How long till u got ur first truck?

I did 9 years at one company job then paid cash for the truck I wanted. 3-5 years would have been sufficient with hindsight but ownership was never a sure goal just a sometimes dream I had. Learned many things about dry van freight that better positions me as an o/o not having to learn on my own dime which is or can be costly. The right time to own is after one has experience, zero debt,and all equipment paid for with money in the bank before taking off on your first trip as an owner. Anyone can do it I started as a rookie with tens of thousands in debt and I sacrificed and did. Setting yourself up to fail in a difficult business any other way IMO. Good luck

 

my first truck was a 85' l9000 ford i bought it fram a local beverage company for $580 had a bad fuel pump got it fixed and hauled containers for about 6months till i sold it and got a t600. Its all about how you do with what you got. and dont overdo.

 

worked as a company driver for 7 years b4 buying my first truck in 1994

 

Class A CDL in June 2012... first truck in June 2012. Hard way to start, but worth it to me. Everyone talks about putting your time in and running for the training companies, which is just a big old con job imposed by these self same companies to abuse the newbies. Most new drivers dont last, and it is a product of the poor wages, sub-standard working conditions and outright abuse that trainees are subjected to. Both our fathers and our grandfathers who ran the roads did it by grit and determination. Lets face it, Drivers are not being asked to split the atom, just be careful, conciencious and safe.

As in the past, some will succeed, some will fail, but they will be doing it by themselves for themselves. A person these days has all the tools they need to succeed, if they take the time and effort to train and educate themselves, I was fortunate in that I had the resources available to take a chance, and If I fail it is my failure, not as a result of some huge training company flogging me for my 70 hours a week for a few hundred dollars.

 

That training company abuse line is the lame excuse of many who want to jump right in. There is no substitute for real experience. The mistakes one makes as a matter of routine in the normal course of learning the ropes will cost real money as an owner. Not saying you are going to fail but your lack of experience is going to cost you for sure. Patience is a virtue in this line of work, worth at least another 50 cents a mile above the usual rates,and if you don't have it they're gonna see you coming from a mile away.

 

Stay a company driver. $3400 gross sucks. if you cant clear $2500 after fuel and b4 other expenses forget it. if i clear less than $1.25 per mile(after fuel) i am pi$$ed! it is the wrong time of year to think about starting to owner operate. Do you know how to work on a truck? If you cant fix the majority of things DO NOT BUY A TRUCK!
if you are considering leasing to jbhunt i think you would do better managing a burger king and sleeping in a house at night.
heck most of these things in trucks these days would make more flipping burgers 70hours a week.

 

A few more comments on why experience is important and matters. Time is money and one has to be able to make very quick decisions in trucking because the competition is so fierce. There are many things one must know or do instinctively and you won't intuitively be able to without experience. Examples, I can plan (in about a minute or two of thinking in my head) most any trip fuel stops and everything based off the pickup and delivery locations without the benefit of a map or gps and be relatively spot on 90% of the time after I reference the map - as long as the load is rolling to or from locations anywhere east of the miss River. That came from years of doing it. When I was a rookie I wasted 15-30 minutes on every load trip planning. Depending on a GPS will help you there - it can also cause big headaches cause you don't know anything about the routes it offers. I can give spot on ETA without much thought or the benefit of a GPS. I do use a GPS now and it is great not having to think this stuff but I can live without that tool. Experience will also guide you through many things when looking to book potential unknown loads, there are MANY directions I could go with this one but would waste a ton of bandwidth. Point is you don't know what you don't know until you learn. It takes many months, maybe years even to figure out quick efficient routines for even something so simple as making a fuel stop - I can't even put that in words - but I have routines figured for every little thing I do to get things accomplished quickly and efficiently. Takes time to hone the skill of operating a truck smoothly. I'm not saying you can't or won't. I'm just saying you're going to learn these things the expensive and hard way.

 

what?? a 3 day work week?? How can anybody pay there bills workin those!! LOL

If I only grossed 3400 a week per truck, I'd sell'em all

 

I got my cdl's in 2007, I knew zero about trucking. I tried to get a local jobs , but no one would hire me because i just got my cdl's. In 2008 i got a company job and drove for 4mo, then i got deployed to iraq. When i got back i drove for another 4 months with the same co. Then they started jerking me around , about hometime for drill. So, i quit and got my own authority in 2010. I dont post a lot, i do a lot of reading about trucking. I have 10 more payments on truck. Could pay it off early , i rather keep my money just in case for emergencies. I learned discipline will go a long way in these business. Also, truck come first before anything else. Good luck!

 

I could have done it this week finishing up by lunch today. Well 3.5 days... ...close enough.. Go home on 3.5 days of work $2,847 gross to the truck having put $500 in the tanks this on 1,008 miles. Will still have half a tank left. Now that's what I call a week, it ain't about the gross driver it's about the rate and what you keep. I said I could go home at that and call it good but I want I've got another 4 loads lined up that will keep me busy from tonight until tomorrow night 400 loaded miles and about 650 total with deadhead back to the house on $1,518 to the truck...