Old Truck vs New Truck

Are there people making that, sure, and some a lot less. On top of that there are people running 2000 miles a week, and people running 4000 miles a week to gross the same amount. Who are you going to drive for, yourself or lease to a company?

There's a reason fleets trade off trucks at 500 thousand miles. It's because they start costing money and downtime. If you're looking to lease to own, I think the brand new Volvo 670 with 11,000 down at Lone Mountain is the best deal going right now.

 

Choose one, and stick with it. Whether you own a truck, lease it, whatever, you still have to have the income. A new truck vs no truck payment is maybe a .25 per mile. Not a huge amount really, if you're making good money. Now if you're averaging $1.50 on the odometer, 25 cpm can be the difference of breaking even or going in the hole. This isn't an easy business, I hope you have some trucking business knowledge (not just how to drive the thing, as that is a no brainer), or deep pockets, because everything you don't know will cost you money. For example, bring a load to Jersey and haven't paid the annual tax and don't have a NJ tax ID#, your truck will be impounded. OOIDA is a valuable resource. Personally, I'd lease the truck to a good percentage carrier and learn the business before going on my own, but to each their own. I've done both.

 

keep in mind that what you are left with after expenses is more important than what you gross

 

Yes you can easily gross that , but you can also burn a lot of that on fuel, after paying driver not much might be left if youre not careful about the rates your accepting.

Imo THIS FORUM will be one of your best & most valuable tools for guidance and help. You have experienced Drivers, O/O, Fleet owners, CO Owners, guys that are business savy , mechanically inclined and so on and so on. Best of all its free if you read up on old post and start new ones you will learn a lot. I know I have.

Wish you luck , keep us posted

 

New truck. Works for me. Gross 8k p/w. Leased at 10% cut. Payment 2.5K + .5K box. Driver's cut 16-18 hh.

 

Honestly $5-7 grand a week solo is very tough unless you got a direct shipper that's paying out the ###. I have 1 driver and myself, sometimes we run team loads to Texas and back il go down for $3000 at least and usually come back for $2700- 3000. Leave Monday be back home weds then we run a few local runs to finish the week. And i can gross about $7000 to $7200 a week doing that. So running solo i highly doubt you will see $6500 a week. Maybe $3000-4000 working your ### off and luck.

 

Its possible. I run flat beds and I do at least 7k gross/week, but I do a lot of LTL's. I average about $3pm. I'm doing a run right now where I have 3 partials paying me $4100 on 1089 miles that will final out today. I have older trucks, but I'm looking to get rid of them and get some brand new ones, if I go used, it won't be any older than 3 years. The warranty for me is what's worth it. I went to the international dealer down here in Miami and with a 740 credit score I'm looking at 10% down and $2k month in payments. I'm doing 2k/month right now in the trucks starting to nickel and dime me to death. If you've been doing this for a couple years, and you already know what to expect, you can make a lot of money with newer trucks. I will now only suggest getting older trucks from an o/o that's been in the game for years and takes pride in there truck. Don't get one that's too old from a dealer, they just do enough to get you on the road and once you leave their lot, its your problem. Hope this helps brother.