Buying truck and trailer cash

The one thing you can’t take away from being an O/O is the fact that you get to live life on your own terms. You go out when you want to go out. You come back when you want to be back. Most importantly you pick and choose the loads you want to take. If Driving trucks is in your blood ( like it is in mine) then you’re making money with your hobby, not your job. That’s the priceless part. You’ll tolerate all the other hassles if you keep this one fact in mind. ✌️

 

That only works if you run your operation off boards, or as one ant among many. If you make yourself indispensable to your customers, in order to receive above average rates, those customers will certainly have an opinion about you taking time off as you please.....

 

I don’t think that would be a good idea. I would rather have a 60 month note and pay down the principal when possible vs obligated to a higher non conforming payment.

 

I've looked at the load boards I still have access to and they're nothing to phone home about. I just don't see it being worth it unless you have multiple trucks with multiple drivers in a tight niche right now. Or you find a warehouse that is in contract with a carrier and has a gazillion loads coming out of every day and see if you can lease on with them. I know of a warehouse in Olathe that TransAM runs shuttles out of every day, place is jammed packed with their trailers, and they just don't have enough shuttle drivers to move all of their loads. It gets so bad at times, they pull OTR drivers off the road to help the shuttle drivers out.

 

How much cash are we talking about? Brand new? Used? The whole idea of running a business is to make money. Once it’s spent on a Truck, it’s gone. In its place is an asset that’s losing value every day. I never hear anyone mention a break even point. Invest $200k into equipment. How long till you get the $200k back? The $200k back is on top of typical Drivers wages you would have made anywhere. How many years? What’s the equipment worth then? Invest the $200k, don’t touch it. Borrow money to buy equipment. If you can’t make a living and add a bit to the $200k, it’s a failing venture. Worst case scenario in 7-12 years averaging anywhere from 7-12% your $200k. will be $400k. Worst case scenario you lose your ### while working as hard as you possibly can. Meanwhile the money saved is growing all on its own. No effort at all on your part. It’s a no brainer. Run your plan by any successful business owner. The idea is to make money, not spend money. It’s so easy to spend more than you make in Trucking. With your plan, you’ll start out in the hole, having “invested” in equipment. Break even point is years away at best. Probably will never happen.

 

One bonus of buying right now is the used truck market is in the toilet and a good time to take advantage. You can buy a 1-2 year old truck for $100-$120k with low mileage. New prices aren't coming down and most are about $200k with an extended warranty. The cycle will continue, I don't know that we are at rock bottom, but circling it. Things will level out, capacity will continue to reduce, and the pendulum swings back the other way eventually.

You have a good job, it would be hard to leave what you're making unless you're not happy.

 

guys couldn’t make the payment on the truck, you think they paid anything for maintenance?

 

Some of the worst mechanically fit trucks were from people who went under but it took them a while to do so and the bank took everything.

 

This is true. I work for a company now that leases from Ryder. I would buy one of their old trucks in a second. Any little problem and they immediately take it in to get fixed. Many owner operators I know are too busy running to do that.

 

Back In the mid 90s I owned 6 trucks .

I bought one from Ryder ,
It was by far the best maintained truck I ever owned .

that was along time ago so things may have changed .

but they had a lot full of used ones and they had the full maintenance records available since it was new for prospective buyers to look at

any time a mechanic spent 15 minutes working on the truck it was documented .
Every light bulb etc .

they had changed the alternator every 100k etc ,