Can an O/O stay local and still make money?

I got that. It's not as simple as they make it out to be, but it is possible. There are two keys I've picked up from observing these stories.

One is known, trouble free equipment that is carefully serviced, often by the owner. So on the exceptional expense side of things, this experienced operator is buying fuel, PMs, and tires once in a while. It takes a long time to get equipment to that state. And never when hired driver is involved.

The other is dead reliable sales contacts. People that will make a load happen for him when they know when and where he will be. When he uses the loadboard, it's not like you would think. I've finally started seeing some of this in my business. I look at the loadboard to see what's moving, then call people I know. Cold calling posted loads was an every day grind when we started up. Now it is a rare exception. More often now than ever, I keep in touch with my customers and go weeks without even looking at a load board.

 

One of the things that keeps me busy, and I know you have some old school connections that don't even have email Red.. ..but for the ones that do. .what I always do is send out emails to all of my good contacts where/when my truck will be empty/available. Do everything I can to stay in and around their lanes as well. Doesn't happen every day but it does secure enough freight to make it worth the effort. Puts my truck out there every day in their minds. You probably do this already, this advice is more for guys who are new to this. It's a simple way of networking and advertising. Of course a driver must always be dependable or it's for nothing.

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I was just on the phone with a friend of mine. He started driving for a contractor on the same haul I had my truck on back in 1978. I was telling him about this internet conversation and I think he made a valid point. We have both watched so many people come into the trucking business, get 10 or 20 or even 40 trucks and then disappear. Roy has 2 trucks (plus his '48 KW project) I still have one. Hardly any of the people we used to work with are still in the business (Granted, a bunch of them are retired) What Roy said was this; "I don't care how ###### much money you claim you make right now, just survive for 35 years & I'll give you some respect."

 

You admit you are incapable of making much money in the trucking business. You lease to a company that doesn't allow you to make much money. Because you can't do something, therefore, no one, can do it is a ridiculous statement. Your company is limiting you to low paying loads, or I don't really know that, but you aren't getting the money anyways.

Sure I work off loadboards, but I do have some specialized equipment and I do some specialized loads. That isn't the bulk of what I do, but I do have ramps, tarps and I will haul OD loads. While, I day I work off boards, I haul for several brokers that call me before the loads are posted to the boards. It isn't difficult to make $1,000.00 plus gross per day, the have multiple loads, so, sometimes this is for several times per week. I blew a couple of airbags and couldn't take them, but one company had several loads paying $1,600.00. I would have delivered the next morning, loads were available back to the same area, not paying as well, still, with four loads and four days I would have grossed in the $5K range, not including on last load back home. What is so hard about this? I think part of it is that this is Texas. I hear all the time that Texas is a bad area for loads. Maybe it is if you want to leave Texas, but since I don't, loads pay pretty good. Yeah, sometimes I get caught in El Paso, Amarillo, Midland/Odessa with no quick load, still I get paid well to go there. I'm not sure what is so unbelievable about any of my claims and all I can come up with is your inability to do the same, therefore no one can attitude. I just shake my head and think, "looser thinking makes you a looser!"

 

My bad, those rates have gone up to $2,000.00, that's $4.00 per mile, if I wasn't broke down, I could do two and maybe a third. $6,000.00 not considering a load back, heck even two or three loads back. They are on the board now, they have been on the board all week, call me a liar. I might have hit $9,000.00 this week!

 

Holy moley! There are loads paying $1,500 and $1,000.00 out of that area. Three loads at $2,000.00 is $6,000.00 coming back one at $1,500.00 and one at $1,000.00, I may not have good luck and might have to sit for a day or even over the weekend, still I could have pulled off $8,500.00 gross this week!

Check out ITS, loading out of Gatesville, TX to El Paso, TX, then loads back into Texas. Call me a liar.

 

We used to haul for a $144 minimum. Lots of jobs were less than 10 miles from where we picked up. Lots of jobs just took 2 big covert pipes a load. I remember one day I made 14 trips back and forth. They just dropped a 1,000 pound pipe on the trailer 2 straps to secure then knocked it off at the job site. Most of the time we'd haul 2 - 4 $200+ loads about 30 to 50 miles out then get some sleep and pick up ournight time pre loaded trailer to deliver 200+ miles away then boogie back to get a few local loads. Yep, ran illegal 99% of the time but the times I got caught didn't out weigh the money I made. I made lots of money running local. It was also fun. In fact those owner operator years went by so fast, I'm still wondering where the time went. I was around 29 then 40 before I knew what happened. That was the reason I bought a truck so I could make lots of money and be home without my wife having to work. We could be there when our kids needed us the most.

 

Ok you ladies need to settle down.

 

just survive for 35 years & I'll give you some respect I am almost there ( another 3 months )

My weekly fleet average for the year is $5,500.00 per TRUCK ( not counting the EXTRAS ) on 20+ trucks some that are local units as well as down time / slow season.

But then a lot of the MAJOR fleets are in the $3,800.00 to $4,800.00 / week range.

 

That's some serious $$$. On 2,000 miles per week that's almost $3.00 per mile. What do you haul & in what lanes?

On a per week basis I'm @ $3,800 pulling a co. trailer. Same job, pulling my own trailer would be about $4,350.

I think there are a lot of major fleets doing less than $3,800. A long time ago, when I still listened to Kevin Rutherford, he was talking about the financial numbers for some large (publicly traded) fleets that he had pulled out of their financial filings. Some of them, like Swift, were pathetic. I think the one that really shined was Heartland. Good revenue, great operating ratios and lots of cash/no debt.

For about 4 years I was a company driver for a couple of small local flatbed carriers, working on percentage. Assuming that they were paying me fairly, none of them were doing 5K a week, at least not very often. Of course that doesn't include fuel surcharge.

The other factor that way too many people miss is that it doesn't matter what you gross. It's what you net that determines your success or failure. I believe I will get a way better return on my time if I just concentrate on making my operation more efficient, than I will chasing after another job that might pay me a few cents per mile more.

I also like me current job because it allows me to live where I do. My get-home loads deliver a mile from my shop, and I typically load back out 10 miles away. I own 4 rental units that I am home enough to self manage, it's a recreational paradise here in Nor Cal, and this company comes with about the least BS I've encountered in my entire career. Personal happiness doesn't totally trump $$, but it sure figures in the equation.