Advice For Team Thinking O/O

Hi everyone,
My husband and I have been company team for 6 yrs.

We’re thinking about buying a truck and going O/O.... and I’d really appreciate advice on ideas below and your insights.

The TRUCK: we’re looking at glider kit trucks primarily. Haven’t yet purchased, just looking. 2002-2014 KW (preferably) or Freightliner Coronado Detroit 60 — used — in the $50-60k range. Planning to pay for it outright if possible.

DEBT: We have no debt.

BILLS: we are currently working as company drivers and have no physical house or apt. Put everything In storage. So haven’t yet decided what we’ll do about housing just yet! home-bass is St Louis.

We stay out 4-6 weeks now.

I’m a professional artist. Came on the road six years ago w/ hubby to get financially straightened out. We did that. Ultimately I want to go back to my “first love” — art — but we’re not quite able to do that... so, to give ourselves the best possible options/income we’re thinking about O/O.

Here’s the plan... buy the truck. Run as team for a year or two, then I come off the truck and hubby continues to work as solo if he chooses.

We’ve run as company doing everything between 4,000 weekly to 7,200 weekly. Right now we average around 4,500-5,000. We’re averaging $2,250 per week (together) take home. We were told before hiring we’d average closer to $3,500-$4,000 take home but so far hasn’t happened.

In 2018, we hired on with two diff companies (one was team drivers for Landstar O/O so we’ve been through their approval process) and the promises didn’t pan out. 2018 was a tough year for us.

The problem is we’ve now worked for 3 companies in 18 months which doesn’t look good.

Instead of jumping around we’re thinking of getting our own truck and having more control over our income and how many miles we drive etc.

We have excellent driving record, no accidents, no tickets. The company we’re with now has High Security background checks FBI etc, so we have a good clean record.

I’ve looked at companies hiring O/O in STL that dispatch, help with plates, insurance etc. the best I’ve seen so far is $3,000 per week take home after fuel/all expenses. This is for a solo driver so we should do better as team.

My question is... if we do this within the next 30-60 days, is this a good time of year? And...

We have no experience as O/O but are both focused people with a decent business sense.

Would advise us to go for it? If not why not?

And if so... what is your best piece of advice for us going forward?

Andi

 

The O/O said he was planning to buy a truck for us when we first talked.

It took 2 months to go through the Landstar approval process... we waited it out.

When we finally got through it and we’re approved, it turned out the owner wasn’t able to get the truck so we got one of his older trucks from a driver who quit. 2014 Freightliner with 659,000. It was old but in relatively decent shape and had been well cleaned... so everyone thought.

Unfortunately it had a lot of breakdowns in the first few weeks... plus and this was the tough part, it had a roach problem the owner wasn’t aware of.

The roaches were actually coming out of the ceiling and down the windshield at times.

The previous driver had a cat and we finally found what we thought was the source which was a bunch of spilled cat food back in a corner under the bottom drawer. We thought getting rid of the old cat food would be the end of it... not so. Of course we cleaned the cat food out but the roaches were in the walls.

The owner had a shop he preferred so any time the truck had an issue we’d have to come back there. When the truck de-rated and would not regen we had to drive 1500 miles back to get a major overhaul. There was no other truck for us to use during the repairs.

We were also the only team in the fleet, which turned out to be a drawback. They weren’t used to finding team freight.

We were there 3 months.

The 2 month wait to get started and subsequent issues put a strain on us financially. We couldn’t afford to sit so we made the decision to cut our losses and move on. ....No ill will toward the owner.

We have been through the full O/O approval process... not just as drivers. Apparently Landstar made a change so to even drive for an owner you had to approved as IF you were an owner.

My husband is thinking the Landstar Load Board will be a good fast, profitable start for freight should we go this direction.

 

Its an interesting thing... I really do enjoy driving. I enjoy trucking. My heart is in it for the opportunity it can provide. I’m a professional photographer and want to build a studio... and that takes resources. More than we have right now.

I can be at peace with team driving right now. I look forward to it each day... but I genuinely want to have the studio and am looking at where the best/most options exist.

We really like our current company (culture/people etc) but two things are creating some frustration here right now...

1. We both have to be up for some load/unload, which means one person gets sleep interrupted. That’s harder than it sounds

2. The weekly average money is less than expected.

Andrea

 

My husband thinks Landstar Load Board is where to start. The plan is flatbed-conestoga. We did that for a short while and loved it. It was a shot-term contract so it ended but we really did like it. Perhaps Rent a trailer to start....

We have spoken to Landstar’s flatbed brokers for our area and they sound great over the phone but haven’t worked with them.

Flexibility is a big deal. We get little of that as company. We’re willing to do the work and having choices is very attractive.

I spoke to R&L this week. We’ve never done dedicated day in day out. And it’s 500-600 mile days.... day in day out. I don’t know how that would work for us. We’ve run long miles no doubt but always different places.... would it be boring?? I don’t know LOL

My husband really thinks having a truck is the answer to more money, more options. I’m.... I’m skeptical but open-minded.

I know it stresses me out a bit to consider that buying a truck is a big risk.... what if doesn’t work out? LOL Sounds like I need a therapist hahaha....

 

Well that’s a good question and one we’re discussing. I’ve been looking j to it. Switching companies again so soon kind of sucks any way you look at it. And you don’t know how it’s gonna go till you’re there.