What am i missing here!?

The issue OP is that you are looking at the fleets that are easy to find and they are lower paying. You need to locate the ones that are harder to locate and that pays well. I would go for the for the percentage rather than mileage. Not every load pays the same per mile rate so if the company is getting $3 per mile but only paying you $1.25 they are making good money with very little risk.

This is the main reason I would never do anything but run my own numbers. You can still pull for these mega fleets because they can't cover all of their needs. Heck look how many Landstar loads are moved by independent carriers. You can also haul for multiple different carriers or your own customers.

 

This is the only way that works. Save save and save some more while getting some experience so the good companies are willing to look at you.

 

Thats how I did it. Was not easy.. took a lot of fortitude to see it through. Many times as the cash built up I thought of things I would like to have.

Took me 3 yrs to make it work. Knowing what I know now.. I'd do it all over again if I had to start over from scratch.

Hurst

 

I've always been a fan of the medium to smaller company, in the fact that a lot of times they pay better for a good quality employee. Also do not get carried away at going to the one who claims to pay the best, consider the amount of work/miles you'll get.... I had a guy quit cause he thought the grass would be greener at .55 cpm company only to find that he spent more time loading, unloading, multiple stops and no miles... So .42 cpm with 3000+ miles a week is more money in your pocket than those big promises at .55 cpm and lucky to get 1000-1500 miles.

 

Go to Melton they'll give you all the miles you want. My boy used to work there

 

The more research I do on owning my own truck the more I think it's not even worth it if you're doing it strictly for $$$. Go read some O/O threads on here, look at their numbers. It ain't pretty.

 

Waggoners Trucking Company pays .50 cpm
Cpm doesn't mean much if the accessorial pays aren't there. With over 20 years experience I took a job paying .36 cpm but still made $65K per year due to good accessorial pays.

 

You must only be looking at cheap mileage pay carriers or independents exclusively working off broker load boards. If i was willing to work more than 5 months a year i would have no problem netting over 100k.