help! a bit stressed out.

I wouldn't wish being an O/O on my worst enemy. Very few are good at it, and those who are know trucks inside and out and do half their own maintenance while they're supposed to be relaxing at the house. But some people find that rewarding. Also, a good number use their spouse as accountant/dispatcher. It is a handful, and is NOT for inexperienced drivers.

 

I can tell you from personal experience the downside of being an owner operator. Not that I have done it, but I spent almost 10 years moving repossessed tractors to dealers after they had been auctioned off. You can make it but know this you had better be smart about every aspect of owning that tractor. I read an earlier post about a reserve fund my question is how much will you have? In my opinion if you say anything less then $25,000 its not enough. I am not trying to scare you as much as I am trying to get you to understand its not that easy and it never will be. Based on my knowledge and experience I rate your chances of still being an Owner Operator in 5 years about maybe 35%. Now lets discuss your inexperience. No good company is going to give you a lease for at least 2 or 3 years. Yes you can get a lease with 12 months, but YOU DON'T WANT TO DRIVE FOR ANY COMPANY THAT WILL DO IT. The best piece of advice I saw in here was to try to become a company driver for a good company that has a lease purchase system. Ease into ownership slowly with both eyes open.

 

Star doesn't do coast to coast anymore. They run regional for the most part, mid-west to east coast. Southeast regional and Northeast regional, which I like because I don't care about going up into NYC or anywhere up north. Those Star drivers stay up there and we stay down here. From what I understand, when Covenant bought out Star they shut down most of the long haul runs. My trainer told me today that he use to live in Texas and run a lot out that way, but Covenant backed out of all those accounts out there because they didn't think it was worth it. Surprisingly he moved to TN to stick with Star.