Local motor carriers

I would not base any real decisions, especially that involve huge capital expenditure because someone tells you that.

It very well maybe possible or may not be possible all at the same time.

I doubt that a completely local owner-operator steadily makes that. Hauling from the port is notoriously the cheapest Freight there is.

It's Possible someone can have a certain connection maybe there Freight pays better if they know someone, but I would certainly not take that as what the average local owner operator makes.

There are plenty of Internet Warriors that will brag about what they make but remember one thing... It's the internet.

It can be staggering to see how much an owner operator can gross, and how little he can Net. Many factors go into it, and it really is not that simple. Do your homework.

So to answer your question, no I do not think that many, if any, strictly local owner operators make that after all expenses and taxes.

 

Can SOMEONE make that much? Yes.

Can YOU, right now?

No... Not yet. At present, you are 90% likely to lose everything trying because of what you do not yet know. That is not at all meant to discourage or say that you cannot learn everything and totally crush it. That is only to say that you cant do it yet. Until you have that CDL you wont even know if you can tolerate the life, if you can manage to sleep next to reefers and the pressure to please every possible entity that can make a demand of you.



When you have enough experience with all facets of running trucks to tell your wife what the truck gets for mpg, dollar per mile, and break all expenses down to CPM.. When you can scribble out the exact costs of your insurance base plates HUT tax, ifta irp ny# ky# dat/its app cost etc etc etc etc..

Then you have a 50/50 shot of succeeding. Basically the more of the game you know, the less of it can bite you in the butt unexpectedly. And theres still all the unexpected truck, traffic, broker, govt, DOT etc etc etc etc problems. Theres a million possible pitfalls so you better like dodgeball.

Dont truck for the money. Its not enough. Youve got to like something else about it. So truck for hire first, seek responsibility and learn all you can. I highly suggest dispatching yourself on loadboards while someone else pays all the bills BEFORE you try it on your own. See if you can gross more finding your own freight or going where the dispatcher says. Thatll help decide if you should try it or not.

Btw, unless youre in a daycab, you wont see the family much. Thats good for some and hell for others. It can wreck a marriage easily. Trucking lets you in, but it doesnt let you out. Its wierd.

 

I was local and home every night with the first truck I owned 100, take home no, my w2 showed about 35 and company after all expenses usually around 10-12, own truck own trailer. I cant speak for what you're doing but in those numbers something to keep in mind I did 90% of my own wrenching, also worked about 80+ hours a week...I cant say I miss that for what I'm doing now.

 

I took home 35k a year, that was my wage, company profit after all expenses was around 10-12k/year

 

Fuel bill alone on a 150k year was about 50,000.
Tags licence insurance 2290 ifta misc permits is another 15k give or take depending on state so before we get to driver wages were already down to a 85000, take another 35000 out for my wage now were down to 50k truck and trailer payments were 30k/year, now were down to 20 and it was usually about 10k or more in maintenance some years varied a little but 10k was about average.

And if you pay a shop because you wont turn your own wrench you just as well double 10k to 20k.

I'm giving you hard numbers from experience from what I did when I was local not somebody on youtube blowing smoke.