Need Some Advice

Thumbs up to everyone who is saying don't do it. You are just figuring fuel, you will need repairs, services and tires, let alone insurance and fuel taxes and road use taxes, income taxes and now you get to pay both sides of your SS taxes as well. At the money you are quoting, you too would be hunting for someone to take over the lease payments.

 

It is actually cheaper for the company to use lease operators to move the freight. The lease operator is paying for the overhead for the equipment directly and a little bit indirectly.

Company trucks have overhead too, insurance, payments, upkeep etc. The terminals, technicians, lights and DM's all have to be paid for as well.

So the way they do it is to book the freight for as much revenue as they can get. If it is a low rate, oh well, just adjust the miles a little, say the load is 570 miles, well we will just pay this L/O 524 miles and shave off a little revenue back to the company, or they will play games with denying detention pay, stuff like that. If there are any fuel discounts from the Big 3 chains, the company recoups that as well and does not share it with the L/O.

Something else too, to do it, you're going to have to figure running a minimum of 100,000 miles a year. Or break it down by the week, 2500x40 weeks.

 

The miles are always 'adjusted' to suit the company.
I've had a few that were actually to my advantage, but usually it is 10-20% in the companies advantage. I doubt that would change if I leased a truck.
And that makes it all the more difficult to make it as a L/O or O/O, considering all the extra costs and time involved.

I really admire those few that can actually do it.
I don't think that I have the business sense, or the mind set, to pull it off.