Going back to OTR with Schneider Lease Purchase!

Oh no doubt. My compensation is plenty now, even for the ludicrous living expenses of California.

I'm at .8724cpm (.4362 split) running 5168mi/wk. Plus CA laws mean we're paid $15/hr for on-duty not driving time. CA-mandated 15-min breaks are paid on some sliding scale but it averages $36/hr most weeks. Benefits are enough to keep me happy, and 401k profit sharing is nice. They dumped $4500 into my retirement last year for "helping the company reach a low 70s OR"

 

Yessir NEVER AGAIN!

I'm very happy being an employee, and Old Dominion has been good to me over the past 2.5 years. It's given me everything I could want from a financial perspective, while still giving me a good work-life balance. Trucks are new and reliable, albeit a bit dirty from all the slip-seating but it doesn't take more than a couple minutes to wipe things down. My manager operates less like a boss and more like a casual friend. Close enough to chat and laugh with, but not enough to invite over for dinner. Other employees always seem to be happy to come to work and their good moods positively effect mine. And being home enough to watch my 2-year old grow up is absolutely priceless. She's literally the light of my life and the relationship with my wife has only grown stronger with every passing week.

I also have time to dabble in personal hobbies. I bought a sports car I'd been after for 3 years last year and often hang out at car meets, sometimes bringing my daughter along. Bought myself a gaming computer too, so when I'm not at work, wrenching on my car or on dad duty, I'm probably playing American Truck Simulator, getting my owner-operator fix with none of the risk

I also never thought I'd go team again. The idea of sharing a space the size of a walk-in closet wasn't something I'd ever consider, but I'm happy to do it now. Sometimes I find myself "training" my co-driver, with my 10 years experience to her 1 year, but we get along great and we know it's just temporary. Either the freight market gets better in a year or 2, or Yellow goes belly up, in which case, OD will take the freight they leave behind! At that point we'll both do solo driving again.

 

At the time I was netting like $900-$1000 a week, and that was during the pandemic era where freight was actually plentiful and paid reasonably well. Schneider's 35% cut was just too much for me to make more, and I was partly my own worst enemy when leasing.