Going owner op with Werner

To begin with DON"T DO IT!
Werner used trucks are wore out,,they do almost no preventive maintenance because a truck bought new will run with little maintenance or repairs the first 400-500,000 miles after that maintenance cost skyrocket.
The rate per mile you will be paid is not enough to maintain the truck and pay you 40cnt/mile or more.
If and when you get the truck paid for it will be worth nothing, if you decide to leave weaner they keep the truck unless you have paid it off. You are locked into weaner the whole time and if they decide one day they don't like you anymore you get crappy loads or the let you sit and starve you out.
There is maybe one or two decent lease purchase deals out there but in 99% of the time you will make more as a company driver. The only way to make money as an owner operator is to haul specialized loads, RGN, Chemical tanker etc and own your own trailer 99% of the time,
You can not make money as an owner operator leased to a company that decides the rates and controls you and your truck 100%, the other factor is you can not make money as an OO if you haul the same loads that the big fleets , the rail roads, companies that hire rookies or immigrants .

There are many companies that you can earn 45cnts/mile or more, Walmart drivers earn over $80k/yr.

Do you self a favor if you are under 35 and only have a few years driving...wages have been flat the past 15 yrs and will not get better go get a job at the Railroads they all are hiring engineer trainees and conductor trainees because of older workers retiring go earn $125k/YR OR MORE .
Trucking is not going to get any better for drivers,,

 

It isn't an old engine. Its an engine built with older and better technology. A new crated series 60 (built the same way they built them in 02) is cheaper to completely rebuild than areplacing a newer trucks emissions system. Think about that. You can almost buy an entirely new engine cheaper than you can buy just the emmisions parts for a one year old truck. In the case of truck engines newer dies not equal better. they went backwards in terms of reliability, cost, and longevity.

 

The apu alone doesn't mean anything. That's why you pull the ecm records. For a hundred bucks you find out exactly how many hours that truck has idled its entire life. Buying a truck with out pulling the ecm report is playing Russian Roulette. It's just part of a basic truck inspection, along with checking the suspension, doing an oil sample, and putting the truck on a dyno.

 

It's not a for sure thing yea, but was my rationale at THAT time. people @ prime love that APU, that company is all about fuel savings and rewards their drivers accordingly.

Pay attention @ truck stops, very rarely will you see a Prime inc truck idling, expect for warm ups and cool downs

+1 for pulling the ecm though, go straight to the data of engine hours

But the main point here is, an EMISSIONS truck is not supposed to idle for extended amounts of time. My opinion.

 

If you want to live in the truck then there are lots of companies that would pay you more than werner. You can make 70-80,000 at several companies being a company driver. In reality you could have been making lots more money after just 6 months of driving if your record is clean.

 

PermanentTourist... I say go for it..It seems that you have did research and you have money to back it up..If you plan to have the truck paid off in 1-2 years then I think there us nothing wrong with your plan and it will let you see for yourself if its what you really like doing..I started out with the same idea as you and I have been an Independent for 2 years now...Had Up's and Down's but you will Never have enough money or Experience listening to some of these guys...Like you said,you have 30k in the bank and no Family or bills.... This would be the Best time to try and see if you can suceed

 

No Landstar will take older trucks as long as it passes DOT Inspection.

 

I was with Warner beginning of '16. From what a buddy of mine who was leasing a truck through a company contracted to Werner. They were starving him. I left after 3 months as a company driver cause I averaged 1200 miles a week. During training my trainer and I were running 6k+ a week. With Werner I guess it really depends on ur manager. I still have buddies with Werner and they get 2k+ out the gate. I had to find somewhere that got me more miles. Best thing to tell u is to check with some OO who's signed on to them now. And read the fine print and the funny symbles on the back.