First time o/o's or buyers read this...

It appears you know what you're doing J.D., and that's great. I too started off with no debt but I think we're a very small minority of folks that were able to do that. It sure makes life a lot easier without tons of debt on our shoulders. My biggest piece of advice to budding O/O's is to keep your overhead down and do your research - whether it's for tires, a truck, or whatever. Just doing those two things will maximize your chance of success many times over.
To me it looks like you're on the right track!

 

Thanks-
I dont want to fail and it bothers me when I see some people that do...
Sometimes issues are out of our control I suppose. I have 2 friends that want to be L/O or O/O and I am trying to convince them to pay for the rig up front or if they MUST lease a rig, go through a 3rd party company. Nice big down payment and then LOW monthly bills...Never lease from your employer.....thats the biggest mistake I think that people make out here.
They call them FLEECES for a reason..right?

My biggest reason for paying cash for the rig? - No monthly payment. If I don't run, I don't have a bank chasing after me. You can quickly become a slave to these dam banks and those days are over for me. No more car or truck loans or leases....those days are over. Cash is king!

PS. These drive tires I got? Dunlops. $445 each at Wingfoot.... But I mentioned I am an OOIDA member....price dropped to $343 each. That's a $430 savings including the tax. It's almost a free tire. I tried to get additional discounts like mounting or disposal but I couldn't push it any further than that. I was going to go to Pomp's but I didnt like the attitude I got from them..

 

I always buy older trucks.Small payments or none.Buy quality parts.Do most of my own work and do it right the first time.Run within 300 mile radius of my home.Sometimes I make it,other times I have stumbled but have always gottenup and tried it again.Probably any other way is easier,but not nearly as exciting...

 

The is simple: it rarely does. Many will slam these lease programs but with full disclose this is how I started. But didn't see my family much and was one of few who cleared more than company drivers. Problem is that there is so much about this business you need to learn and the learning takes time on the road. If they are a good company then they will let you run as company driver. And you first learn to drive and learn about the business side whole in a company truck. Not whole you have a fixed weekly payment. They make it sound attractive but it is stressful and even if you are a great business person there is as much luck in being able make it as business skill.

And even with my settlements that could be used as the poster child for lease programs I would not recommend it to anyone without a year of driving and with the company you are going to lease with.

If one out of ten make it a year I would be surprised.

BBB

 

Thanks for the info. My plan is to work as a company driver first. That way I can have a least 1-2 years of OTR skills before I change to O/O or start out with a new company with better pay. Like you said, its a lot of info to learn in this business and I sure do not want to fail at it.

 

BINGO.
Save any money you can too!

Best of luck..

 

The answer is simple....They can't!

 

I did like handarko and paid cash in full for a truck about 6 months before I put it to work. I had $15,000 in the bank and right out the gate a cracked head ended up costing me $7,000. Had to do a brake job that was almost $2000 had to replace two steers and two drives. Got ripped off on two alignment jobs until I found a competant alignment shop. Those two drives I replaced only had about 20,000 miles bridgestone m726 the sorriest worst wearing sometimes impossible to balance tire ever made. Needless to say with all my downtime the truck expenses plus $2000 a month in household expenses our christmas last year was bare bones and I wondered if I'd still be around by spring. I've got my truck running great now and other than a $300 job to replace a broken jake spring havent had any big dollar maintinence issues since the spring. I did replace the turbo and flash the ecm about 25k miles ago for $2500 that was not emergency or surprise but when the old turbo came off I was surprised how lucky I was to have not destroyed my engine at some point soon it wouldve let go. So at this point in time by next week I'll have my $15,000 back. In all this time I am back where I started having barely kept myself debt free. I made so many stupid mistakes. I still have fun with it especially now that I'm not having to fix something every week. I figured $15k with a paid for truck would make it easy and I had a rude awakening.

 

I won't even comment on how much I have had to toss into my W900 since I got it and I am not done yet...but I think...I think... the end is in sight finally...
Wiped out 2 savings accounts in the process. But its all worth it I think?
I love the W9 and wouldn't trade it for anything else out there.

 

That's because you have very good taste as far as trucks are concerned!