Spending tips for a NUBE!

Start out as a company driver for about 5 years. Save your self a lot of headaches in your learning curve. Might even keep you from going belly up. If you can't make it as a co driver you will never make it as a lease op.

 

$40-60,000 might sound like alot, but you half to take into consideration how you will get that money. In order to see that kind of money as a leasee to a company(any company) you will have to live in that truck
and you will have to take a lot of cuts from every to what you eat to the kind of cloths you where.. simply put you will work your butt off just to stay above water..... Why would you work so hard when the company is seeing 60% to 70% of the profit? You will make more money and be home alot more if you become an o/o(if you do it right), or even a company driver in some cases...... You will be doing yourself and your family a great disservice by leaseing on to a company.............
However if you have your heart set on having your own truck,but can't aford the payment or have bad credit, try buying an older truck( they have beter engines(pre07)anway) or leasing from the truck manufactor directly.....Good luck!

 

Bull, like you said, you have been around here for a few months, lurking around and thats fine. If you have searched this site through and through, you would find that most everybody (aka 99%) on here tell you to stay as far as lease programs as possible.

Most everyone out there recommends that to get into the trucking biz, start off with a company as a comp driver for a while and see if you really like it. Then as you do so...make connections and ask around like crazy getting to know the industry and what it really takes.

There is no point in asking about hotels because that would eat up your profit right there. Sleeper cab is the way to go for most of the drivers out there. As far as food...a loaf of Wonder bread and a package of Oscar Mayer...water from the fountain pop machines. Im not saying you have to live like a Hobo...but the more you spend OTR, the less you have in your pocket.

 

Thats a loaded question if i were you i would go the owner operator route first. However, you will be hard presed to find a company that will hire you on, with less than one year experince... That being said if i were you i would stay away from landstar, they are proven crocks( Ie; fedral lawsuit,because they were steling there O/O fuel surcharge.
Prime i am not so familar with, but as a general rule of thumb i would stay away from any company that addvetise in those truckstop books.
To be a true indie YOU HAVE KNOW EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW ABOUT TRUCKING, AND THAT IS NOT A JOKE. You have to now where best freight lanes are, so before you take a load some were, you know you will be able to get out with a load THE WORD DEADHEAD SHOULD NOT BE IN ANY IC'S THOUGHTS.And you will need to know how freight moves thrughout the country,( for example say i am at paper plant in washigton and i realy want to get back home to michigan, however there are no direct routes back to home, but i can get a load of paper rolls going to penn. It's out of my way right? well i know that there is factory in carlyle that makes parts for the swarts creek gm plant. in michigan , so instead of just siting at a truck stop for days or weeks or worse deadheading home, i would just take that load to penn, and while doing that i would be checking the loadboards so i could get one of those gm loads going home. So i would be home a day late, but i would not be broke. and i could make the truck payment)..
Just a few of the things you will need is a reliable(USED) truck and 53' trailer preferibily a refer(so you can haul standard and refridgerated freight) a laptop with with internet acess anywhere the sun shines in the us and canada( which reminds be canada has restriction on the type of tractor you can take in there ie: weelbase,i do not remeber but i think it's in the 260's to 270's feet and above range...) You need the internet to use the loadbords(the ones in the truck stops are never curent) and if i were you i would sighn up for every one on the net(search load boards).
And the seconed you buy a truck weather ic or o/o INCORPARATE YOUR BUSINESS(this is important because if you are in a accident of any kind You are safe from a lawsuite IE: they can not come after any money you pay yourself.. And the most imporant thing is to find the companies credit score(most loadboards give you the score) because the number one reason drivers quit being an IC is because shipers don't pay on time or a lot of the time at all... Your credit score has to be good as well because alot of shippers will find out your credit score, and if it's not good then they will give the load to someone else........
In order to be compltly honest with you, I am not or ever been a owner operator or an indie, but what i do know is what i have lerned from my father who is a fleet owner(a fleet owner is someone who owns, i think more then 3 trucks) but anyway he opperates 47 tractors and over a hundred trailers(mostly gravel trains).. So i do know alot about the business an would never knowingly steer you wrong, and if i did get somthing wrong i am sorry........... But if i did get then i am sure someone will point it out... Good luck!

 

They are correct about waiting to get a years experience. Most companies will not lease on an O/O without one year under their belt. this also give you time to learn about the questions you are asking.
It serves no purpose for an O/O to incorporate though. If you are the owner and the driver, you can still be sued for all you have. Incorporating will only save your assets if you owner, but not drive the truck. They can sue the Corp. first, then you as the driver second. So, why waste money on the CPA fees at filing time. For most single driver O/O's it is now benefit.
This is what I did to become an O/O.

Hire with a company. Drive that truck like you own it. Just look in one of those truck stop mags, to find out how much your company pays O/O per mile. Keep record of all miles, what your fuel surcharge would be. Now, subtract all of the expenses the truck has incurred. Fuel, repairs, you can estimate insurance at $100/wk, figure out truck payments with online calculators estimating how much you want to pay for a truck.
do this for a few months, then you know if it will work for you. I did this and bought a used truck from the company I was working for. Worked for them another year, then found a company that suited me better. Still have that first truck and now own a second. The advantage of buying this way, you know what kind of fuel mileage you should get. Fuel mileage is where the money is.

Don't jump in without on the job research.

Good luck

 

Kajun, With all do respect you are right "it serves no purpose to incorporate" if you don't pay yourself as a driver for tax reason.
However if you pay yourself as a driver(and eat the taxes) you will be an enployee,thus limiting the amount some one can sue you for(because, you the employee will be in a lower tax brackette, then you the employer). make sense?
Incorporating protects your business, and in order for the business to grow and be sucessful it needs to be protected.

I am not saying you are wrong, i am just giving you another angle.

Ps. $100 a week for insurence seems high, his it for both your trucks?
My dad pays $39 a week for each of his trucks, I am not sure if it's because he gets a discount because of the number of trucks he insures. Thats why i am asking.

 

Never mind it' it's the healthcare i was thinking of ..sorry, I don't know how much the truck insurance is offhand...