cannot understand

If you don't learn from your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them.
Knowledge is learning from your mistakes. Wisdom is learning from someone else's mistake.
Good luck helps too.

 

Not everyone is cut out to be an astronaut.

 

Thats true. My first attempt failed. This is my first go at OTR,.. but I was doing local car hauling before this. Besides being miserable everyday,. I barely broke even and ended up selling my equipment after an insurance fiasco.

Hurst

 

My trainer had 30 years without an accident, won mulitple truck rodeos, etc. Nice guy, great family, but just not a businessman. He went from being fairly well off & secure to bankrupt a year after buying (financing) his own truck.

To this day he couldn't tell you what went wrong -- he was doing great, making money hand over fist until suddenly he wasn't.


I've been driving semis for coming up on 4 years now & I still can't back into a parking spot in 1 shot. I've never shifted a twin stick, I can't back doubles, & I still grimmace when going underneath 13'6" tunnels.

But customers don't care how great a driver I am as long as I show up on time with just as many pieces as I left with. Banks don't care as long as I keep a positive balance & pay on time. The fmcsa doesn't care as long as I stay compliant & on top of my paperwork. The dot doesn't care as long as I'm safe, legal, & have my permits paid up.

If I were to bet on who would be more likely to succeed as an owner operator, Schneider's company driver of the year or Joe Blow, who used to manage a Dairy Queen -- I'd put my money on Joe Blow...

 

While true....driving the truck is only part of being a successful business owner in this industry.

 

Driving a truck is completely different than owning one. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other. Just because someone excels at one doesn't mean they have any idea how to do the other. Just my $0.02.

 

If you have a major breakdown to early. That can take down many o/o. I was reading isx can horror stories. Brand new trucks and the warranties were worth spit. O/o coming up with half the money for repairs for warrenty work.

 

I just posted this a bit ago for Criminey Jade in the expedite forum. It was in response to her question "Is it just as expensive to launch an expedite truck compared to a tractor? Thinking registration, inspections, IFTA registration... Everything you have to do to legally set up and operate your truck."

Here is my response.

I'll cut to the chase.

No it is not as expensive.

Plates and IRP are less. You don't pay sales/use tax on the truck because it is used for interstate work.

IFTA taxes are dependent on both fuel mileage of the truck and the state you buy fuel in but so insignificant that they occupy a small part of the overall ledger.

Insurance is cheaper depending on how you set it up. people think that insurance covers the laptop/gps and personal stuff - it don't.

The problem with expediting is that people buy too big and have too much overhead starting with the truck payment. then the second problem is that they don't set up the business end of it right or worse yet they set it up but then fail to be disciplined enough to keep it up.

You have to keep things paid for and there are times when you won't roll with a load. You have to figure out your bottom line to make a profit or loss and then work around that figure in order to accept a load or not. Many companies, especially XPO (Express-1) have their special customers which they still deeply discount as does others so they won't give consistent rates in many cases.

I wouldn't buy the truck you are looking at, I would but something else with a standard sleeper (being solo you don't need a 96 inch sleeper) and a large box that is cheaper, especially if you need $30k as a down payment. You will need at least three months operating capital to bank just in case so that $30k is really important to put away.

The important point for this thread is in red, people think they are doing well, get an LLC and then set their business up. Then something happens and it falls apart quickly because of a number of things, like they use the business money for personal stuff. This is a business, and should always be run like a business. As I have explained to others in the past just because you have something setup, it takes a discipline to maintain it and not go outside the rules you setup. Too many people get all caught up with the money numbers and don't get they need to save for things like tires, oil changes and so on but just live load to load with everything on the truck falling apart.

 

I agree Driving a truck is completely different than owning one. BUT my opinion. IF you don't know how a truck operates and the parameters of operation you are doomed at running a business that it's sole purpose is the operation of trucks.
You don't need to know how to drive a truck but you do need to know how a truck is driven. AS an O/O and business owner they are one and the same.

 

Take someone like myself for instance. Ive been around trucks, and trucking since I was in diapers. I dont claim to know the business, but I do understand that it takes a strong will and commitment to make it a success. Ive been driving less than a year, so i dont believe I am ready yet, not sure I will ever truely be ready, However anytime Ive asked questions, or mentioned that Id like to just try, I get told to stay clear of buying my own, that its pointless, that Ill fail, and when I fail, that Ill never want to drive again, and that I should just stay a company driver as its safer. Well see thats the thing, if there was no money in being an owner op, then why do so many even do it? Why are there so many that actually succeed?

For me in the end, if I dont at least try, then I will never really know.

I believe my work ethic, and my drive to succeed that I very well might make it as an owner op. In the mean time Ill stay as a company driver and continue to listen to the owner ops scoff at me for even THINKING that I could possibly be on the same playing field as them.