro that walks you step by step with writing a business plan. If you need me to look at it, then just let me know. I got an A when I had to write one for my small business entrepreneur class in college a couple of years ago.