New O/O Here - Seeking Accurate Maint. Figures

You need to know how to work on your truck. Many a week I spend all week in the truck just to work all weekend on the truck. Repair bills are high. Anything you can do is money in your pocket. I have gotten to the point I can fix most anything in the truck. Part of why I have a older truck because I can fix it. People that rely on mechanics to fix everything have a high rate of not making it. With shops charging $130 an hr and independent shops still close to $100 it adds up fast. Even changing brakes on an axel will have 3hrs labor.

 

Why a 80% chance of failure? I don’t even have my CDL yet and I’m leaving my full time construction job to start my own business owning and driving a truck. Learn to drive, buy truck, find employer that keeps me busy 100% of the time and drive. I know you guys have all the experience and knowledge but there are tens of thousands of owner operator truck drivers out there. Seems like one of less risky businesses to get into. Make sure you put back money for maintenance and there is no lack of work in the trucking industry so why do you say they fail? And again I don’t know crap about trucking and and I am not saying your wrong but just trying to figure out why? Also for a industry that is made up of so many owner operators why is 90% of the posts discouraging this guy from building his trucking business. I planned on doing the same thing. I want to drive a couple years to learn the industry and then buy my own truck and then buy 5 or 6 trucks and hire people to drive them for me and take in very little profit for myself on each truck but keep buying more and more trucks. Maintenance can not out way profit in this industry so how can it not work?

 

If you get a newer emission truck with DEF, it would be a gamble. The Emission system on any brand of truck can really break you fast. The downtime will hurt more than the repairs and repairs aren't cheap too. My current truck; 2011 Freightliner Cascadia, it was in the shop 12 times from day one to 3rd month with emission issues. First 90 days, cost me more than 20k for repairs and I did not work much because of downtime. Some folks are very lucky to have no issues with their emissions systems. Those like me who have these issues rarely survive them.

 

Same as most business failures:

Poor money management skills (not planning for minor and major expenses)
Poor time management (not getting up in the morning without a boss telling you to get up)
Poor accounting skills
Poor negotiating skills
Poor customer service skills
Poor sales skills
Poor technical understanding of the equipment

To name a few. It looks easy. For some people it is. For many people, owning a business is a poor match to their abilities.

 

I’m intrigued by how many people who drive trucks think that that skill set crosses over into business ownership.

“I can bus tables, I should open a Restaraunt!”
“I can make a pizza, I should open a pizzeria!”
“I can drive a truck, I should open a trucking company!”

Only one of those seems to be a regular occurrence.

How many times y’all hear a driver talk about how they do all the hard work while all the office people set on their duff and make money off them? How many times do you hear guys that only run broker freight talk about how brokers just set around in their basement with a phone and a laptop making all the money?
That’s the same kind of simplification assumption that people make that don’t have any idea how the rest of a business actually works.


Everything is easier when you don’t know what it actually takes to do it.

A great truck driver that’s a lousy businessperson/ an average driver that’s a decent businessperson: one will be more successful than the other.


“I can start and run a trucking company: it’s just like any other business”
~Most people that never ran a successful business at all.

 

Yea man its just that simple. I did the same thing 5 years ago running hotshot. I owned my equipment, $ in the bank, and I was already a small business owner. How hard could it be...yep I got my lunch ate. Lost $, popped the engine in my truck and realized I didn't know ####. A few years as a co driver has taught me how to run a truck correctly. Learning the business side has put me just slightly ahead.

The thing is you dont even know what you dont know. There are so many factors to being successful in this industry. I make little mistakes all the time still, because there is so much to do and remember. I learn new stuff almost daily. Just driving the truck, loading and unloading is a full time job. All the paperwork and compliance stuff is another full time job and then maintenance & repairs is yet another full time job.

Everyone wants to believe they can be a good business owner and "if that guy can do it, why cant I?"

Look at the OP being a ######## about everything we've told him. It took me a lot of years of learning to shut the #### up and listen, because thats how you learn. Hell from what he said he has a pretty cushy driving job now, yet thinks he knows enough to run out and be even more successful and of course that means more money right? Rotfl.

 

Here's something for y'all. Look at my posting habits the last few months. They're really scattered. Why? Because Im constantly working and Im just a co driver right now. Im either driving, loading or unloading or so tired at the end of the day I dont even bother getting on here.

But I run this truck like its my own, so it kicks my ### on a daily basis.

 

Volvo financial. 2015 Volvo D13. It's been the most reliable truck I've ever driven. I did my homework and it payed off so far. Not saying I have all the answers.

I don't like ANY bank. Volvo Financial, however, has treated me as fairly as any I've dealt with.

 

No he hasn't, just to the people who have been one to him. I'm not taking sides. If you closely read everything and/or have much experience with the internet you'll realize that 1% of people are able to ask a question without being ganged up on by 99%. That's on about every forum on any subject.

This thread is really just repeating itself now as most do. The first page is where the meat of the info is, and he listened. Is he hardheaded? Sure, we all are or we sure as h*ll wouldn't still be driving a truck.

 

I bought off a used lot. Diamler turned me down, lack of truck ownership. So, I bought off a used lot and the financing they offered wasn't great, but I wanted to get back at it. Next time I'll plan better, talk to my bank early on. My old truck spun a bearing, I wasn't planning on buying a truck.