So you want to "own " your own company

OK here goes. I am a company driver 10 yrs experience OTR. I know this industry well for the most part as i have tried to listen and learn as much as i could in the last 10 years. I have kicked the idea around for several years about buying my own truck. I am sure alot of these questions may have been asked before but i am looking for answers with the current/future economic status in mind. I would like your honest opinions from personal experiences. All replies appreciated.

I work for a very good company that i am happy with currently, but i strongly want to be an O/O but i am having trouble deciding what to do. I have some business management in my background so i understand how to run an efficient business. I also understand that being an O/O is exactly that, running a business. Should foget about it and be happy making $60,000 plus a year or am i on the right path? I won't have to worry about health insurance or any of that because we can get that through my wife and i don't have any debt. I have good money skills and am very discipline when it comes to spending and saving.

questions:
1.What all is involved after i find a truck to buy ie... plates,ins,dot#,icc/mc#'s etc.... ( is it the same whether i lease to a company or have my own authority)?

2. For financial reasons would one be better off buying a used truck ( paying cash ) that has been well cared for and maintained, or financing/leasing a newer truck and not have to worry us much about possible problems?

3. When you lease on to a company to run for them what do they pay for and what do you pay for? ( I know this may vary but as a general rule of thumb ).

4.How can someone make a living leased on to these companies that pay .90 cpm or $1.00 pm. Is it possible or are these the guys all bytching that they are going broke or are these companies paying for everything except maintenance and fuel for these O/O's?

5. Is it hard to get contracts for yourself with your own authority only having one truck?

6. Is the costs of getting own authority worth the reward of more $?

7. My company has O/O leased on and all of them i have had a chance to speak with seem to be pretty content. Soime of them have brand new trucks and others have 15yr old trucks. I would think the ones with the older trucks must be making more than the ones with the newer trucks because of no payments but none of them really want to get into "how they are doing". I have talked to my company and they will allow me to buy a truck and lease on and if i don't like it or can't make it i will be allowed to come back on as a company driver but i would have to give up my seniority ( which really means nothing except for truck assignment purposes and dedicated load bidding because we are not union).

8. What questions should i be asking and what are some of the key factors to look at when deciding whether it's right for me to do and which way to go.

I know i'll think of other questions so i'll ask when i think of them. Thanks

 

Hey yall. I plan on doing some reading and searching but I wanted to make a post so someone could give me at least a clue as to what I am needing to know.

I drove for Covenant transport for about a year which would have been better spent pounding my testicles with a ball peen hammer. now I drive for a very small 2 truck company. It is a father / son & wife operation. The father and Myself are the drivers. The son gets us loads and the wife handles the finances. I am currently making 20% of the loads. We run flatbed and haul anything and everything.

I was toying with the notion of eventually buying my own truck. I have looked in several trader books and it seems that a decent used truck will run me about 40K. Some more, some less, but lets say 40K. Then ill have to get a trailer which is a few more thousand. So for the sake of arguement lets say 50K total for the equipment.

Then there is the insurance, licenses and all that jazz. Dont know how much that is or anything but Im sure its considerable.

I was thinking of eventually buying a truck and trailer (I dont know if I want to do flatbed or another type) and letting my wife find loads, book them, and do the finances while she stays at home with the kids.


Right now, I make about 500-700 per week with the 20%. However we have done the quick math and in the last 2 weeks I have done about 5000 worth of hauling for the company. I filled up 2.5 times which was about 1000. Thats 4000 left. I know you have to pay for upkeep and tires and such but still... thats great money isn't it?

I was just wondering if anyone else did this. I haven't even started saving for a truck yet and I really dont want to get hit with the 1000+ per month payment from a lease program. I intend on saving and buying a truck straight up (or #### close to it and bank financing the rest). I also wanna have about 5000 saved for startup capital for things like fuel and anything else I need until the money starts coming in.

Anyway... its something I am thinking about and would like to hear success or failure stories about this type of scenario.

 

The quick math is suspect.

Fuel is about $2.60, so for a grand you would only get 400 gallons which with 2 100 gallon tanks is 2 complete fillups. Let's say it was 2.5 times, then it was $1250 in fuel.

But, that would only get you about 2500 miles. In two weeks that is 1250 miles a week and either no one would be in business anymore with those few miles, or you're getting $3.50 a mile for every mile loaded and empty, which isn't happening.

Listen, it can be done, it's not as good as you think, but you really need real numbers, even worse case scenario numbers to even begin. This just isn't it.

