Owning a truck, Hiring a driver

Post your operational costs to prove your big talk. Many of us are giving the OP straight forward no nonsense data from our P&L's. Even without truck & trailer payments he'd better have darn good paying direct freight contracts, because a single truck running even 50% load board rates (for a door slammer at least) will be struggling to show any profit after paying the driver and all of the required operational (fixed / variable) costs, taxes, insurance, administrative, etc.

Post your P&L to show a 50 cent per mile net profit under those specifics. I bet you're not running a P&L cost of operations spreadsheet and are forgetting a lot of costs, and you're figuring $2+ per mile or better. OP says he had a contract for $1.92 a mile locally. That's not that much if you're only running local getting minimal miles. No one is trying to discourage OP, we're trying to help him get a realistic grasp on what the actual costs are.

 

excuse me i haven't driven a company truck in a while I own my own b ought and paid for in full I am giving him reasonable rates as a carrier myself i did my homework before i started and i ended up paying way more to get started then i anticipated and that is too be expected. you say the big carriers started out with 1 or two trucks yeah but im willing to bet they didnt start out paying company drivers either 10/1 says they were drivers first. believe me when i say if your not driving and you put someone to drive in your truck i can guarantee you will not be abl;e to make enough to sustain you and your family and be able to put back into the company for maintenance and such. not on today's rates it is a reality. if it were that easy there wouldn't be so many independents out there busting there butt just to get by. not to mention company drivers wont take care of equipment as well as an o/o will there will be more brake downs and alot more expenses and higher fuel costs as well. you sound like someone that's never owned a truck and don't know anything about the expenses involved.

 

Ok so what are you guys telling this man,that he can never havex someone drive for him unless he has a hundred trucks.If you read my earlier post my suggestion was to keep driving his truck buy another let someone drive that one build his cash then let someone drive his.I never said to sit home and let someone drive his truck thats hard but it still can be done.Everyone has to start from somewhere just because you or someone you know cant make it work dosent mean someone else cant.I know a guy personaly who started when freight was at an all time low in 08-09 and all the truckers told him he was crazy to let someone drive for him but his wife was sick and he had to take care of her.He only had one truck.His wife is healthy and he now has 6 trucks.Thats how i know it can be done theres my proof and he's the one telling me i can do it.Remember freight is not always slow everywhere someone can run local and get 3.00 per mile all day and be home very night not everyone goes OTR the guy i know goes local and gets some times 400.00 to go 80 miles,drop that load and pick up another everyone is not Otr super truckers......

 

I know a guy that hired a part time old timer, that only want to do one run a month. He stays home one month, and pays the other guy a percentage to run one week a month. It works for both of them.

 

i was thinking about leasing a truck. Yes i know how people think about the lease program but its my only way as of now. I know of many people personally who have leased a truck at my company and multiple leases who are successful. So that being said im not asking a question to be yelled at or your opinion on leases but heres my question. if i lease a truck i was gonna be a solo driver but thinking about teaming with my buddy. i was trying to figure out what would be a good cpm to pay him to still generate revenue off his miles or should i run the truck first to figure out all expenses then figure it out that way. Thanks much appreciated

 

never mind guys i read this whole thread and dont want to pay all his taxes ill just stick to solo good thread tho. Very knowledgeable

 

If you do a lease purchase from a company that would be very hard because they charge like 650 a week.You could go to someone like lone mountain and lease a truck for like 1300 a month then it might work.If you lease onto someone you might not be able to pull other loads off of load boards not to sure though but you can ask round.

 

Getting back to the original post. I would drive for some one if they wanted me to drive and paid regular. Alas in my area everyone wants me to relocate .

There are those of us out there that are still willing to work.

 

I glad that you learned things that were helpful. Enjoy your truck, and the ride. Linda