THANK YOU! This gives me a lot of really concrete ideas about how to prepare and considerations about what I would be risking if I went out on my own before I had the experience. I'm a very engineering-minded person so I can accept an answer but I have to know why first most of the time. As a former independent contractor in the construction field, I know all about how the boss wanted me to take all the risk and get none of the reward. Sounds like that's why these companies have these FLEECE PURCHASE deals where the O/O pays for the truck and they don't give a care whether the driver profits or not. They get their loads serviced and they make profit off the lease payments. If the truck doesn't make money they're not involved in that part of it. Win win for them. Little guy takes all the risk.
Going O/O: Which Truck to Buy?
Discussion in 'Questions From New Drivers' started by csmith1281, May 29, 2017.
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GA AL MS SC NC VA WV KY TN IL OH PA RI MA NY NJ CT WI MO OK TX AR IN...A couple more than 7, but certainly not 48 plus The Queen's territory.
Right now I'm hauling refrigerated freight. There's dry van, reefer, flatbed, tankers, hazmat, hoppers, and heavy haul. What else? What can I haul where the rates aren't garbage? -
So all you know right this second is 1 month reefer right? Dry van fits in a reefer trailer so your good there with swift. How much flatbed, tanker, hopper, and heavy haul have you got under your belt?
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First is the attrition rate for people being owner operators at your level of experience is about 99%.
The longer you are on the road, the lower that number gets but it never has been less that 75%.
Second this is not like construction other than you may get a 1099 at the end of the year. Learn the business on what you are doing, it is a large industry, and takes years to learn the different segments of it.
And finally stop using the term fleece purchase, those who use it and never took part in a program of lease purchase program seems to me that they don't get they listen to the failures but not the successes. If it was such a failure, then why do they continue to exist. And what I find disturbing, people will lease a car or pickup where you get zero value out of it, but then complains about a truck lease. Don't fall into the trap in thinking like others.csmith1281 and chris_karr Thank this. -
DSK333, mardaddyo, csmith1281 and 1 other person Thank this. -
Another reason to get at least a couple of years experience first is so you can actually contract on to a good company. Many companies still require experience even if you're an O/O.
And you don't have to become a mechanic to be an O/O. I don't even grease my own truck usually, I pay my local shop I park at to do it. I made the decision early on that I already had a full time job and I didn't need a second. I know a lot of guys enjoy it and more power to them. It's work to me and I'd rather spend that time with my family since my job doesn't afford me a lot of time in the first place.csmith1281 and Bean Jr. Thank this. -
I heard of a bunch outside of the propaganda/advertisements but not much here.
I disagree that it is a push onto the owner the responsibility as being the bad thing here, that's how owners have to operate, it isn't that you are a driver any more, you have more skin in the game.
AND I got to be honest with you, one of the things I keep telling people to do is get legal advice before signing anything, not to go into things blindly, and weigh them out carefully, because as I've said before this isn't about the money you make.
I have a few copies of least purchase agreements from different companies and only one of them is worth the paper it is written on, but I heard that this company is mean and don't care (I won't mention the companies). I also know that the person who handed me a copy has done the lease purchase successfully and has now several trucks on his own, he couldn't do it without the program. He pointed out the biggest failure is not knowing what's in the contract FIRST and FOREMOST but the second failure is to plan this out as a business, knowing the company is going to hold back X amount, they are going to take payments out of the settlements and so on.
Crap Bulldog, the second L/P contract I got came from a guy who failed because he didn't realize how much they would take out, but in the contract it was all there, he needed X and got X-maintenance and failed because he got frustrated.
A third point is the latitude with loads, many of these programs I agree trap the owner into their freight but if there isn't any of their freight, then they are stuck. Another reason why someone considering it needs to get legal advice to know what's in that contract and if it has a clause to allow finding your own work.chris_karr and csmith1281 Thank this.
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