Leasing TO Swift as an O/O

As an o/o you have to pay your driver what ever you can afford to do so.that driver has to meet swift standards to operate the truck,thus you will see a lot of oo advertise in terminals for current swift drivers.You can hire who you want.but just makes more sense to pick off an unhappy swiftie and give them a little better deal,and maybe a little more freedom and input.

 

Yep, what the monkey said. I have seen those signs in the terminals. Good luck getting paid by some of them. Ask Scotty!

No bennies, still treated like a company driver, then you have 2 bosses.

 

oh,rug.........

 

You can find drivers, rest assured. I've seen enough of them when I was with Swift. The pay wasn't any better, they lost their company benefits, but they got to drive a blue Columbia (or sometimes a Classic) which could go 65 (company solo trucks ran 60 at the time). The increased speed will attract some of the younger drivers, for sure. I wouldn't expect them to be particularly conscious on the matter of conserving fuel, though - if that's the one incentive which got them to sign on, what do you really expect they'll do? You're not likely to net more experienced and mature drivers who've been building up their 401k with Swift, taking advantage of the benefits, etc.

 

You can hire drivers for your truck(s) yourself but they have to take all the dumbdumb classes (kiosk) and conform to all Swift rules and regs. You'd have to cover their workman's comp premiums as well. Pay them fairly and issue them a 1099 at the end of the year. They would be responsible for their taxes, health insurance etc. If you don't know any drivers you want to hire, you may post ads in the terminals or elsewhere. You may even consult your fleet manager who most likely has a list of drivers who are looking for trucks.

There's not a whole lot of upside for the driver to go this route- maybe a couple of cents more per mile than they made as a company driver, faster truck, freedom to bounce out the terminal gate to get eats etc. It's a huge risk for you as well, will this driver or drivers want to work hard enough to be profitable for you both, will they take care of the truck like it is their own, will they mash the throttle everywhere they go and turn in atrocious MPGs?

Yes it is your truck(s) so you will be paid for the miles and fuel surcharge, extra pays etc which you then distribute to your employee(s). If I were to do this I'd probably set up a paypal.com account and pay the driver weekly right to his/her email address.

 

Actually 1099'ing them in the eyes of the IRS is wrong.

Scotty did that dufus ever pay you what he owed you?

 

I just chalk it up to experience Rug. I never signed any contract with him, I got what I deserved to get for trusting that man at his word. I don't have any hard feelings about it. I've lost more money than he ever owed me in one night at the Rio in my old life lol. I saw him at a terminal the other day, looking particularly ragged and depressed. I know it was his plan that someone (me) would be taking over his lease by now and paying him 10% off the top. He's still doing the mentor or team thing as I saw someone else in his truck. I'm surprised it is still on the road unless he had major work done to it which would explain his depressed look. He must owe Swift bigtime by now, he took out a loan in January when freight was slow and blew in on lotto tickets instead of reinvesting it into his truck which was showing amber and red check engine lights, burning a gallon of oil every couple thousand miles and nearly bald drives. We didn't say anything or even acknowledge each other was in the room lol.