Difference between lease purchace from company and actual havng own authority O/O

Please discuss the difference between getting hooked into a lease purchase with a company, which after expenses only pays a little more if any more than a company driver makes, and an actual owner operator, where the driver has his or her own authority and actually works for whatever company they want to work for and can get loads directly from a broker.

 

You are right, I did leave that one out. I stand corrected.

My first wife (I am widowed) bought a truck and hired her son (my stepson) to drive it for her. I told her that was a big mistake, but she would not listen. The truck she bought had a half a million miles on it, and her son, who has a big drug problem left the truck on the side of the road and just walked off. Moral of the story, You have to know who you are hiring to run your equipment or drive it yourself.

It is a big responsibility to drive a truck that you own. You could find yourself running yourself to death just to keep up with the repairs, and spending what little forced time off that you have, the 34 hour reset, doing paperwork, or repairs.

 

No, I'm not saying that no one should ever strike out on their own. I'm saying that anyone that does should do so at the right strategic time and have their ducks in a row if they do. They should wait until they can invest in a truck that is not worn completely out to begin with. The repairs can and will kill them from the start. Also, they need to have a wife or husband that has the savvy to handle the books, or someone else they can trust. It's going to take about all anyone can do to run all the miles necessary to build the capital they will need for hard time that will certainly come. For sure, they should not buy a truck with the intention for a family member to drive for them, like my wife did. Especially a family member that has been known to leave a truck on the side of the road and simply walk away to begin with.

This can be done, but it should be done right to begin with, or the driver will be setting themselves up for failure from the get-go. If a driver will do the research, understand the perils they will face, and not allow themselves to be had by the vultures out there waiting to pick their bones, if they will get their own authority so they don't depend on one company for all of their work, then the sky is the limit.