This was posted on another forum recently. I hope the OP doesn't mind me quoting him here, but this is some of the best spot-on advice for any future O/O. This should be required reading for anyone thinking about this risky investment: Admin Edit: credit goes to user icantlogin at http://www.layover.com/forums/layovers-lounge/t-becoming-oo-148820.html
There is money to be made, but not by hauling that second hand freight. If you don't have your own customers forget it. And you better offer a service that the big companies can't provide.
now what you say is very true if you just buy a truck, in order to make any money you cant compete with the big company's with just a tractor just wont work, in order to make money you justa bout have tohave your own trailer and your own authority then you can compet and name your own price, you can not make money leasing to a trucking company, they make all the money , do the math before you lease on to anyoneand if you wont to stay in business keep your overhead down and you cant do that with a new truck there nice but they cost to much and the payments are way to high. best of luck to anyone comming into the busines southernpride
i had eight trucks i was in bis 14 years and in 1999 the fuel started to thru the roof had a driver get in a wreck my insurence went from 10,000 to 100,000 a year fuel was 25,000 a month tractor payments were 27,000 a month trailer payments were 5,000 a month i had to brokers rip me off for 5,000 a peice do not ever use sandland ligestics in glastbury ct or natnaol graphics in branford ct there is so mutch to know buy the time i paid ever body i had nothing for me i made more money by my self but trucking is like a drug it is in my blood you do a good job and somebody refer you the next thing you need another truck and a another so if anbody that is thinking of getting in to the trucking co e mail me i still have my own athortie i think it is time to strike the rates suck
where you seeing O/O's buying "big shiny trucks"? All I see are cheap trucks being run down by people that don't know #### about trucking pulling cans
I agree but disagree with this statement. Owning a trailer can be good under certain circumstances. A lot depends on what you're hauling or if your leasing on with someone. Leasing with a big carrier with alot of company trucks is usually a bad idea. Leasing with one who has little or no company trucks is a much smarter move. A one truck operation will not compete with big carriers. You can name you price all day, but one of the big carriers will come in and take it in a heartbeat. Most shippers don't want to deal with one truck companies. They want to make one phone call and move 10 loads versus making several calls. So that basically leaves you to deal with brokers. So now your dealing with a broker who is taking money off the top, (which you was trying to avoid in the first place by getting your own authority), you also have to wait to get paid or deal with a factoring company that takes a %. So it kinda works out like this...... Company to Logistics Co. to Broker then to the trucking company. Where if you was leased to a carrier with some trucks you would most likely eliminate the broker. Now this is a worst case scenario but I see it all the time at a place where I haul out of. In the end me being leased to someone, I'm making more after the Co. takes there 25% then the guy running his own authority makes before he figures in his factoring charge. I agree completely about buying new, thats a bad idea!
I'm leased to a small carrier, I have my own trailer, He takes 12% of the gross. I run it like business and I make very good money. It can be done but it depends on how YOU set your business up. If you think you'te gonna make money with some carrier that pays you $.90 to $1.00 a mile...Good luck! Right now, My truck's not moving for less than $2.00 a mile gross! If the load doesn't pay AT LEAST that much...I won't haul it. I turn down loads all the time that don't pay enough and some FOOL will take it because he's so ##__kin' stupid that he thinks "If the wheels are turning, I'm makin' money!" The OP of this thread tends to ALWAYS look at the worst possible side of every aspect of trucking and seems to be unable to see anything positive about it...So I take anything he says with a grain of salt. Having said that, It's a tough business and you HAVE to know how to play the game if you're gonna make it out here...This is not a new phenomenon, It has always been a tough business!
I see what OP was saying and I agree, to a point. First off, I am not an O/O or IC but, I have done nothing but research for the last three years and trucking has been a part of my life since I was a kid. Find the company or companies you want to haul for, get things set up, find out what your truck and trailer need to be spec'ed at than, buy the truck and trailer. With cash or pay off real quick. Do not and I repeat, do not do a lease purchase. In my opinion if you have to do a lease through a company "lease purchase" plan than you are rushing into the dream of being an O/O. If you can't manage money, have some business sense or learn to do simple paperwork, know how to deal with all types of people then you might want to reconsider being an O/O and just find the best company to drive for. To all you Lease Purchase drivers that actually have made it, God bless you. If we listened to people like the person that posted that info at the top, where would this country be. SheepDog
I always gotta laugh when I read someone else's advice on trucking and making a profit. Most of the negative advice comes from folks who have FAILED at it or are convinced it can't be done. What about the folks who are making a living,happy,get home when they want, driving nice equ? I was told years ago: "You can't make money in trucking" I'm still laughing.
I was too...By the old guy that taught me to drive! He had 3 trucks leased to Bekins Van Lines and a very nice home and his wife drove a new Cadillac but he told me there was no money to be made in it! Some guys just can't stop whining!
