Back when I was adorable.

You had goals and aspirations to contend with (and probably a pinch of midlife crisis) that weren't going to be satisfied as a company driver no matter how much they paid you. There's another guy who posts regularly who did something similar...left a high paying linehaul job at Old Dominion and bought his own truck and flatbed trailer. A remarkable feat requiring a remarkable about of startup capital to be willing to part with in a short period of time. Most guys have to work up to that over a period of years or even decades.

 

I consider Blair a friend and he definitely has done well. My problem was for most of my career I would see a loaded carhauler going down the road and I would think to myself “I want to do that”. Even when I had an easy well paying job where the hardest thing was figuring out where I was eating dinner. Carhauling wasn’t as easy as it looked but it worked out in the long run. I had an inside track to carhaul. One of my best friends at UPS was a carhauler for 20 years before he came to Buster. I knew what my end goal was, it just took a little longer to achieve it. I never got the same feeling of accomplishment hooking a set as I do loading 10 or 11. In single digit weather I definitely miss my old job at UPS, but on a summer Friday night when I am home having a cold one grilling dinner at the pool with the family I don’t miss it so much.

 

My (RN) Medical Sales Rep Wife, still gripes about me not having Teamster Cadillac health insurance. We make more than enough to offset the increase we pay for healthcare and prescriptions but I still hear about it regularly.

 

My problem with the O/O career track is that after you get your own authority, and after you get direct customers, where does that leave you? Locked into a contract. What good is all that dough if you never have time to spend it? I suppose then you hire on other drivers, expand your capacity, but now you're a people manager, less a truck driver.

In my experience, the happiest O/O seem to be the gear heads. The guys who eat and breathe diesel fumes and are can afford to share margin with brokers and still clean up at the end of the year because they have the mechanical knowhow to keep a $25k truck rolling on any given day, and don't pay for tows or mechanics or warranties or computer repairs, so their only real cost, aside from brokers, is tires and fuel, and taxes. The rest of the revenue goes straight into their pocket, and they keep flexibility enough, working through brokers, to take a month or two off whenever they feel like it.

 

Others may but I have absolutely no desire now or ever to have any employees. The right contract freight with a large carrier offers me the revenue and flexibility I desire currently. There are some cases in my industry where one’s own authority can be good, but not currently for me. A $25,000 rig in my industry would be scrap. I spent $285,000 for a custom built tractor and trailer in 2016 and $125,000 for a new trailer in 2022. The revenue has to be high enough to justify the expense to allow for a reasonable R.O.I. and fortunately it is. I did my research before building the rig so I was confident of my earnings potential with the rig.

 

If you can find a carrier that will contract to a single truck, and offer flexibility of home time AND steady work, that would be the holy grail. Most guys aren't that lucky starting out, or haven't done the homework. You're contracting to an LTL carrier?

 

He operates a really nice parking lot.

 

I started my career in LTL with Consolidated Freightways many years ago and liked LTL work, but I haul cars now. I do remember years ago when Central Transport was Union, they had owner operators in the city and road.