If I wanted to become an owner operator for say landstar what would it take? I know I’d have to get a truck, but there’s stuff I don’t see anyone talk about. what happens if you have a breakdown with landstar? I know as an owner cost of repairs falls to you, but do they handle the towing or is that also you. what happens if you break down under a load? Do they have someone else come get it, does it stay with you or do you have to rent a truck to get it moved? how much equity or cash should a guy have before trying this adventure? Not looking for exact just a ballpark.
If you are worried about breakdowns right from the start, maybe you need to reevaluate your desire to be an o/o. that said, if something happens, you can work with landstar for the tow and repairs. You will pay that back, it isn’t free money. However the repowering the load usually comes from the agent you are working with for the load.
Towing is also you. Sometimes loads are late due to breakdown. Other times an agent will attempt to repower a partially delivered load, in which case the money gets split between the two trucks. How much you should have set aside depends on your truck. If it's older, having enough for an engine rebuild is a safe bet. Figure $25k ballpark. If it's new under warranty, you still want to have enough to be able to survive in case it sits at a dealership for 6 weeks due to warranty work or collision. After you've been with Landstar for some period of time, I forget how long, they may be willing to extend a loan to help cover a major repair, and then take payments out of your weekly settlements once you're rolling again.
Anything with moving parts can break. “I’d rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it” I once bought a new truck that needed a motor in less then 6months. Meanwhile my clapped out farm truck can be kept alive by my tool bag and the local hardware store.
Kind of what I figured I’d need this year to save up cash. I have decent credit (finally) but I’m trying to live with using as little credit as humanly possible.
I saved up until I had 25k cash and cleared all my debt so I had emergency resources. All the worst case scenarios happened right off the bat. Call it learning curve money, or whatever title you wanna give it. But I needed nearly every bit of it. Being under funded is the root of most business failures. You can never be too prepared. But you can easily be under prepared. Keep stacking resources while you’re doing homework.
You need a reliable truck. All expenses are on you. You’re simply contracting your services to them. Available credit to 20k and reserves at 15k cash is a good start. Break down under a load never works well for you, the rescue, shipper, receiver or LS. Bring A game and benefit, anything less will result in tears.
