Is money being made in this industry?

LOL! I see it time after time. Sitting in the truck stop in Wisconsin the other day and an owner op was complaining about the repairs needed for his truck and he had to borrow money from his company to get the repairs done. A new alternator and 2 drive tires.....really?? I asked him how much it was going to be and he said $800 or so. Man, I'm glad I'm not that bad off...LOL!

 

Please do show him this thread. He can obfuscate, make excuses, and whine/#####/moan all he wants, but a person's success or failure is largely dependent on THEM.

First things first...he HAS to make the tax thing right. We're talking about 8 YEARS of unfilled returns? I'm no IRS agent or tax attorney, but that could possibly be jail time if he doesn't get his collective crap in a sack.

Believe me, I'm no fan of paying as much as I do to Uncle Sam, but he is one uncle you do NOT want to be on the badside of. When I was a corporate pilot, our company screwed up our reported earnings...no fault of our pilot group...and we were screwed, blued, and tattoed. We were guilty until proven innocent...and it was no joke trying to unravel that mess.

Back to trucking...your brother is a steering wheel holder. I don't give a crap if he's been doing it 10 years or 40 years, there is a right way to do things and a wrong way. HE'S DOING IT WRONG. I am not God's gift to trucking or operating my own authority or business, but the first thing is to admit you don't know everything. I am constantly learning, and the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.

Yessir, your brother needs to quit playing leased owner-operator and go drive for a company. Or, he can keep on keepin' on and slowly wind up going out of business because no one will bail him out when he eventually blows a motor or trans or some other big ticket item he hasn't kept money back for.

I actually think him losing his business is something that might be good for him.

I wish him the best...I really do...but it sounds as if there's been some life lessons never learned. Sometimes we need to get kicked in the head and dazed a little...it gives one time for some introspection and re-evaluation of how they approach things in life.

As Dirty Harry once said, "A man's got to know his limitations."

 

Lol, I love guys who piss away work that floats across their board, then turn around and cry to you about "There aint no miles!"
I've had plenty of weeks where 5-8 small little puddle jumpers made me a hell of a lot more than one big 3/4,000 mile weeks.

 

Short answer is - YES, there is plenty if money to be made for disciplined, honest, hard working drivers willing to keep learning and make the correct decisions.

And there's plenty of sad stories too.

Great answers here, by the way.