 

hehe as I said, I just started thinking about this. Im just wondering basically if it can be done and can I make enough to support my wife and 2 kids. I could drive the truck and she could be a stay at home mom while doing all the "behind the scenes" trucking work.

I know that the company I work for gets just over 1000 per load. I ran 5 loads the last week and a half and I filled up 2.5 times which is probably right that it would be a little over a grand.

I run a flatbed so I dont know if those loads pay more than say a van or a reefer or not.

 

How many miles a week are you running? Let's start with that.

Flatbed is supposed to pay more, but that's not what we're hearing lately from the flatbed guys. That section has been pretty devastated with the freeze in building supplies.

Reefer has to pay a bit more but there is more fuel used as well so overhead is higher.

 

Miles per week? I average 500+ miles per day. Sometimes I have to be creative on my log depending on how show the shipper or receiver is that day but still. We are based out of georgia.

Here is how we normally run...

Load from GA to somewhere up north. Normally Michigan or illinois. Then we get a load running from somwhere around there (normally its coils from up north) running to a southern state. Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, or Texas. Next we pick up a load in that state and head to the other side of the south east with a 3rd load. Like if our 2nd load had us go to Mississippi we will get one going to florida or southern georgia. From there we typically unload again and get another load going back north. We live in northern GA so normally we can get home while hauling the load for the weekend

Monday - Drive and deliver load that you picked up on Saturday
Tues - Start Early, deliver up north and pick up next load heading down south
Wednesday - Drive down south
Thursday - Finish driving down south, deliver, and pick up another load
Friday - Drive and either deliver on the same day or early the next morning
Saturday - Pick up another load and head to the base (northern GA). Take rest of day off
Sunday - Off

Basically we are home almost every weekend but we run pretty #### hard while we are out there. Of course there are a lot of variables that affect things such as tarping and where the load actually goes. On top of that sometimes you run into a shipper or a receiver that has their head up their butt that day and takes forever to get you out of there.

So we average about 500+ miles a day.

 

Oh on the flatbed thing, we dont have problems finding loads till winter, but then again we aren't picky about what we haul. Heavy or Light, Tarp or no Tarp, we haul it all. We do loads that some people complain about such as lumber that has to be tarped or suicide coils that people are not comfortable hauling.

We stay pretty busy and I have never had to sit without an objective for more than 3 hours (unless I need a 36 hour restart....but even then I normally play my logs to cover for that)

 

I'm on the phone for a bit, but in the meantime look at my last couple pages. I posted all my numbers for my first 3 months.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-an-owner-operator/70022-load-boards-167.html

 

Ok so to cut through the itemizations and details which you'll get in time, the short answer is that you will need approximately 15k access to immediate funds. High dollar cards can help but is inadvisable as you'll have essentially two payments on everything every month.

Insurance for truck and trailer for the year is about 7 to 8k with 25% down, or about $2200

Tags for all states plus sales tax on the truck will run another $2300 or so and this MUST be cash, they don't take credit cards or 3rd party checks.

About $800 for authority, incorporation, UCR, various registrations and fees.

Then there's the truck and trailer. This is 5 to 10k down depending what you work out and how much you buy. First time buyer you're looking at 30% financing no matter what your credit looks like.

You can just buy the truck and lease it on somewhere which they'll take care of your tags and either pay the insurance or help out with it, but you won't get much more than 70% of the load pay if you do. Lots go that route, perhaps most.

Next you'll need a rate calculator to play with and see what you make over a year depending on your haul rates per mile and how your break-even point varies depending how many miles a week you run. You'll find that the more you run the less you need to make, which is important with the way rates are right now.

You need 3 more posts to PM but I'll send you my e-mail addy, send me yours and I'll send you a calculator.


If you're running 500 miles a day 6 days a week, that's 3000 miles which sounds more accurate.

Pulling flatbed with a flat top truck you probably get 7+ mpg depending how many of those are deadhead.

So that's 430 gallons a week, figure 800 in 2 weeks which is 4 complete fillups or $1800. Out of 5k that's about right the way rates are right now.

1/3 for fuel, 1/3 for overhead, and 1/3 for you is what you strive for. Thats $1.20 for all miles, and that's not all that easy to do right now, this means you'll probably be lucky to clear about a grand a week to yourself. Likely better than a job but with a lot more stress and headache. To me it's worth it.

However, if you start taking out taxes, social security, health insurance, you're right back to that job intake a week.