Most Common Mistakes Made By New O/O?

This is a fallacy that is foisted on us by those companies that set up corporations. Until you establish corporate credit, you will sign as a personal guarantor, so you will not be protected from creditors.

 

i think is better s corp due to the fact you are paying your social security , LLC is just a ripp off.

 

I've heard that the fed allows LLCs to file like s corps.

 

Solid post other than this paragraph.

Dry van can pay well if you move specialty freight.like Hazmat and trade show type stuff. Would be totally in agreement if specialty van freight was not available to me. If you want to make money give the customer something they can't get from the larger pool.

 

I was referring to averages for each category of trailer. DAT tracks weekly statistics for those three categories and dry van is consistently ranked last. However, it is exactly as you noted, a smart owner operator with a dry van can be well above average by providing a service few competitors can't or won't provide. Hazmat and tanker endorsements really help. Pulling specialty freight is the key.

 

Thanks the data source clarification helps.

I boil it down to specialize or starve......... Does not matter what kinda wagon you pull.

 

sole proprietorship doesn't really mean anything, it's just a file folder you put a name on to call it a business. You file your taxes as an individual, and pay SELF EMPLOYMENT TAX on all the money you make that isn't written off as a business expense. An S-corp or C-corp can help save some $$$ after you get set up to pull in more revenue over the course of a year. With an S-Corp or C-corp, you aren't the business, you are an employee of the business, even if you own it too, and you pay yourself a salary from whatever the business pulls in. Your salary can be super low if you want it to be, and you pay income tax on whatever you pay yourself. All the other business revenue stays in the business, that gets taxed as business revenue or something. When your business takes off and there is lot's of extra money in the business, it makes it's way to when you see fit in the form of a 'distribution', which gets taxed differently than personal income, and i think is a write off for the business itself or something, in the same way your fuel and truck payment were a write off for your self employment taxes. I'm not savvy on what rates are what for what yet, I haven't gotten in that deep yet, i'm still an indentured servant earning my freedom for the next 2 years. It's all just a shell game to move the gold around in the right way with the right sign out front to keep as much of it as you can before the GUVMINT comes around, whatever you can get away with just short of money laundering, businesses all do it, especially after they get above a certain amount of annual revenue, because just 10% of an metric spit-ton can end up still being a lot.

 

I believe a common trap many O/O fall into is looking at rate per mile. Pennies per mile does not define a good load I regularly turn down $5 and $10 per mile freight cause it does not create enough revenue to lock up the truck and driver for a day or more. Make sure the money per day works out.

I look to book on average $1,000 (or more) per day. That way at the end of the week I can cover all my weekly bills and allocations (maintenance, tax, and other set asides).

 

Leasing on to a mega at $1.15/mi.

 

what do you mean by specialty freigh?