Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

Oil change, oil, fuel and air filters, fluid fills, and chassis lube. Usually there is some sort of inspection performed as well.

 

I have already netted about 13k, in 2.5 months of operation, including the partial month of January. Something terrible will have to occur to keep me from clearing 30k. Or I will spend a LOT upgrading the truck with features I want, in which case it is an investment.

 

Sure, for all miles driven, including Personal Conveyance miles. Anyone who has ever started their own business, whether it is trucking or anything else, knows that startup costs can be rough. I didn't go into this blind. I have been a bit irritated by the fact that Crete clearly deferred a lot of fairly expensive basic maintenance, but I believe I have caught up with the majority of the maintenance they dropped the ball on.

You have started your own business at some point, yes?

 

I was a steel mill mechanic, and never sold my tools. I have more tools than I know what to do with in storage. One day, when I have proper storage space on the truck, I will create a dinky little toolkit out of my tool collection and do more maintenance for myself. Right now, I barely carry anything. Pliers, wrenches, a ratchet set, hex and torx key sets, snips, bolt cutters, and a couple pry bars.

 

You are correct that making 37 cpm after expenses isn't good enough. However, part of the reason for that is the fact that I am starting a business and am having to catch up on maintenance deferred by Crete.

I spent about 14 cpm (3500 dollars over 25,000 miles) on deferred maintenance costs like I mentioned above. That puts me at around 50cpm, which isn't anything to be excited about, but it is roughly what I was making as a company driver.

The exit strategy has not changed. If I pull another quarter like this, I will start working towards moving on to another o/o opportunity with more potential, and a load board. But, if the next quarter averages out to roughly 16,500 net, then I am making what I made as a company driver.

The goal in a year's time is to be making more than a company driver. If the valve adjustment I am having done this weekend makes a difference in my fuel economy, then that might make things a bit easier.

Remember that my plan has never been to stay at Crete forever. My goal here is to learn some of the basics of being an o/o, without having to try to learn it all at once.

If I can take home 60k or so this year at 1.30 per mile, I suspect that I'll be able to stay afloat in most downturn markets when I'm doing more on my own.