Owner Operator, no experiance.

The only down side to getting a line of credit is having collateral. It is much easier to finance a tractor then it is to get a large line of credit. I have great credit. All my bills are paid. I needed a line of credit for an undisclosed reason and I still had to put up property I own in North Georgia to get it.

 

Yep your absolutely right unfortunately that's the way it is nowadays.

 

To be fair, if you are leasing to a carrier the cadh needed for operating costs is almost non existent. Every carrier gives a fuel card.

Obviously you still need money for repairs so I'm not suggesting a guy start with no funds, but this whole idea you need 30 grand just to operate the truck does not apply to a guy leasing on to a carrier. Also when leased, checks will start rolling in with in a week or so of pulling that first load so that really eases the cash flow problems. Heck some carriers pay the same day you deliver.

 

First off . Many people here have experience
Doing this and also have seen many go down hard. Second don’t always believe what people
Tell you they’re making , many people like to exaggerate their income and brag. Most people with money that I know never talk about how much they make, and your friend has not been doing this for a long time. The fact is trucks break down and engines blow up. About $25k is what you’ll spend on the average rebuild today at most shops , that’s not including the
Tow to get you there and a few weeks lost income. It’s possible to be a successful owner operator long term, but in 31 years I have seen very few retire successfully unless they diversified into other things like real estate etc and I have seen many who I’ve known personally go down hard or live lives that were always a grind worrying about he truck and always under the gun financially . Many will have the look of success for a while , nice truck
, pick up, the toys , but those are the ones robbing Peter to pay Paul , sucking the money out of the business to look successful, and when the #### hits the fan with the truck or their
Work gets slow they go into a death spiral financially. Most would be better with a good job
With benefits and retirement long term. Remember someone is always your boss even
If you’re an owner operator , either the company your leased to or your customer you pull for .
Remember trucking companies care about one thing, not trucks, not drivers, they care about
Profit, that’s why they Love owner operators.

 

I can't speak for @Aces-N-Eights however in my post I was not talking about operation. I was talking about situations where your broke down or involved in a bad crash, notice I said involved not at fault. It is going to cost major $$$$ to fix that truck and while it is down the average OO has ZERO income. That loss of revenue added to on the road living expenses will start costing an OO a huge amount of money before a mechanic even puts a wrench on a bolt. In the case of a non at fault accident you might recoup these costs later but that is later on not the here and now. Another problem is the shop. Can they get you in? Last time as a company driver I broke down I was told the shop was running about 4 days behind. Not every OO has the credit or a credit card to be able to go over and rent a truck and again YOU are down with no income facing anywhere from $15k to as much as 35K in repair costs and loss of revenue. I am not trying to be a prophet of doom and gloom here. Just attempting to get across the thought that a smart businessman has these situations covered. Insurance is not fully a solution either. You can have the best insurance in the world. However what use is it if they start being the typical insurance company and delay payments? The carriers might help you in some situations. However you should not be depending on this help. OOs no matter if they are lease operators or running their own numbers to be prudent operators MUST have a substantial cash reserve. Reserve, NOT operating money.

 

Yes reserve for repairs/ fixed costs while truck is being repaired. You must have money on hand for the oh #### moments.

 

You must be in your late 50`s or early 60`s, you have lifes experience. What I would do is find another owner operator, be great friends, have him guide you the way through all of this. Be careful when driving.

 

You'll need to get some driving experience before you can lease on anywhere. I've intermodal carriers leasing contractors on with as little as 6 months experience. If after that you still want to go independent your biggest hurdle will be the very very expensive general liability and cargo insurance. Good luck!

 

Word!!! So is there a company that would let you lease on no experience I bought my rig last week and have my test Wednesday!!