Company Driver Becoming Owner Operator

I’d say I know alot about this buisness, been on all sides, shipping/recieving, loading and unloading, and then in the truck as both company and owner of my truck.
Notice Its owner, not me and the finance company.
I paid mine off, didnt go broke and go back to a mega starter

 

Thats the ones who wont “listen to reason and think everyone can do it.”
I have known alot of real people, get a truck and then lose either it, their family, or both.

One guy I know they just shut his truck doen because he is 3 months behind, they remote accessed and killed it.
(Yes youcan pull start it) so I told him that and he was able to get back home (if course they can kill it again)

Most try to say, “Now is not the right time and you dont have enough experiance”
And others go on defensive with things like..

Freight is freight, you haul totes? I haul totes.
You haul foodstuffs? Oh guess what So do I.
You haul onions? ..you can have them they stink.

 

It would be pretty amusing to engage in a little juvenile comparison between this load and that load.

I had a load that it was such a difficult load nothing more needed to be said about it. they had to hire Mr Bean to work out the practical issues associated with such a unwanted load. //tease

 

There's opportunities in our jobs section.

 

Isn’t this an issue with the student loan bubble we have now? Kids get duped with “you can be anything you want to be”. And hello mr. Sanders...

 

I'd recommend going to Schneider cause Landstar is bad.

 

If the OP was business savvy they’d be selling truck insurance to aspiring O/Os. Now there’s a racket. They raised my premium for this year just because they can.

Being an owner operator is much more than business savvy. It’s also being a mechanic, a self reliant, and at times a lowly peasant. You can sit home all you want when you aren’t getting your $3.00/mile all miles, but eventually you’ll be eating the drywall then burning the studs for heat. Until you get your own niche in the vast world of trucking you’ll be struggling somewhere. Equipment breaks, and markets dry up. Or at least that’s what I’ve learned. I’m only doing it until I can get out of trucking completely.

 

You absolutely right. However , it also takes DISCIPLINE . So , having said that . The discipline will lead you make decisions base on your needs.
So, my minimum is 3 dollars , but it depends where am going , I charge more. Because I believe is not only my needs it is also the needs of other O/O. If I haul cheap loads, I’m going to screw other o/o . So it is also a pride .
Even though I paid my equipment , doesn't mean I’m going to give it away for cheap , do you understand?

 

Again, different strokes for different folks...
Everyone has different minimum rates I guess. I look at my labor (same rate as a company driver), fuel, IFTA, tolls, registration, taxes etc... The main problem I see new owners or owner wannabes missing in their minimum rates formula is asset replacement ratio (ratio between capital expenditures (from the statement of cash flows) and depreciation and amortization expenses (from the income statement). And that rate is getting lower and lower every year for owner-operators.