Question for my Owner Operator Brothers

NEED SOME ADVISE FROM EXPERIENCED O/O AND DRIVERS ALIKE....

I was recently fired and found a job which is advertising as "Need Company drivers/get paid like O/O"

I contacted them and they stated that it is a kinda business opportunity. I have been driving for 13 years, always as a company driver and am asking if this makes sense and if it would be a good deal....

They state that the company has leased trucks and that I would NOT be leasing one, They pay the lease, the taxes, the insurance, the maintenance, basically everything EXCEPT FUEL..

They would pay me $1.04/mile to run their truck like it's my own. They dispatch, they do the maintenance I simply have to be a "PROFESSIONAL DRIVER" and pay for the fuel.

They have accounts at TA, FJ, and Pilot so I would get fuel at a discounted rate .065-.16 cents depending on where I fuel.

Does this make sense and if so, is there money to be made with this company at $1.04/mile when having to pay for fuel?

Mileage will very like with any trucking company but their freight lanes run North East to FL to TX and I would be paid $1.04 on both MT and loaded miles, $125 for layover, $15/hr after 2 hours detention, $50 drop pay + $50 del pay, fuel card and EZ pass provided and settlements every week with NO ESCROW......

PLEASE ADVISE ON WHETHER THIS SOUNDS DOABLE AND IF IT SOUNDS LIKE THERE IS MONEY TO BE MADE WITH THIS COMPANY.....

THANKS

 

If all you're paying for is fuel, then the mpg of the truck will be huge here.

Just run some numbers. Say you run 2500 miles in a week and get 5.5 mpg. That's 455 gallons. If you get 7 mpg, that would be 357. You're talking about a $400/week difference right there.

 

Zippy will be out of the business in a few years. Running that cheap means he is not maintaining his vehicle/fleet, not buying quality insurance and will, eventually, have crappy CSA scores due to poor maintenance/running illegal to try to stay afloat etc. CSA will be the killer of the cheap freight haulers, in my opinion. Cannot wait. That means more loads for fewer O/Os and better rates because there will not be as many crap drivers taking cheap freight.

Ultimately, this stuff has a way of working itself out. Call it Karma or economics or whatever. I am still a big believer that if you are running an ethical, legal business that puts the customers and the drivers first, you will win in the long run. And NOTHING will change my mind on that.

But hey, I am just a chick, what do I know?

 

Are we getting spam on the threads or what?? I keep seeing a bunch of would be hijacking posts like this. GO HIJACK ANOTHER THREAD!

 

A little history for those who care.....



The Presidential Drilling Bans were lifted and oil drops like a rock until they were put back in place with oil climbing back higher and higher ever since.

FYI. There is no Congressional Drilling Bans currently because they expired September 30th, 2008 with the Democrat Congressional majorities in 2008 fearing huge losses in the November 2008 election if they did put it back in place.

 

You missed a critical word that I have used - SUSTAINED.

And this is all fairly academic at this point. We won't see $5 this year and any levels staying much above $4 are going to be hard to sustain. It is an election year and people vote with there wallets.

Then IF we do see that in the next couple years you are assuming poor economy and lack of consumer confidence.

My thesis is that SUSTAINED $5 levels is driven by demand and that is driven by consumption - i.e. - consumer confidence, lower unemployment, growing economy.

 

I agree that increase on each trucker's cost has a negligible effect. But there's compounding effect.

Raw materials have to be made/mined/harvested first. Then they have to be transported to factories, where end products get manufactured. Each one of the processes above will have to pass on the increased energy cost down to the consumers. Finally the products are transported to warehouses/retail stores. Or to other factories, where this end product is used as supporting product (nails) for a bigger end product (furniture), where compounding effect will repeat again.

That said, if you sit down and do the math, I'd be surprised if the overall effect amounts to 5%. Although it seems Von Appetite's marble cake and Grandma's cookies have shrunken more than 5% over the last couple years...

