Wanting to be a Owner Operator after CDL School

If someone told you about this tough fighter, lots of guys tried, but got KTFO...but a few were actually successful. Get into the gym, build your skills and STAMINA and your reflexes, and become very observant. Remember the old saying, “if you do what everyone else does, you will receive what everyone else received. The majority received a beating. Find out why.

Your post, these guys see it alllllllllllllllll the time. Guy posts about his degrees, his previous jobs, his experience in business, and he gets KTFO. Review the responses this time without thinking that these guys are chumps. If you are observant, you will figure out why.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”- Mike Tyson

 

To the op, I see it a lot different than my fellow members, I see the down side of this industry a lot more than most.

With over 85% failure rate with new owners, there is a lot to be said about why not to get into it as an owner but to remain as a driver for someone else.

I recommend and this comes from experience five, not one or two years ... but five years of on the road experience before considering becoming an owner.

Why?

For a lot of reasons.

Insurance is cheaper

You will get a solid idea where the money is

You can get involved with learning how the systems work like how loads are booked

You can learn how the truck budget works seeing you are in front of it, not behind it

And you can try out different segments on someone else's dime to see what will fit for you

Most ignore what I say, most hear that you can make the big bucks and get all this freedom but then when they step into it, they can't figure out where the freedom is.

 

While I agree the % of new O/O fail is probably greater than 50%, I would like to see some documentation supporting a failure rate over 85%.
What folks are missing here is that when you become an O/O you become a business owner. You can’t just simply drive the truck any more, you have to have businesss sense or you will fail....this is true if you decided to become O/O or a watermelon farmer in Florida. Either way you are tied to that business 24/7.

 

Never drove a truck? But wants to be owner op after training? This is great. Go get rich if think you will.

 

if it was profitable everyone would do it.

No one asks about expenses. When you are accustomed to paying 1.80 for fuel and one bad day we end up fueling at closer to 6.00 gallon after the attacks on 9-11. It would be one of the worst fuel timings ever against a day full of surprises.

Everyone has taken the time to tell the OP to run a while as a Company Driver, as in a few years. or 5 etc possibly stacking unspent money as savings against a future truck purchase if you at that time then still have the stomach for that kind of existence.

In my early years I had one person who owned a small handful of trucks and trailers scraping together by hook and crook a living running around the NE with 30 stops in 5 days if it paid him a profit after expenses of same. I remember when fuel approached 2.00 a gallon for the first time and he was always making noises about getting fuel at a good price if at all possible. Ultimately the rates settled at some point in the 90's and it was late in his life. So for him it was quite enough of that.

 

Don’t take my post the wrong way, I’m in your corner and pulling for you.
This forum is full of folks who share the negative but not the positive, as every other forum is and folks in general. You are doing the right by asking but take the advice with a grain of salt. O/O status can obviously be very rewarding....either for the $ or for the freedom or if you get lucky both. Otherwise you wouldn’t see any O/O out there.
If this is what YOU want to do, go for it and don’t look back.

 

Just remember that there are two sides to being a o/o.

The first side is the owner part. Business sense. Understanding finances, risk, taxes, expenses well enough to survive as a business.

The second side is the operator part. Patience. Safety. Scheduling/routing that truck from here to there on time, and legally. Docking maneuvers. Traffic flow comprehension. Parking and maneuvering a 70 foot long articulated vehicle. Dealing with city and construction traffic. Forcing yourself to get proper rest. Watching for, and comprehending signage. Tricks of the trade to unstick jammed doors or tandems. Recognizing problems with the truck before they shut you down. More on top of that, but that covers a goodly chunk of it.

It sounds like you might already have a head start on the first part. It's just a small business in a different mold. Some new stuff, but it will all track with what you know.

For most competent average Joes without mental or physical issues, the second part can be learned fairly quickly, but not always. There are some people in the world who are smart, but can't maneuver a truck worth a #### forward or back, have road rage issues which distract them, or simply can't sleep properly in a truck. Being a professional driver absolutely requires patience as well. You don't have to be an angel, most of us aren't (as you have certainly noticed in the forum,) but you have to be able to hold your tongue and be polite even if you cannot help but project that you are angry.

Note: If you are able to sleep with a fan or TV/radio/ocean/airport static background noise, then you might choose driving reefer. If you cannot sleep with white noise, do NOT go reefer. A lot of folks get into the reefer side, then have to get out because they cannot rest well.

 

This the magic formula / potion.

It's a lot of work.

There's always something that needs to be tended too.

If you're not good at managing your money, don't even consider it.

It's a business. And it's a business in an industry where everything is ultra competitive, and there is almost no loyalty.

Now all the business talk of maximizing profits, low overhead, blah....that's great. But there's a truck load of savvy that goes with this.

A simple example: What kind of truck would buy?

With 0 first hand experience, you're going to be going just on the advice of others.

That's a real shot at winding up in Palookaville.

As has been mentioned, drive for a company for a year, even two.

One of the determining factors of how your truck will be financed is how long have you had a CDL.
How long have you been an O/O.

I'm not trying to discourage you by any means. I'm an O/O.

But for you to get a CDL and buy a used truck, you're looking at probably 25 or 30 percent down, and someplace in the neighborhood of almost 20% interest.

Insurance. New CDL with no experience. Probably more than the truck payments.

Basically the harsh reality is you'll starve.