U.s Xpress owner operators?!

one thing with the usx website is it shows the low side of everything... as in the minimum....

usx has over 55 small companies inside and each of them has it's own pay scale and fsc, i'm on percentage but if you call and ask they will tell you they don't do percentage and that would be true THEY don't but some of the small companies do

my fsc has nothing to do with is on usx website..... last year I went 7 months that I didn't pay for fuel...!! driving smart, using the fuel discount by stopping at the right fuel stop to get the best price (.30-.45 off pump price), better fsc...

 

Now see I wasnt gonna put that out there because I was told just last week that Usx wont let the lease trucks go to the percentage fleets anymore and that is what the original guy was asking about. Owner op as a lease truck. I too am percentage but by golly thats a closely guarded secret around here. Recruiting sure as heck wont tell you. Everybody had the option a couple years ago but they stopped that and put everybody back on mileage except trucks that run with agents and yes it depends on which agent as to what the percentage is.

 

no I got my truck from lone mountain.... just me but I would never get a truck from the company I work for

 

It worked out for me just fine. I have since traded it on a newer lower mile truck but I admit it doesn't work for everybody and probably not even for most. Being an owner op aint for everybody and just because somebody is a good company driver doesn't mean they will be a good o/o. Whether you own or lease there is more to it than just driving. If a body isn't prepared to own he also isn't prepared to lease IMO. That said if someone thinks they are ready to own a lease deal can give them the oportunity to find out with slightly lower risk but not much lower. If they go broke they can always give the truck back with little to no penalty. Unfortunately if they go broke they still lose the house and everything else. Broke is broke. Doesn't really matter how you got there.

 

true sort of.... usx doesn't WANT you to but really it's the percentage fleets that don't want to do it and I understand the reasons, if a l/o-l/p driver quits the fleet owner is required to keep the truck and make the payments and must find a driver to run it"

i'm a O/O not a L/O-L/P

O/O
An owner-operator is free to enter into a lease agreement to dedicate their equipment to one customer or product.

L/O
same as below BUT at the end of the lease the truck goes back to the company "your not a owner operator"

L/P
Generally when you acquire a truck through a lease-purchase option control of the truck remains with the carrier leasing you the truck. After all it is there truck, at least until you have finished off your lease payment and the purchase is complete. You will find that when you use a lease-purchase option many of the freedoms you thought you would find when you became an owner-operator are not there. The truck is not truly yours, and you are finding yourself working for a carrier and being forced to haul the loads that they want you to haul. After all it is their truck and not yours. "your not a owner operator yet"

company driver
you driver the companies truck to pull the loads they want you to and they pay you

driver working for a owner operator
see company driver.... and no your not a owner operator

I see a lot of lease and lease purchase drivers call themselves owner operators and they aren't... at usx if the truck has a "L" your not a owner operator

but back to the OP yes lease driver make money and lease purchase driver make money and pay off their truck and owner operators make money IF you know what your doing..... it's not what you make but what you spend that will kill you....

do you really need that big cb, do you really need to idle ALL NIGHT, do you really need to drive THAT FAST.... case to the point I have a friend that has the same truck (mines a 06 his is a 07) same spec's. millage everything we were pulling the same load (mine was 150lb more) same roads, same time of day. he was getting 6.8mpg @ 68mph and I was getting 7.4mpg @ 63mph at the end of the trip I was in front of him why....? because I don't stop as much so I don't need to drive as fast and we both got paid the same for the trip but I had more money because I didn't spend as much on fuel as he did....

 

I will go along with the idea an L/O isn't a full O/O but not so much on the L/P. It's funny how the contract I signed with the L/P truck reads exactly the same as the one I signed with my current truck which I bought outside. There only seem to be 2 minor differences, one is With the L/P truck my maintenance account was exactly that and could only be used for that. The other is who I make the payments to. You are right about the agents though to an extent. They are responsible for the truck payment if the L/P driver quits and they have to re seat the truck. But according to the head guy at the one I work with it was Usx's idea to no longer allow it not his. I don't know which is true thats just what he said. I also heard recently that one of the agent companies was leaving Usx. I don't know why though. I also dont know if that is true but I trust the source.

 

beach frt sys out of little rock is the one that left (6 weeks ago..?) and swift turned their truck back into usx (3 weeks ago...?)

as a O/O "C truck" if I leave usx I take my truck with me, a L/P operator "L truck" can't leave and take the truck unless he can pay it off right then otherwise the truck you have been paying on stays with usx

that is the reason I don't call L/P trucks O/O's.. the "L" is lease and until you finish the "P" you are still a lease truck but when you finish the "P" then you are a Owner/Operator and will get a new contract and new "C" number

also as a company driver you can't change anything on the truck, as a L/O you can't change anything on the truck, as a L/P driver you still can't change anything on the truck until it's paid for... a friend just finish his L/P with usx then 5 weeks later had changes done to the truck that usx wouldn't let him do until it was paid for. added a dump valve and a esm

 

And if you really know what you are doing, you can find a lot of other places where you can make more as a O/O than you can at USX. Just based on the O/O compensation sheet linked to earlier on, I personally know of at least 5 companies near me that will compensate better than USX. So it does beg the question, if there are many opportunities elsewhere to make more while doing less, then why would a person want to consider USX? I suppose there must be some reason to chose or stay with USX, but based on the info provided, I am stumped by what it might be.

 

The reasons are simple cowpie. It's not about how much you gross. It's about how much you net. @ flood. Beech was the one I was talking about. They had been around along time. I didnt know about the swift deal but it does suprise me with both. Swift only been around a few years. Back to cowpie, I have looked around at other companies to lease to and haven't found anything enough better to leave just yet. I looked at Oakley pulling end dump. They are currently at 1.48 all miles. Mercer flats are a little better they are at 1.70 all mile average right now. But with the added expense of a trailer it a wash on which is better. I most likely will end up there in the near future but I would like to see better signs out of the economy first. Landstar is a good outfit too. The van guys I have talked to there aren't doing as well as I am here so flats or steps would be the way to go there as well. Again refer back to economy statement. There are alot of options here at usx to make money. The best options are with the agents running percentage but you can make money running the mileage boards too. Agents seem to be a well kept secret and finding someone to tell you about them is hard. I don't know how many agent trucks there are but I would be suprised if its much more than 200 or so. Most people dont even know we exist.

 

That is true, cpenn, it is what you NET and not what you make. But if costs are similar, then what you make can improve what you net. It really doesn't matter on fuel for instance. I pull a dry box. USX has dry boxes. I get more in fuel surcharge than USX pays. Current cash pump price for fuel at Flying J in Lasalle, Il is $3.98. I get $.56 a gallon off of that cash price, for a cost to me of $3.42 at the pump and a cost, after factoring out fuel tax (which a knowledgable person would do to determine the best fuel price), of $2.98 a gallon of the fuel. This has nothing to do with the fact that I also got the fuel surcharge on the load of $.47 a mile, which covers ALL my fuel cost/tax and leaves me with a penny or two extra per mile, based on the 7.48 mpg I am averaging. Does USX beat that fuel example? I also get .10 a mile more on the rates than USX, across the board according to their mileage rate chart for non percentage operators. Now figure out if my NET is better just on fuel and rate alone where I am now than USX. And I spend all weekends/holidays at home, 3 weeks off, and by the house a minimum of once per week. And NOT on a dedicated run! My gross last year was north of $194K, my net was north of $70K. That gives us a starting point to compare results.