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

Good question. Definitely going to be some changes in the next few months. Still not entirely sure what those changes will be. Definitely leaning towards a larger company that lets me pull from a load board, but recent news about the Schneider o/o contract has me leaning more to Landstar. Might need to check out JB Hunt as well, but they seem to do a lot of intermodal work, and I'm not sure I want to deal with ports and railyards. I have a passport, but no TWIC card.

 

Central SC

 

I think there are quite a few folks here that will explain that they are making good money pulling for Schneider or Landstar. Not so sure about JB Hunt, as I don't see many people talking about them here. I understand JB Hunt did some, err, guerrilla recruiting here on the site a few years ago which irritated the mods, or something?

If I was ALL about the money, I'd be learning to haul heavy/oversized loads. But I'm not. There needs to be a life balance between what you do and what you earn. As a new o/o I was okay with leaning more towards working harder as I learned in a simpler, easier environment while I paid off a truck.

Now I'm taking a step forward and planning on taking on more responsibility and (hopefully) earning more. I will be dispatching myself, but the company I work for will be acting as a sort of invisible factoring service, isolating me from billing. Also, group discounts on fuel & service.

Maybe one day I will go to a small company as an o/o or run under my own authority. But not in the next year or two at least, and, honestly, probably not even then. If I understand correctly, Landstar allows their drivers to own and operate their own trailers, not just hauling in Landstar boxes, which could allow me to operate without worrying about dealing with crappy beat up trailers with flat tires and rusted rails.

*shrug*

Plans. They rarely survive encounters with reality. I'm already about a year behind my initial planned change to a company with a load board because maintenance on the used truck ate my lunch money.

 

Aye. I had a small business of my own years and years ago which failed because I couldn't find customers. That was in computer services, not driving a truck, but the memory of that is part of the reason for my caution. I learn from my mistakes, generally, and I've made a few.