IC, O/O or O/O with own authority?

I'll tell ya I've been home for a week now and no loads in sight yet... It's better to be home than stuck in a god forsaken truckstop somewhere..

Listen to people with experiance.. Now is not the time to try and be a O/O... There is no mysterous secret to tell, or company to go to that'll be the "holly grail" of trucking companies.. Lease purchases..LOL aka: "Fleece Purchases" are only good for the companies that do them..

Having your own authority isn't the answer.. You've got to have DEEP POCKETS to survive.. All the headaches are yours.. Booking loads, insurance (physical damage, cargo, workmans comp, liability), accounts receivable, quarterly fuel taxes, registration / permits, maintaince, driver qualification files, DOT #'s, federal taxes, and bookeeping ect. are all yours.. Plus you pay full price.. no fleet discounts on tires, fuel, insurance.. You get behind on your insurance payments, they cancel your policy..

Driving the truck is the easy part.. The other stuff will make you pull your hair out..lol

YA want a truck come see me I'll sell ya mine right now.. 2001 Pete 379, and a 2006 Trail King detatchable double drop w/ a flip axle.. all the bells and whistles, chains, binders, TV, CB, a true turn key operation.. all for the bargin price of $80,000!!

 

I still haven't seen any evidence that getting your own authority verses leasing on is a bad thing. Leasing on you can't supplement your freight or add more from other sources. It is limiting. With your authority you can pull for half the guys that you can lease onto anyway.

 

Can any of you professional truck drivers out there tell me how anyone can make a living an 90 cents per mile? Especially the first year, it does not make any since to me. Why are these company keeping 2/3 of the profit and do not turn not even one mile.

I did some checking and one company made 500 million dollars in 2007. Mean while there driver turn over was astronomical. Here is what I gather when you lease a truck they keep, lets said 6 cents a mile over the course of 100,000 miles of your money. Times that by 6 cents. Well if you quit that money goes toward repairing every major problem with the truck, that may a incurred.
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Mean while the company has no over head. My question is how and why are they getting away with keeping 2/3 of the profit. Is this legal?

 

They can get by paying .90/mile (plus FSC) because guys will do it for that. The mega carrier only pays what they can get by with paying, as long as guys continue to haul at that price.

They do have some overhead invested - Some or all of the following - base plates, ifta, cargo ins, liability ins, dispatchers, phone, satalite, trailers and associate costs, etc.

But you're right, 90 cents (plus FSC) isnt jack #%!&

 

here is a very big differance, when you have your own ICC, you use brokers to get you loads, they can find you loads and you get 100% of 100%(minus broker fee) however you might not get paid for that load for awhile(sometimes never get paid for it)*

when you are leased to a company, they will pay you either when you deliver and fax in signed b/l or the following week, and for the most part you do not have to woory about getting ripped off

* If you use reputable brokers like Mercer, Landstar to name a few, they do pay you quickly and they also offer cash advances but with some brokers, the way they pay those advances you have to run all over heck to find a place to cash it, not many use comcheck or efs, they use things like 3rd world acme accrediting(Fictional example) and can only cash the check if you are within 30 miles of Albuquirky and you are blind in one eye(non-fiction example)

 

Well I can sure tell you that when you apply for that ICC, you will be INUNDATED by phone, mail, and front door with factoring company and financing offers. So you can level the playing field on the wait. The only good reason you should have to wait these days is to maximize your profits.

The company I'm using pays "whether we get paid or not", and is only 3% for today pay, and 2% for 7 day pay and 1% for 14 day pay. No charge for guaranteed 30 day pay.

Assuming you can find something like that, I still don't see a strong argument for leasing on. The differences in the numbers are just way too large, like 60 to 1.10 per MILE difference. I think a lot are in the dark on what is out there when assessing their risk.

 

I agree with you 100%, but it took me awhile to learn the ropes, I started out when my aunts trucking company got shut down by the feds and I used the same broker she did (Pembroke transportation, Massena Ny, no longer in business) And he robbed me blind, I did not know just how bad till I found out what he was ACTUALLY getting paid to move the freight he was paying us to deliver. It took me some time and asking around to find out who could be trusted

 

most the companies paying $.90 etc are also paying for insurance, plates and passing on a big fuel cost savings. Granted it's still not great.
In hard times a company like that may actually make you more money though. the scary thing is when you see loads on the load boards for $.90 and you know some sorry excuse for an independant is hauling it and has all those costs on himself