What to do next?

Some are about 800 lbs but we hardly use carts anymore. Most deliveries are on pallets. Every load has an electric pallet jack to use. It's actually a very easy job.

 

that’s good to hear that they have gone the way of companies like Tim’s . i never understood why MB didn’t have like electric carts with a motor instead of you trying to push 800 lbs . I know i probably couldn’t push and pull that much weight everyday

 

Lots of good advice here,

My take on being an O/O in Freight Hauling of any kind, 2023+ is its basically suicide.

The reason that Amazon guy has 7 trucks, is Amazon gave him a taste, then threatened to cut him off if he didn't have a minimum of 5 trucks and 2 spares (they pull this same #### out here in Alberta). Amazon and Sysco, if an O/O can't make a run, they owe them the cost of the run+the cost of paying someone else to do it. Amazon is not in the business of losing money, and THEY WILL take any and all losses/expenses out of their O/O's ##### one way or another.

Even my little 250 truck LTL company, has decided they're not longer paying for damage or downtime, and they will find a way to pin it on an O/O. Sad times we live in. We pretty much lose an O/O to bankruptcy every week, only to replace them with 2 more, that have dollar signs in their eyes. I didn't even know what to say, to most of them during the onboarding process anymore.

The Dump company i'm now working for, dump trucks and excavation are NOT their primary business. This is a division of a larger company, that was started to service their own projects and specific customers. I actually just got out of a meeting, and the COO of the parent company told me, the dump/excavation division usually only breaks even, or operates at a small loss; but exists to service the parent company so they subsidize it with cash. That is how bad things in this industry are, if you're trying to make it on just trucking alone, you're not going to make it! Also, all the dump/excavation companies I talked too, said you don't start making money until 5 trucks, and you need a spare, so that's 6 trucks to maybe make a single digit profit. Freight Hauling is even worse (Profit starts around 7-8 trucks, with 2 of those being Team driving setups).

One last thing, my LTL company looked into Amazon every 6 months for the last 4 years. They came to the conclusion, that we would lose money working for Amazon in every scenario, so they stuck to the things they knew worked.

Martin Brower, XTL (Costco Account is GRAVY!!!!!), Robert Logistics (Redbull Account), or start looking into working for the city! (3 buddies have done this, they work for water/sewer and roads AZ/Class one)

 

When you make a statement like this, how do you think being an o/o makes ''more'' money?
Something doesn't add up in that scenario.

 

Just my 0.02c, Leasing or Financing 7 trucks, to appease a single client that could drop you for any reason isn't success, its gambling.

I was actually thinking about this scenario today, and it reminded me of one of my favorite trucking youtubers "Woody" aka Justin Wood. He had a paid off truck, was making good money at RST/Prime and pretty much had a solid little setup. But then he got "Ambitious" and leased a bunch of trucks, hired a bunch of drivers, and starting being a "high roller". Well all that came crashing down one day, and he lost absolutely everything. He doesn't even drive or make video's anymore, just wiped the #### out.

If a customer says "get 10 trucks tomorrow, and we will give you unlimited work" they can give that work to anyone, you just happen to have their attention at this moment.

 

I've been self employed most of my life, and I'm retirement age now. I've read your posts here for the last few years and in my opinion you should follow the advice of you're getting here and get work harder to get a good job as a company employee. You're thinking you'll make bigger cash with your own truck but you won't. It's nothing to do with Amazon or anything, it's about running a business and having a huge load of financial responsibility, you fail, you pay for a long time.
You know you're not comfortable with the level of exposure you'd have to accept and you really haven't got a round turn on half of the risks or responsibilities.
Honestly, it's not going up a level, it's not a natural progression or anything like it if you buy your own truck. There's no shame at all in working for a decent employer and being treated and paid well, in a good firm you're really you're not earning any less over a 5 year period than 99% of o/o's, and a lot more than most of them.
Trust the voices of experience on here, put these thoughts out of your mind and make a proper effort to get a proper job, if you make half the effort doing that you have to do just to get through your first few months with your own truck you'll be in an excellent job.

 

Sounds like the now-discredited investment method of "buying on margin" that caused the stock market crash of 1929; people would buy a stock with only 10% down; if the stock went up and you sold, you got to keep half of the difference and the lender kept the other half. Then you did the same again, repeat, repeat...

Problem was, though, if the stock went down more than 10%, you lost everything you put in to it. Anything more than 10%, and you were losing money from your pocket. You sell in a panic at the same time thousands of others did the same, and the stock goes down even further. My grandfather did this, and was totally wiped-out in by the end of October, 1929. He went from being a high-roller to living in poverty for pretty much the next decade...

 

That's why I believe on setting a buying and selling point of your stocks espeically at a lower market stock price stock. Yes, penny stocks usually have a 90% which is why its good to look for those breakout that have reasonable valuations. Buy reasonably low, but watch you weekly overall marginal increases. And have a insurance stock backup Proshares stock incase the market does crash.!

 

Are you joking , o/o at Amazon only makes 13k a month? . I’m guessing that 13k is after all is said in dowe . Ie after taxes and maintenance can bankrupt you . A o/o at my company had a 15 Prostar and a maxx force and his turbo went out state side and apparently cost him like 14k which is hard to believe. Being Canadian and was in the states they screwed him .then a month or two later his Engine starts making some weird noises and he had posted for sale for like 10k and bought a newer freightliner .


Another guy years ago who had a 2010 T2000 with a cat that was a ex Brain Kurtz trucking unit had his engine go out state side . the tow bill alone was somewhere around 5-7k and he had to get his wife to co sign a engine rebuild because he couldn’t get the financing . Cost him like 35k . He then bought an abandoned celadon pro star with a cummins that apparently was sitting in celadon newly built shop with hood up and the place was full of new parts . He bought it off the new owner for 35k after he had enough of the t2000 and now he’s complaining saying this thing’s always costing me money

Another o/o who’s been here from well over 20 years tried the owner op gig again after a failed attempt in the 90s and bought a ex company unit at auction but knew the guy who drove it apparently took care of it . He’s told me he’s selling it at the end of the year and when I asked why . Are you guy’s not making any money he says no we’re making money but it’s the break downs that are stressful and it’s always something

I’ve also noticed on facebook marketplace even a few New Canadians selling off their junk with saying going into another field. If these guys are selling and leaving the industry , what’s that tell you and they have ruined this industry