I have $7000.00 and i want to become a owner operator out of ga., what do i do next ?

Are you hauling granite?

 

I find that alittle hard to believe...

 

Yes, the drivers who have been in the game for a long time are making good money, but that is also true for almost any profession. For a newbie it is a lot harder because the start-up capitol is so high to get started and there are a lot of hoops to jump through.

 

Well in GA right now intermodal freight companies are leasing on every day in Savannah, just look at craigslist for Savannah. I tried containers twice and couldn't last over 9 months because of all the crap with blown tires and 125,000 lb loads on 5 axles. I was making good money taking containers from Savannah to Long Beach for $6700 to the truck. But you can't do that now with a older truck.
You'll need to buy a tag which is about $1100, so now your down to $5900, you'll need some fuel to start, so now your down to $5300 , a little insurance, now it's $4900. If the truck you buy has been parked since last July or so you'll need $575 - 275 for the 2290 tax, so now it's is $4300-4600. Probablly a set of batteries, $4000 and an oil change and PM check and DOT inspection, now it's $3600 you have available for a down payment. Take out 2 weeks pay to live on till the checks start coming in...now it's $2400 you have down for your new truck.
If you are employed right now I suggest you hold off for another month or so and then reevaluate. From the date of this post you may have already made your decision.
I have a 96 western star with new tires new engine a very nice truck and a 53ft plate trailer ( all paid for) parked right now because I got stiffed for $20,000 from unpaid freight, I driving another man's truck hoping I'll get the balance of $5000 paid to me. I want back in my truck but I'm holding off.
Keep this in mind though, if a company can't pay you for one load they d@#&n sure can't pay for the 15- 20 loads you keep hauling for them, Make every haul stand on it's own merit and cull the deadbeats quickly or they will bankrupt you.
Lease to a company after you've had a Dun and Bradstreet financial report down on them . It's worth the price for sure. GOOD LUCK OK??

 

can some one give me an idea of what payments o/o do on a truck like
what kind of taxes, can you do it like a list. like this
insurance
plates
etc
i just what an idea, cause i'm thinking about it as well.

 

what state are they running in making 3000 a week pulling containers?

 

Mooney ,forgot to add gasoline to the trash can. Now is not the time to buy a truck, not if you plan on making a living with it. Most owner ops are having a rough time of it and will probally get worse b4 it gets better

 

I had to go out in my first year of Trucking and repo trucks from way to many people to make me want to be an o/o, I much rather Net 50,000 per year being a Co. Driver than losing my shirt owning a old truck.

 

Save the money because you don't have enough to get into the trucking business.

 

I was in a similar position a couple of years ago and after reviewing the load boards like internettruckstop and truckersedge and calling a few companies about how much specialized/permit loads actually paid, I decided that I would go the specialized route.

Specialized loads pay 2.5-4 times a standard load and they still do. This meant (to me, at least) that I could run half the miles and still get paid two or three times as much as a standard load driver. Specialized loads also means special equipment, special permits, special hours of service, and special tickets for being out of compliance. If you are unable to read and follow instructions TO THE LETTER, the penalty can be SEVERE.

First, I bought an extenable RGN trailer that needed tires, chambers, and brakes. I repaired these items myself. Then I leased the trailer on with a company I found on the Internet. After a few months, I bought a 6 year old truck with 500HP & 13 speed transmission & long wheel base so I could add a 3rd axle. This was the minimum requirements to heavy haul. It matters little that Heavy/Specialized Haul trucks are older than 5 years old in the Specialty business. RGN (Removable Goose Neck) trucking means drive on/drive off loads or crane on/crane off loads and very little tarping. If a load requires tarping on a RGN, it isn't 13' high in a high cold wind and rain/snow/ice. And no bumping docks, usually plenty of room to drop and a hell of lot better to run than flatbedding, which I did for 3 years.

Permit loads require proper planning, a computer, a printer and a verizon aircard on board the truck. I tried other aircards but verizon has the most coverage. When you pick up a permit load, you usually have to measure the load and weigh the load prior to obtaining the permits. Permitwizard takes the headaches out of obtaining individual state permits and only charges $14/state. With the extendable RGN, only 1 in 7 loads are heavy, but heavy only loads can run 24/7. Wide, Tall, or Long loads all have special requirements-some require escorts, special lighting & signage-but most states restrict travel to daylight hours only.

The point is that you CAN make it work if you limit your expenses by purchasing what you NEED instead of what you WANT and learn how to perform minor maintenance on your own vehicles like tires, brakes, lubes & oil changes. YouTube videos and camera phones can go a long way revealing the proper technique to assemble/disassemble minor maintenance jobs on your truck. Oh, yeh, Nttsbreakdown is a great website that limits expenses because you can search by city/state or zip code and call several shops for an estimate before making expensive repairs on the road.

Hope this helps more than joking about your situation...