My 7 years Journey as a truck driver to Owner Operator.

Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by khan1122, Jan 7, 2019.

  1. khan1122

    khan1122 Light Load Member

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    Jun 10, 2015
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    Hello every one
    I started trucking back in 2012 as a company driver when I was 21 years old .
    Worked with same company for 2 years.
    2012 I was spending money on cars and Other thing at the end of 2012 I didn’t had any thing left.
    2013 I didn’t spend a single penny on any thing other then my needs like house rent phone bill electricity bill water, garbage etc etc I was driving truck and my wife was taking care of my son and and working from home we both were saving
    At the end of the year I had like 45K in saving and my wife had like 20K in saving.
    2014 bought my first truck for 15K a 2007 frieghtliner Columbia with 1.3M miles on it and rent the trailer from the same company and start running under their authority
    Run the same truck for almost a year
    Spending like 18k on repairs.at the end of the year I had saved up 68k
    Sold the truck for 10k 68+10=78k
    2015 year I bought a 2012 frieghtliner cascadia for 81K with 350k miles and remaining warranty till 500k
    I put 35k down for the truck and 3k for a 2010 wabash reefer trailer.
    2015 I got my own numbers.Now I was completely independent taking loads from load boards
    learning, Negotiating
    after 6month got a dedicated lane from one broker
    August 2016 I got my 2nd truck 2013 frieghtliner cascadia 450k mile on it with 50k miles warranty for 53K and 2nd 2012 wabash 2012
    Now I had 2 truck in my fleet
    I was driving one with a team driver and on the 2nd truck I also put team drivers on it
    Life was good home every week for 2 days
    Some time for one day with a good income
    My wife was still working from home and saving up.

    April 2017 my co driver was driving on I 40 east bond I was in sleeper sleeping when I heard a loud noice
    My first words was controll
    the truck was in the median cross west bond and rolled over on the other side of west bond freeway Luckily no one was on the west bound
    me and my co driver walk away with minor Scratches
    That was one windy day in New Mexico
    On the way back home I was thinking it happens I still have one truck.
    Few days latter my truck got back from the trip did some minors repaires and PM on it
    The next day sent the truck back on the trip
    Once the drivers drove the truck for 480 miles
    All the check enginlight come on and they called me and said white smoke is coming from under the truck
    I called road service after 4 hours the mechanic called me and said that the collent is mixing with oil you have to towed it to a dealer.
    Called the towing service and they towed the truck to the nearest dealer
    The next day they called me with en estimate of 21k repair bill...........

    To be Continued......................
     
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  3. khan1122

    khan1122 Light Load Member

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    Jun 10, 2015
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    One of the truck got totaled and one with a
    Big repair bill
    The 2nd day I rent out a truck from penskey and drove it by my self where the drivers was
    gave the rental truck to the drivers so they can deliver the load and won’t have any other claim
    I was a the petro truck stop and thinking that’s it every thing is gone and was worried about the payments which was
    Trucks payment trailer payment insurance etc etc
    I had some funds saved up for the rainy days
    Waited like 5 hours my wife got with the car and we headed towards home.

    On the way back I cloudnt speak a word
    Because I thought I failed
    But my wife said it happens we will manage don’t worry.
    I had to make a desicion that what to do next
    Repair the truck and wait like 2 to 4 weeks for the repair to be done and let the drivers go away and drive it by my self
    Or wait on the repairs and get other trucks


    Me and my wife come up with the desicion
    That we will wait on the repairs and get other trucks

    So I got 3 more 2014 trucks and 2 trailers
    Now I put 3 teams on the trucks and started dispatching them from home
    I was dispatching truck in the morning and joined college for a diesel mechanic course in the evening
    so I can learn more about trucks and do some repairs on my own to save some on the repairs
    And my wife was taking care of the house bills
    So I was just saving and saving
    August I got my old truck repaired and got one more trailer
    Total 4 trucks now
    Here comes December 2017 ELD mandate
    Joined the truckers strick in Fresno,CA with some trucker I had teams I didn’t had to worry about any thing but here comes the brotherhood of truckers so parked 4 trucks for 5 days
    After five days every one was calm and went back to work but things were changed
    The the rates were very good
    I was doing round trips of 6000 miles from 12K to 15K
    Teams were running 24000 miles each truck
    24000*4=96000
    September 2018 got 2 brand new 2019 frieghtliner cascadias and 4 trailers

    Total 6 trucks 8 trailers 12 drivers
    2019 I ordered 5 new trucks which i will get in May
    And also thinking to get 8 more trailers
    Beside business
    We got our own house with a nice swimming pool in the back yard
    I got my self a 2018 Toyota Tacoma
    And 2018 Mercedes bens GLS 450 for my wife
    Now me and my wife is working to get some direct customers we have some direct customers but not Enough
    That was my 7 years journey

    Thank you
     
    Opendeckin, not4hire, Yelsew and 6 others Thank this.
  4. ast26909

    ast26909 Medium Load Member

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    Mar 1, 2018
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    How do you manage insurance? After the truck that got totaled you were able to continue with the existing insurance at the time? Or the insurance company dropped you after paying for the damages and you had to go shop for new insurance?
     
  5. Moephilly1

    Moephilly1 Light Load Member

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    Why are you hating on the guy ?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 7, 2019
    Reason for edit: Removed deleted quote
    d o g Thanks this.
  6. Bean Jr.

    Bean Jr. Road Train Member

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    Be that as it may, doing so in this forum is frowned upon. It is in the rules not to correct spelling, grammar and punctuation, unless the post is complete unintelligible. If one of the admin finds out, (don't worry, I won't tell) they will discuss it.

    I tried to find the link, but finding all the rules for TTR is a little hard.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 7, 2019
    Reason for edit: Removed deleted quotes
    d o g Thanks this.
  7. d o g

    d o g Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Texas
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    Yeah, let's try to start over in here without the writing criticism, please. If you have trouble reading the post, feel free to skip the thread, but we're not going to pick somebody apart based on the way that they write on a phone.
     
  8. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Michigan
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    That's great. It doesn't happen overnight like some poeple think.
     
    Lepton1 and khan1122 Thank this.
  9. khan1122

    khan1122 Light Load Member

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    Jun 10, 2015
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    I was able to continue with the existing insurance,
     
  10. TallJoe

    TallJoe Road Train Member

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    Chicagoland
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    Was the evening mechanic school worth it, anything practical? I was thinking about signing up for Cummins Mechanic course too but is it not a waste of time and money?
     
  11. khan1122

    khan1122 Light Load Member

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    Jun 10, 2015
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    i didn’t complete the whole 3 years
    Just went there to learn some basic
    It did work for me
    I just did for 6 months and it cost me 1200 with everything
     
    Grego713 Thanks this.
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