New o/o

Wow only 6 months and you think you can just buy a truck and live a happy life. Driver PLEASE pay your due's 1st and continue learning this industry or you will get eaten up ALIVE. You are so not ready, because it's so much more to just buying a truck and authority to be successful.

 

Most of the responses you are seeing are from either O/O's that actually know something or, most likely company drivers who wouldn't risk a nickel. You are going to get many popcorn responses from people like the latter. Many company drivers who are happy with their current situation will post here for no apparent reason. I do not know why they do this but they do.
If you have financing in place that makes sense, a good truck in mind and enough money in your account to cover fuel, food and breakdowns I say go for it, you will either be a success or go broke quick!
The truck you choose is crucial, so you should do much research on that! You should also consider the amount paid for insurance for a new owner/operator, it is substantial as I've recently discovered shopping on my own.
Also, much research should be done on o/o companies willing to lease on a new driver.
You should plan on covering your expenses for a month or more without revenue. Good luck if you have a breakdown!
If you have no business experience whatsoever, this is going to be a very shortlived venture given your limited experience. This experience could also land you in the poorhouse quickly. Seriously consider these things!

 

It doesn't make any sense, the risk of failure is high and with the average failure rate being over 85%, who in their right mind would take a risk with less than five years of driving experience.

 

I would ask you this: show us your numbers. Show us your business plan. You will either produce a solid plan backed by lots of research, experience, and a strong support network, or you will flub some BS answer that clearly shows you are hellbent on proceeding with or without proper preparation, or you will take the responses given here, slow down, and do what is necessary to be properly prepared. I hope you choose the third option. Here’s a hint: don’t do anything with your own money. Build what Robert kiyosaki calls your “three E’s” of experience, education, and excess cash, and I would add “credit” to those, then build a business plan and go get financing from an outside source. If you can get a dealership or bank to loan you money, then you have a good chance of succeeding. Call banks and dealerships and start asking about the requirements. Call Lone Mountain. Talk to people who are leasing from Swift, then talk to people who are leasing/owner operators at other companies. Learn the landscape. Start building business credit now. Open an LLC for some business purpose and obtain a secured business credit card. You can lease from Swift, which I do not recommend, or you could go to Prime, which I do recommend to get early training and experience. They have a good leasing program. Take this thing step by step, one baby step after the other. Grow into it. Yes, it is kind of hard to screw it up if you get into the trucking business in 2018, but it’s not impossible. You still have to know how to operate a business, and you have to make sure you, the business owner, are a good risk. And sooner or later, the market will tank and the economy will turn down, and if you don’t begin with the plan to whether that storm and manage your business as such from the very beginning, you will be on here in a few years telling everybody else how there is no money to be made and Trucking and everybody is trying to push the little guy out, which is always true, but they can’t do it without a lot of help through our own mismanagement. End of rant.

 

I would! But maybe I’m not in my right mind. 18 months ago, I got on here and asked this exact same question. And I worked for Swift. And I got all these exact same responses. Let me tell you… Working for Swift quickens the imagination. One does not wish to remain a company driver for long if he has any self-respect or self love. But I got pointed in the right direction and read through a bunch of threads on TTR, did a ton of research, ran my truck hypothetically as a lease truck, asked lots of questions, developed a business plan, and got backing from an investment partner. $25,000 to be exact. I bought my own truck used from prime, and in the best market the trucking industry has ever seen, I am nearly out of money. Unfortunately, I bought a maintenance hog. A lemon. Even though everything has been covered under warranty, downtime costs a helluva lot. $165 per day in my case. You can’t make a profit with as much downtime as this truck has cost me. Shame, because I leased an identical truck with similar mileage from Prime before buying this one, and not a peep out of the truck... not a single air leak. I thought I was going with a proven winner when I bought this truck. The point is, no matter what you do and how well you are prepared, it is still a big risk. This business is like any other: there is strength and safety in numbers. A single truck leaves you highly exposed. There are a lot of variables that can be compensated for with additional business units. Unfortunately, with a single truck, a lot is still left up to fate. Not that you can’t be successful with enough determination and enough attempts, but it doesn’t always happen on the first try. I’m still waiting to find out if my first try will work out…

 

Great info above ^^^^

And my response above was not trolling or joking. Look up each of these costs. Every one of them is real, most yearly and insurance is by and large the biggest. It will kill you. I'm 45 with 25 yrs. CLEAN AND SAFE experience in a 2015 tractor and trailer and my insurance is $1800/mo.

 

And pay you peanuts to run it. The maximum rate per mile on their sliding scale as of when I left last year was $1.60… Actually, I think it was in the $1.40 range, but even being generous and calling it $1.60, there’s no way you can survive on that.

 

No offense meant, but from the sounds of it, you're about broke now too.

Sometimes it's like, "eeny meeny miny moe."...

 

I never ran for Swift under those conditions. If that’s what you mean.

 

I currently run about 6 loads a month for a broker that Swift Transportation filters the loads through downstream. They are easy peasy and pay me $950 on 300 miles.

My original comment to the op was meant more of a tease and play along, because my sense is he's just another bored trucker who decided to post a thread to get a rise out of folks.