Successful Owner Ops in Canada

Are there any successful o/o's in Canada on here? More specifically, owners that have recently become owners, such as within the last 5 years or so? Who/what are you hauling and is it providing the life you want? (Family,income,lifestyle)

Reason I ask is this. I'm mid 30's. Been a company driver for a couple years now in central Alberta. Been almost coast to coast and through the states. I have 3 small children and the company I'm currently with gets me home every weekend, and sometimes through the week too. Its flatdeck work mainly axross western canada. One thing they dont seem to want is owner/ops. Since it got slow, the 2 they do have seem to sit a hell of a lot more than the company trucks.

Anyway, I came from managing retail and auto repair (manager, not technician) before and wanted out of that setting. I had the dream of getting my own truck, and then even bigger dream of a couple trucks. But the more I try and talk to people on the road, within my company, ask questions about their start, truck, income, lifestyle, basically I get told to run far far away. It's all doom and gloom.

So... are there any Canadian guys that can put a positive spin on this? I have access to about 75k to buy a used truck and get going.

I'm getting to a crossroads where I need to either pull the trigger and move on with starting up as an owner Op, or focusing my energy on something else altogether, because I want to move my family from our current small house to an acreage, and move into a more rural farm lifestyle. Which costs money. Money I'm not making as a company driver. But can you do it even as an owner/op.....??????

 

Reasonable home time would be nice. Doesn't have to be every weekend. Could be 4days every couple weeks or something to that effect.

 

I live in Red Deer. Eventually I'd be looking at putting a house on land between Onaway and Barrhead.

 

Last year I made about 65.

 

I should point out that in the conversations I've had, a lot of guys were claiming 7-10k a month after expenses and then complaining about how it was pathetic.. Let's see.. I average 5 a month... So isn't 7-10 better?