Going owner op with Werner

You sound like you got your #### together and you're probably at the very top of your fleet manager's board. I've always wanted to do that with a brand new truck but have put little thought into the finances behind it.

 

I'm a new driver, only 6 months behind me with Werner, but why not further your career and go owner op? I'm already doing it. LLC is being setup as we speak and then I get to pick out a truck of my choosing. The load dispatch is exactly the same system, for good or for worse, but that makes it a tad easier to handle rather than being full blown independent. You have to pay $500 to get the LLC made, and you have to put $1500 down on a truck. You'll have to manage finances very well but at the miles you're running you'll have zero problem financially unless your luck turns on you and you get a bad truck. The feeling of having your own truck will be the best of all. We can't have inverters, governed at 65, have either MobileEye or OnGuard which are both an extreme annoyance and distraction, and are regulated down to the bone. All that'll be gone. You can get the ecm tweaked to your liking. You can get the emissions deleted and save thousands on fuel, you can install a power inverter. If you're out for months at a time then a power inverter would probably be a path to heaven for you. All but one owner operator at Werner that I've talked to, close to 10, have said they wished the started o/o sooner rather than later. Give it a go, the potential for more money is there, but the potential for 10x the stess is there also. I'm extremely excited to get going, just takes about 2 weeks to get the LLC approved and formed. You seem to be on the lucky end of Werner's dispatch so the potential for you to thrive is way better than others. Might as well further your career and be a true captain of your ship rather than being a mindless drone driving their truck.

 

I will make this simple as I can.

Unless you have the title with them listed as the lein holder......you are a company driver. PERIOD! I dont care what they tell you (or anyone else for this matter).

You have absolutely no rights to the truck. You are paying for nothing. You are paying off nothing. Its really that simple. Please do not get "shiny truck syndrome" and get suckered into a fleece purchase.

 

Unless you can take your so called "business" where you want you own NOTHING! Heck you dont even have any rights to the truck at all. It belongs to them. Please dont give me the "I am paying it off." If thats the case get the title with them as a lienholder. Wont happen lol. Sounds like you went to the Werner Medicine show and bit lol.

My 16yo neighbor can get an LLC and an IRS number. Big deal.

 

Only about 5-8% of all truckers are independent, and almost all of them run ex fleet trucks.

The thing you have to worry about is the trucks that are set up with absolutely garbage equipment. Like Gordon has entire dealerships fulls of trucks they cant sell. Despite having cummins engines, the interiors are garbage and they have long frames. Which makes the trucks horrendous to drive in parking lots.

But some of the other fleets actually have decent trucks. I would have already bought a Werner truck but they are borderline impossible to find for some reason outside the company program. I guess people like that baby blue. Very rare color to find on dealer lots.

 

Actually, that is a LEASE you are referring to. Werner has a purchase program, which lets you walk away with the truck when you are done paying.

Leases are a nightmare, and actually cost more than buying. Never lease. NEVER.

The Werner program isnt bad for trainers or teams, you can pay a truck off in a year or two. Like actually pay it off and have the title in hand. So its definitely not CR England or Prime.

 

Shoot lad id go for it. From your initial post you talked about being nervous, etc...and it IS hella nerve wracking. Just follow your plan and trust your gut. You're not some six month wonder kid, you have good experience. And from the sounds of things you have your poop in a group with Werner. You gotta do what's right for you man. I think runnin for Werner, at least til your truck is paid off like you wanna do, would do TONS about alleviating that nervousness. Go for it, and dadgum it keep us in the loop!