2 Ears & 2 Eyes Here to Learn From You Guys In the Know...

Actually everyone has given you good advice. They've told you to work for someone first. You're green. We all were and some of us still are. Jumping into ANY business that you've never done is risky and bordering on stupidity.

If you want to seriously risk everything you've got. Jump right into it. If you want to be successful. Work for someone else first.

 

I'm a newcomer to the industry and am a company driver. The company I'm with gives plenty of time to deliver my loads. It's 50/50 live load/unload to drop and hook and they pay well. I've owned businesses and can recognize one that's well run which is why chose my current company.

I've looked into becoming an O/O and figure I'm doing well as I am but not as well as a experienced O/O. But, it's close.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. With the right company you get your load with a recommended route and then they leave you alone. When you need support you have it. Sometimes they get a little irritating but I don't pay the bills. We laugh far more than cuss at each other.

Try it as a company driver first and see how it goes. You can move up rapidly in payscale by changing companies if you are careful.

 

Yes, a reefer can haul dry van freight. That's a big advantage to owning a reefer.
Just one example of hundreds; I was pulling a reefer trailer and the quickest load from the East Coast was a load of paint going to Los Angeles.
Unloaded in Los Angeles and the quickest load out of there was canned beans going to El Paso, Texas.
The quickest load out of there was ceramic tile going to Jacksonville, Florida.
I could have hauled refrigerated or frozen freight also, but the dry loads kept me moving.

 

Just know a lot of companies will not load reefer units because of several reasons . Main reason will be the inside dims are smaller on reefer vs dry van. You can not nail in loads on reefer although most of those loads are ####. Weight is different as well on what you can Carry. Loads shift a lot more on metal so places do not like that idea and wont load it. Just a few issues

 

I saw that one time only. Went to Delaware port to pick up a load of scrap copper from Egypt.
It was palletized and the pallets had to be nailed to the floor. The load had maybe 12 pallets and so heavy they had to have lots of space between them. Without being nailed down, they would have shifted forward and made me overweight on the drives. Couldn't take the load because the reefer trailer had metal flooring.
Didn't take the load, but a few minutes to get another load. Don't remember what it was though.

 

#### good thing I didn't do that. Oh wait I guess I did and am doing pretty good. Not all people require being baby sit and can make good choices. Did I mess up a little and cost myself some money? Sure of course I did but would I had saved money if I drove for someone else? Nope would not had fixed the issue on buying the truck. If you are decent at learning and have some decent skills and know how to do business it can be done.

 

If you do anything on battery production they want to nail in and support. Seen it on a lot of heavy loads for metal as well.

 

I hauled a few battery loads out of Ohio that were drained. They were used batteries and spread out enough that didn't require nailing to the floor. Yeah, if nailing were required, couldn't have accepted the load.