My biggest concern is people's fear and emotion, consumer confidence as someone already mentioned. It takes discipline to be able to settle down and think things logically. Most people lack that discipline and let their emotions make decisions.

I try not to fall for that trap, but it certainly give you a pause when it costs $200 to fill up a pickup truck.

 

The last economic pullback of this size lasted from 1929 until the 1940's. We are not out of the woods yet.

Corporations have moved jobs out of the country that will never return. Some jobs may return if the price of foreign labor increases along with energy cost to transport goods back to the US to the point that there is little cost savings in remaining out of the country. But, as long as there are huge advantages in the cost of electricty, local taxes, EPA rules, wage, benefit, and time worked requirements in other countries, moving back will be a long shot.

I was recently reading about why Apple makes so many products overseas and how they could never make those products in the US because of the different business climate.

Another reason for jobs not returning has been mentioned earlier, automation. Corporations have invested billions in machines that work 24 hours a day, and machines don't beech and moan or want benefits. Also, as long as unemployment is high, workers can be had very cheaply, and many workers are doing the job of 3-4 people at the reduced labor rate. Corporations like a somewhat high unemployment rate because of this.

In order for manufacturing jobs to return in enough numbers to keep up with the new people entering the workforce along side those working to an older age, several things will have to happen. Wages will need to go lower, workers must continue to do the work several people used to do, local, state, and federal regulations and taxes will have to be modified. I don't see all those things happening anytime soon.

There will be upward blips in the economy along the line. But, people are keeping their hard goods longer. Eventually these will wear out and break, and must be replaced, but fun buying will remain depressed.

I have an auto dealers license. In 2007-2008 I could go to the auction and find nice older autos with under 100k miles. Now it is hard to find older cars (5-10 years old) with less that 200k, they are in dire need of repair, and costing more than the much nicer cars did four years ago. This proves people are not buying new cars unless they have to.

The only new stores opening up around here are dollar stores. The medium and high end stores are closing. The same amount of groceries I could buy 4 years ago for $120.00 is now $200.00, and I get smaller portions. I have also cut out the extras such as snacks and things I like, but don't need to stay alive, as is most people.

Also, every penny of increased fuel cost is added into transportation of crude from the oil well, through every product and service we touch, until it comes back around again to more increased cost of drilling the oil well and transporting the fuel from it. If I use 500 items to make a product and every item goes up in price, this makes me have to raies prices, which in the long run, as associated higher prices make the rounds, the price of those 500 items go up again.

As long as the workforce keeps growing at a faster rate than DECENT job creation, or any job creation, things will not get better. As long it is politicially benefitial to have more immigrants in the country, things won't change. As long as it is cheaper for corporations to use cheap foreign labor, things won't change, as long as the Social Security system has to keep moving up the retirement age to remain solvent, more workers will remain in the workforce, and things won't change.

This one is going to take a very long time to work its way out. We are going to end up with a few people supporting the masses, then a financial disaster such as what faces Greece will happen, but with no one to bail us out.

 

We are allready well above $4 here in the northeast for fuel and climing daily and gas is close to $4 or just over. Its here and i do not see it going down soon. I truely hope it does but i think not. I totaly disagree about the demand. The demand aspect has bin out of it for some time now and the price is driven by greed and political fear overseas. If it was demand the price should be no where near where it is right now. Bill dont get me wrong i hope your right because it would be great if that was why the price was going higher.

 

Does this tread not say ASK AN O/O moron? I was asking an O/O a question as I have never run my own truck and was trying to see if this add I came across seemed legit. I know nothing about running my own truck but know that most mega carriers leases pay $1.00/mile plus fuel surcharge which varies but you have many other things besides fuel to pay for ie: lease payment, insurance, maintenance ect.

I was simply asking if $1.04/mile is a good rate if you only have to pay for fuel and if it seemed legit for a company to offer this type of package for a company driver.

So go highjack yourself if you have nothing intelligent to add.

Thanks in advance to anyone that may have some real input to help a fellow trucker out.