Purchasing/Leasing in FL??

Lease purchase is not really what I would call being an O/O. Its closer to what I would call an independent contractor. Basically what most companies do is offer you one of their trucks,.. it will be a truck spec'd for that company,.. not exactly O/O specs. You will be operating no different than if you were a company driver. They will dispatch you pretty much the same. Only instead of paying you $.40 - $45 cpm,.. now its closer to $.95 - $1.05. If you read the fine print, they are going to deduct everything under the sun from your settlements. Fuel, truck payment, insurance, escrow fund for repairs, maintenance fund for tires, health insurance etc etc. You will be running only their loads as they dispatch them to you. You will be required to drive and stay out the same as if you were a company driver. Remember,.. they are dispatching where you go and you have little to no choice in where and how you haul. The truck is not yours. You are paying for the usage of that truck. Some companies require a large balloon payment at the end of the lease before the truck can be paid off.

Some companies are better than others in accommodating your needs. But in the end, you are honestly still a company driver. You do not have much say in anything.

Becoming an O/O is not difficult. It will require a good work ethic, determination, fortitude and and great deal of ambition to succeed. Its not something to just jump into. There is much more to it than just buying a truck and expecting to find work for it.

Instead, the proper way is to find the work first, then find the truck needed do the work. Whether you finance or pay cash for the truck,.. either way can be successful. But you can not expect to buy a truck and just drive it like a car and think it will be ok until you get some money coming in. That truck is your livelihood. If it goes down for what ever reason, tires, mechanical electrical,.. you need to have the funds or credit line to repair it immediately. Warranty is nice,.. but it does not pay your note or bills while the truck is being diagnosed for 2 weeks and then another week to perform the repair. You need to have enough cash to be able to survive what ever comes at you.

I started with $30k saved. It took me the better part of 3 yrs to save it. I paid $20k for my truck. I bought it from the carrier I am leased to now. I was a company driver at the time. After doing the math I quickly realized that $10k was not enough to continue. I was 1 break down away from losing everything. I borrowed another $20k from my mother inlaw. So essentially I started with $50k. Thats the cold hard reality of trucking. Its not cheap,. not if you plan to do it right.

For the first year, I put everything I had back into the truck or into the bank. I had my mother inlaw paid off within 6 months and by the end of the year I had my original $30k back in the bank. I was comfortable with that arrangement.

The following year I had some misshaps that really woke me up to the reality of staying in business. Back in April I had another company driver back his trailer into my nose and took it out. That ended up taking 6 weeks of down time before I could get back on the road, and I am still in court with his carrier trying to get my lost revenue. Then barely 3 weeks after I got back on the road, I blew a coolant hose, ran the motor hot, I did not catch it in time. Blew a headgasket and cracked the head. At first I thought I didnt know the headgasket was blown. I had a road service come out to repair the hose. He showed me where the water pump was leaking. So I started the truck and drove it to his shop. Replaced the water pump,.. but now the truck was smoking out of the exhaust the blow by tube was showing bad news. I finished the run I was on hoping the smoke would clear up. It did not. I shut the truck off for the night and the next day it would not turn over called out another road service and it was determined that the engine was hydrolocked. Had it towed to their shop and more bad news. Blown head gasket, cracked head,.. yadda yadda. At that point I had 2 options. Walk away from the truck and buy another one and start over getting it set up. Or new motor in mine and know what I have. I decided to have an inframe done.

Between bills and the cost of repairs,.. the $30k I had was quickly depleting to nothing. I had to ask my carrier if he would let me run one of the trucks he had sitting in his yard in order to mitigate my expenses. My truck was finally fixed in Sept,.. and I have been running like a mad dog to recoup the money I lost. Since $30k is clearly not enough of a nest egg for me,.. I am working on building a $100k nest egg. I am hoping to reach that point by April/May. Thats why I have been running and staying out like I have.

If you are not willing to do these things, take the risks, and work just as hard to make it,.. then chances are you wont make it as an O/O. You have to take your punches and get back on your feet.

Not trying to scare you,.. only to give you an insight as to the reality of what its like to be an O/O. I am not the smartest guy in the world. If I can make it work, then anyone else can do it also.

Hurst

 

No idea. I got the info second hand from my wife. We were talking about what I could do to be home more. This was before I went O/O. I brought up driving for Sysco as they were hiring out of Orlando and she said her friend's husband worked there and he only cleared $40k. I lost interest after that. I had just grossed $78k my first year as a company driver with the carrier I am leased to now. I was enjoying the income and did not want cut that in half.

Maybe he is not telling his wife everything he makes?? Mad money account?? I used to do that with my first wife.

$60k+ is good money for Florida.

Hurst

 

I am a Florida native, an owner-operator with my own authority. I drive long haul flatbed because you simply cannot make a decent living by staying in Florida. The rates are too low and you would have to turn at least two complete trips per day to stay profitable. I also do not recommend the lease purchase option as then you will nothing more than a company driver with a truck payment.

If you want to lease onto a company with your own truck and you are already a flatbedder, you may want to try Cypress Truck Line out of Jacksonville. TMC also has local runs for Lowes out of Frostproof. If you want to try containers, take a look at Triple Crown. There are also some preformed concrete companies in Tampa and surrounding area that hire O/O for local and state wide runs. Some are oversized loads, but most you pull their trailer and product.

The third and probably best option is the buy your truck and get leased onto Landstar or Mercer. You control where you want to run and dispatch yourself.

Hope this helps.

 

That is correct I am not leased to anyone. My wife books my loads from the load boards and handles the back office. We did run in Florida for about three months for a pre-stressed concrete company, but were only able to keep the bills paid.

When considering your options the most important thing you need to know is the cost to operate your truck. Those costs include truck payment, cargo liability insurance, fuel, registration, driver wages, maintenance and tires. Before you buy your truck, you need to have the insurance worked out. You will also need to consider how many working days in a year you will be driving. A good rule of thumb is 270 days of driving, based on a six day work week.

Going back to the OTR concern, as an O/O you always have control of where you go, even if leased to a company. If you want to lease I recommend Mercer or Landstar.

 

Funny I have met a few drivers (Refer/van) that live in Florida and stay in Florida For the most part they make good money (net $3000 a week on avg.) Don't think all of them were just blowing smoke All had the same thing to say "Build a good relationship with plenty of brokers and do what you say you are going to do" FL is a big state From Pensacola to Miami is almost 700mi. Seems like a lot of miles and short runs
FL has a 12/16/80 clock I'm still new and want to own my own truck and trailer flatbed and reffer That I have more options I live in a central location that close to everything 1 hour from Tampa 2 1/2 from Orland and Miami