A few more questions.

Who spends $50,000 to overhaul the engine in a brand new truck? That's the whole point of buying new so you're not overhauling anything. Thing is you're going to spend your money one way or the other. Maintaining the old one will take money. A lot of it. Possibly even more than a new payment depending on how unlucky you may be. But maybe not. It's roulette. If you're lucky it'll be a wash.

The new one doesn't eat you alive in maintenance but it has a payment. Cycle into a new one every 4 or 5 years, whenever the warranty is up. Play it right and you can eventually end up in a brand new one that's paid for without having to spend most of your offtime wrenching on old junk. If I was fool enough to do it again I would get a new one but hindsight's always 20-20.

With you exiting the business in 4 years you'll be fortunate if you break even from this "venture". That's just what the odds are.

 

I averaged 35-40k into my truck a year And I don’t think I ever worked more than 46 weeks, maybe running them local might be different, but I’ve done 2 coast to coasts with mine in a month, and I don’t think most people know what it takes to reliably do that

 

My only advice is to try to find a segment of the market to haul specialized freight. Concerts, heavy haul, compressed gasses, oversized, military, or AA&E (Arms Ammunition & explosives) are just a few examples. Specialized typically pay much better than FAK (freight of all kinds)

I have no idea how new O/O survived on FAK rates the last few years unless they have relationships with companies to haul directly.

We leased on to a company to haul AA&E &Military and purchased a new truck. Our monthly payment is easy covered by our first load of the month and typically we haul 8-12 loads a month.

As O/O leased on we determine when we work or dont.

 

Well, get the rotten tomatoes ready, but you may want to check into intermodal. With all the turmoil in road trucking, I read intermodal is going to be the wave of the future, simply because, we can't satisfy the needs in conventional OTR trucking. I did intermodal with my own truck, and I did okay. Intermodal has gotten a bad rap, but I didn't think it was any worse than any other segment of trucking and has gotten a lot better, and you may not get rich, but I called my own hours, and was easy work. Just a thought.

 

Lots of sage advice in this thread. It hurts to read but it seems overwhelmingly true. Recently have had thoughts of venturing out on my own from the local company gig I have been at for 19 years now because I have grown tired of the driver culture that has formed with the steering wheel holders the company seems to prefer these days. Not sure where some of these guys ever got there cdl as their knowledge or lack thereof of even the basics is astounding. Guys no doing pre trips/post trips. Don't know what we are allowed to run in the 70/8 day rule the company uses. Not logging into Geotab so they that they can even show a pre/post trip, driving with lights out, hoses dragging the catwalk and much more i could go on about.

Looking at the prices of trucks fuel and insurance and recently watching a friend of mine who has been in trucking his whole life pull all 3 of his trucks off the road and become a company man has given me pause as well.

I love the old school trucks as well and pondered getting one however I believe those are best left at home as show toys for those that can afford to tie up capitol into them. For sure they don't seem like a great way to stay out of the negative as an everyday working truck.