Complete NOOB questions... serious answers only please

The first thing you need to do is go to a school and get your CDL, and then spend at least a year driving for a company. This is not an industry you can learn on the fly or make it up as you go. You probably won't even be able to get insurance as a driver/owner with no experience at all.

You not only have to learn how to drive the truck with varying weight loads, in varying terrain, and in varying conditions (road and weather), you also have to learn how to properly inspect the vehicle, log your trips, be able to read a map, manage your time (trip planning), and you finances. You'll also have to learn how to scale your load for balance on the axles if it is a heavy load.

Going owner operator right out of the gate is not a wise move by any stretch. Blunt but serious answer.

 

The trucking industry is currently falling flat on its face due to the current econemy. Just watch some of these threads and the writing is on the wall. Not trying to be to funny, but if i was you I would buy another bar, and stand by for the rush of truck driver business as they try to drown their sorrows. I think you would be money ahead right now.

 

I'd say take more than a year, at least 3 minimum, to drive as a company driver and learn the ropes. Hopefully we're talking about an outfit here that treats you decent as a company driver to where you can lease a truck on with them and start the learning process as an o/o there. That way you know their freight lanes - which should help you determine how to spec your truck - how to effectively communicate with your dispatch, the typical in's and out's of everyday trucking those sort of things. That's how I would do it.

There are all sorts of owner operators. Owners that lease a truck on with a company and pull the company's trailers, the easiest way. Owners that do lease purchase deals with a company. Or the owners who have their own their trailer running under their own authority, the hardest and most lucrative way, but also the toughest to cut your teeth on and easiest to fail at. You could buy a truck and do it on the fly. It's surely been done but you're gonna have to be on top of the business side of things and keep real close tabs. Knowing what a cutthroat business it is and always has been I wouldn't advise it.

I don't know what the numbers are but I'm certain the failure rate of newbies into this industry is probably almost as bad as the average %100+ turnover/retention problems that most companies have. If you're coming into it for money don't waste your time cause you're not gonna make it. If you have a love of trucking and always had that desire, maybe you can, but you better be sure of what you're getting into...

 

I drove local delivery for a liquor distributor for 12 years,....If you think the tavern business is feast or famine,...Just wait until you learn a little more about trucking.....

This could be the worst time in history to get into trucking as a company driver,.....let lone as a O/O.........

Just my opinion as others may very...

 

I will second all the others comments about the industry and how rough it is out here right now. Our company has be slowing every week lately and everything is way down, vans, flats everything. I'm moving to a new company in January and considder that a huge gamble. Let alone going right into an O/O position.

However I will answer your question the best I can.

How you find loads all depends on what you do. Will you be leased onto a company and run as an O/O for them? If this is the case their dispatch will usually set you up with "their" loads like they would for their company drivers. On the other hand if you go all out and go get your own authority then you're more less on your own t find loads. Some will have regular customers that they have made contracts with. While others will use load boards and other simmilar tools to get loads. However from what I have seen lately the load boards are not the best places to get loads if you like to be able to make any $$$. It's just how the industry is right now.

Also you asked what the pay is per load. Again this will be different from load to load and it agan depends on what kind of O/O you are. Leased to a company they may have you at a set per mile rate. You could also be paid a percentage of what the load pays the company. If your on your own then your at the mercy of the load boards and load brokers loads can very a fair bit in value depending on what kind of freight it is or what kind of trailer needed ect... Some loads may pay $3.00/mi or even more where others may be as low as $1.20/mi or even less! I don't know how anyone could survive on that low a rate tho. Not on yourown anyway.

 

First off, rigs run on diesel fuel, not gas. Second, good luck getting insurance. There are a couple of guys on here that actually have some experience in trucking, but not enough to get insurance for an o/o set up. You'll need more than $1 per mile to cover your expenses of running the truck, paying for fuel, and covering all of you other expenses such as a set aside fund for repairs and maintenance, etc. How do you plan on paying yourself? $1 a mile won't cover it.

Second, there are not very many places that are going to trust a complete rookie with their freight. I am working on starting my own freight brokerage, and I can say that I would never take a chance on booking freight to someone that has no experience.

Get you CDL, get some experience with a company, learn the ropes first.

Go poke around in the threads in the o/o section here on the forum and read. It's not easy even for experienced drivers to make a go of it as an o/o.