Can owner operators make 4k per week after all expenses and taxes?

Why wait?

Stay “In your lane.”

If i wait, I’m at the house, not stuck in a truck stop.
If there’s no load I like, I’m easing towards home, if something comes up, great, if not , oh well, I’ll have a load by end of day that’ll load same day by house or the next day at latest.

The load i got now, the defat bran, I unloaded 60 miles from this load, picked this one up on way to house friday,
regardless about the load, I was headed home.
When this load is dropped this morning, I’ll have two loads on the books for over $3k, got til Wednesday when I send my paperwork in through Best Mobile Document Scanning App for Truckers - Drive Axle

Long as i send it in by 3 pm Wednesday it’ll be paid Friday.

Some wait 30-60-90+ days.
I’d say lease to a carrier, they make take 35%, but they deal with the headaches, you just pick a load where your spot market works, and go.

 

You don’t need 2 trucks. Maintaining a second truck and paying licensing and insurance on it just in case your truck breaks down is like buying a second house just in case the one you’re in catches fire.

Maintaining your truck properly will alleviate against surprise breakdowns. I’m on my 4th truck and one time I broke down on the road away from my home shop. The rest of the time everything was scheduled at the shop while I was home.

As far as leasing, I’m leased to a company that works well for me. I like what we do, and they don’t give me grief when I want to take a few weeks off. And for the most part the money is consistent. We don’t have the ups and downs like spot freight. If you want to be totally on your own then you’ll never be happy being leased on. But honestly I’m lazy. Hauling our stuff is easy. I work and get paid.

 

What works for someone doesn't work for someone else.

And do not say because the avg spot rate is 2.40 or whatever that that's what people will avg if they only pull spot freight. That's just complete bs.

 

I keep two, Theyre apportioned tagged $1700/year/each, when one isn’t hauling I put it on non commercial insurance policy, it’s $900/6 months/$150/month.
Can pull an empty trailer, just not haul freight.

Both trucks are paid off.


If i need/want i can put someone in one.

 

My comment was more toward going into it thinking you need two trucks just in case. My old truck sat in my driveway for a while until I decided to sell it, but it had nothing to do with thinking I needed a spare because I was unsure of my new truck.

 

It’s not that simple either. There are a lot of companies that will lease you on and then feed you loads off the load boards. The key is a company that is a good fit for you that has decent direct freight of their own. But even then, if your goal is to be independent and on your own you won’t be happy being leased on no matter what.