Advice/Tips on becoming O/O

Your timing is not good, rates are rock bottom pretty much everywhere.

I would wait if you can. Even if you have a lot of money saved it's going to be REAL hard to keep it right now, much less grow it.

 

[QUOTE="ajp201, post: 9229105, member: 220878"]I don’t plan on doing it anytime soon but definitely in the near future. Just taking it all in to see if I even want to make the move or stick with company for awhile...[/QUOTE]

 

Practice for 4 or 5 years as a company driver, then decide whether or not to do it.
You've still got a LOT to learn.

No offense intended.
In 5 years.. you'll look back and realize what you didn't know.

We can't begin to tell you what you need to experience.

 

How much money do you have saved up? Are you going to get your own authority? Where are you going to run and what will you pull? It’s hard to help with such limited information.

 

Think about it till you’re 55 and then forget you ever thought about it !! Lol
What was I talking about I’ve had amnesia sense as far back as I can remember !

 

I'm actually in the process of going through this right now so I'll give my 2 cents

I started out as a company driver as well.

After a while I wanted more. Leasing may not seem appealing, but it gives you a taste of owning because you are responsible for fuel, taxes, etc. It will all be deducted from your settlements automatically so you pay it but don't actually have to worry about it. You will see what it's like to incur the expenses of owning. You are responsible for maintenance as well, but most trucks leased through a company will be newer and covered by the factory warranty so there wont be many major maintenance expenses. If you do lease then make sure you go to a company that offers a walk away lease or a lease where you can set the length (like 6 months) and just renew the lease if you want (I did three 6 month leases at TransAm before leaving to lease with JCT).

Once again though, I wanted more. I recently cancelled my lease with JCT and am now in the process of buying a truck and will be picking it up on Tuesday. I'm not getting my own authority yet though, I will be taking the truck to JCT. Basically have the same work but no lease payment. Insurance and taxes etc though the company and deducted from my settlements. But I will be 100% responsible for the maintenance. After another few years I might look into actually getting my own authority.

Now this is where it gets more serious. Trucks are a lot more expensive to maintain then cars. Cars will take over a decade to hit 200k miles but a truck can do that in less then 2 years so maintenance is a major factor and you can save a lot of money by doing things yourself. Are you mechanically inclined enough to do repairs? Things like airlines, hoses, and wiring? If something brakes while driving, could you rig up something to get you moving again to at least get you to a shop for a proper repair? As a company driver you probably don't have to worry about most things, they probably don't even want you changing a lightbulb. As a leaser or owner, things like preventative maintenance and simple repairs will be your responsibility and you can either do them yourself quickly and cheaply or pay to have somebody else do them along with having downtime causing lost income. There is also the initial expense of buying more equipment for the truck like a variety of tools to do the repairs and preventative maintenance.

I did look into getting my own authority but you will need a lot of stuff set up. Before getting a DOT number through the FMCSA, you will be required to register a business through your state and be approved. This may also require a business tax id and license and will require quarterly tax payments based on the income of the business besides your yearly personal income tax based on what you pay yourself. You will also need to pay for your own insurance when under your own authority which is a lot more complex then car insurance. There are insurances to cover a wide range of things and many may be required (look on the OOIDA website insurance policys). You do need to start out with at least bobtail insurance just to *get* the cab and register it.

The cost of buying a truck is something else to consider. There are tons out there ranging in price and mileage. The lower the mileage the less chance of problems (for the most part) but higher cost to buy. Higher the mileage, the greater the chance of maintenance issues and the more beneficial it will be to be able to do repairs yourself. Have you ever had any major loans in the past like for a house or car? Believe it or not, never having credit issues wont matter to most finance companies. They want to see that you had a large loan in the past and were able to handle it. Failing this you might need to come up with a down payment of over 30% before they will finance you for the rest of the purchase. Of course dealerships are as varied as dog species so if you can't get financing through one place, you might have to try at a place that uses a different finance agency, but the more limited your finance options, the more limited your places to buy, and more limited your options for trucks.

Truck I'm buying fits in the later scheme of that. I've never had major loans so the finance agency for the first truck I looked at wanted me to put down $28k for an $80k truck with ~$3k monthly payments. I said no and looked elsewhere. Found a place that requires 0 down and they had a truck with 350k miles for $75k. I offered 15k down and the guy seemed overjoyed that I was offering 20% down.

 

I hope you have no personal expenses and no family to provide for. You'd end up starving them at some point.