Need major help

Well you have a leg up on a lot of the new users that come on here with the same question. Many have never seen the inside of a truck before. Sounds like you have a good grasp on what it will take. I would consider leasing on with a company in the beginning. I am curious where this new proposed insurance mandate will end up as that could put a hurting on a lot of truck owners. As someone mentioned before I would consider something in the 2 or 3 year old range as the emissions problems seemed to have worked themselves out a bit compared to prior years especially with Cummins. A lot of the pre emissions stuff out there is way overpriced clapped out junk and the same could be said for many of the gliders I've been seeing for sale. I wouldn't be afraid of a newer well maintained Mack either. Don't know to many people with bad things to say about them other than injector cup issues but I think they fixed that problem. I ran a friends for a day a while back and was amazed with the MP8 motor and how smooth the automated transmission shifted, far better than the Eaton ultrashift. Only gripe I had was a passenger side window draft being it was brand new. Not sure where you are located but I can tell you rates in the northeast are very strong in flatbed and dry van. I've personally always found the money to be close to home short haul regional type work. Load out and grab something coming back home the same day or sometimes hit a home run where you can just deadhead 1 way and still do good. 600 miles days will put you in an early grave. Best of luck to you and keep asking questions, sounds like you'll do good.

 

Actually some will even lease the truck to her on a percentage basis. Say for example, 35% to Landstar, 40% to the truck, and 25% to the driver. Could be the way to go.

 

Ran the numbers on my truck and brothers truck for the past 6 months. Your boss is possibly correct, after the truck and trailer eat fuel, maintenance insurance payments etc etc expenses.

MY TRUCK pulls in 500$ a week after i pay myself
HIS TRUCK pulled in 148$ a week after i payed him

Now, you look motivated, you probably will be closer to my numbers, but heres the BIG but. Both trucks leased to same small company, dispatcher, freight type etc. In the first year your extra money is mostly eaten fixing all the things that bothered you and that "extra" money could easily evaporate if you try getting your own authority due to 1st year insurance.

Im only cautioning being realistic here. The guy bought you a truck. You say he has no owner ops, ask him for a price on the truck and trailer, see if you CAN get em financed at that price. See what that would cost. Assume you get about 80% of the gross. If you run 1 load less a week would that kill you? If so, that truck and trailer are too expensive for you as a leased owner op and you certainly wont live through 1st year authority.

Added:
That "500$ profit" on my truck is going to evaporate fast as well, i need a new transmission and pretty sure my whole front end, so im going to be down about a week and 10k in that... its an investment and should help keep the truck profitable longer because those are longterm paid in cash repairs, but it still hurts NOW

 

You have so many good answers here. Going o/o is deffintly a life style not just a job. One thing you have to do is be honest with your self. Are you good with money?
Can you receive 2,500 aweek and only keep 1,000 of it a a week. Plus per diem of course. The rest is your companies money Untill the end of the year. The company needs that money for taxes expenses and repairs. Whats left over at the end of the year is yours.
With that being said, you also need to be honest with your self. Do your finances allow you to be able to make 1000 to 1200 a week plus per diem and not go backwards in life., I.e lose house, car, lights...etc.
What I'm getting at is. After you power drive your first 12 to 14 months to make bank. I.e just building a maintance account. You then can start to look at your home time.
I'm with landstar. I chose them because the settlements are every week. Wear as being a true o/o you may go 30 to 90 days Untill you get paid. So you really have to be good with your money. But you can use landstar to build up to that.
As far as "having a life" is concerned. Most of that is where you live. Do you live near a big hub that is constantly moving Frieght into and out of that area at good prices? To get on with land star is about a six week process. So it don't happen quick.
Being a tru owner operator or a lease operator. Allows you to go home when you want. Its up to you to decide if you can afford to go home.
I'm not gona say anybody can does this. But I promise its not as hard or as scary as it sounds. I wish you luck and hope you take the jump. There is so much wisdom here, you would have to fail on purpose.
When it comes to truck selections list your options and prices. You will get very direct answers here.
My only advise is, don't half step it. If your gonna buy and then lease on to land star. Or buy and go o/o then do it. Don't lease/rent a truck for five years then not own it. That's just crazy.
Welcome to the forum


Please note, all dollar amounts listed above are just examples

 

Can you buy from LRM? Their website looks like they only do leasing.

 

Here’s what I sorta think.

Stay where your at, but track every expense just like its your truck. Fuel, truck washes anything bought for the truck as well as all expenses for you and your daughter separately. Get insurance quotes on that truck and trailer like it’s yours then you will have some real numbers to look at for expenses.


As far as what loads are paying or what the truck is grossing he may not share that with you. That isn’t a totally bad thing. Freight is high right now......but isn’t going to stay that way. It will hit rock bottom always does. Actually seeing what it cost to run a truck is a sobering thing. Yes you need to save money from the good times to get through the bad. However trucking what might be considered part time in the good times won’t help you make it through the bad.

The best advise I ever got was from an ol wore out cow hauler. “Son it takes longer to go broke sittin than runnin the wheels off a truck too cheap”


Knowin when you hit it hard and when to slack up is a key factor. Make no mistake a truck will be good to you for months even years just for the chance to #### in your Cheerios when you expect or need it to the least. They never break big at a good time. You need more than knowledge, will power and work ethic to really make it. Owning a truck, working a truck, admin side of owning a truck and raising your daughter helping with school work etc is gonna be a full plate I promise you. Driving is the easy part. I’m not saying you can’t do it, fact is I would love to see you pull it off. I’m only saying your gonna need some luck to pull it off. It will be a long hard battle.

best of luck to you