How are O/O making a living at $1.00 a mile

from what I can see , they also offer Tire ,Fuel ,Maintenance, Unlimited Miles , pre-paid legal svc. , or some other company perks ! . furthermore , You are not a Owner Operator , You are just Leased on to there Company !. A Owner Operator makes Way More Money ; because they do all there own business , phone calls , book keeping , parking , taxes , getting there own customers , maintenance , lawyers ect.... on and on . I hope that helped someone .

 

So how do you know how much load pays? I am sorry but running around without knowing how much stuff pays and just chasing miles is not being a true O/O. And what you have to make is completely up to you not just expenses. True O/O and business owner will try to make as much as he/she can.
Lease programs are a cancer to this industry and I still don't get it how people fall for them.

 

No, it doesn't depend on you, that's what you want to make, what you have to make depends on expenses. Everyone tries to make as much as they can. That's why I sacrificed last week at 1500 miles, because I knew with the load they offered me I could make way more.
I guess when I pay this truck off, that will make me better than the o\o's out there. According to you all, when you are an o/o the money just flows in and all your troubles just disappear. This lease is pretty simple but not that easy, lol. I don't mind working for what I get though. That is after all, the way I was raised. And in spite of what thou all say, I don't work that hard to make what I get. 3000 miles a week is not hard work unless you make it hard.

 

I haven't put 3000 miles a week in years. Less miles more $$ is the way to go. I am happy with 2000 miles per week and shorter /ltl loads that pay decent. I payed off my truck 2 years ago and would never lease to someone that does lease programs or have flat per mile rate for O/O. I like percentage deals where I know how much I am gonna get each time I book a load. It's simple , lease purchase deals don't work , at least not for poor drivers who get suckered in one of those. Problem with flat rate deals is you just drive like a glorified company driver and not having say how to make more

 

Below is a couple if my pasties showing gross and net income, one shows the total truck deductions and both show gross deductions including fuel. These are my 2 best paychecks because i chipped one before tho prove to someone I cleared 2k and the other because it is today's. The truck deductions are fixed at 859.21 sho that never changes but I don't think either shows that there is a 10cpm deduction for my escrows. The gross deductions include everything removed from my check including all fuel. O.k. this week's there is about a 900 mile run that isn't on there because I missed the cutoff for the week by a couple of hours. I will get it next week.this week my net was almost .54 cpm. Dunno about the other because I didn't look it up but I think it's slightly lower. 3700 miles on the smaller check and I think 4200 on the larger one. Like I said' I generally average around $1200 a week, these were just handy.

 

Thanks for sharing that.

However, the bottom line is you are netting the same or lower than a well compensated company driver at a reputable company. Decades ago I considered buying a small business. I at least had the foresight to consult the SBA before making that decision. I don't know if it still exists, but they had a program called "SCORE" (Service Corp Of Retired Executives). I showed him my business plan, including projected cash flow, profit and loss, and balance sheet.

He looked it all over and strongly advised me NOT to buy the business. Why? I will never forget his words, "NEVER BUY A JOB". You see, after factoring in my time spent running the business, I would have been making little more than minimum wage. Always bear in mind whether you could pay another driver a REAL GOOD wage to drive your truck for you AND STILL make a healthy two digit profit margin. In your case you would be paying your driver a less than optimum wage and make zero profit.

Now, consider a situation where you could DOUBLE the revenue to your truck without adding more miles or even driving fewer miles. NOW what could you do? Now you COULD hire a driver and pay them WELL and STILL make a good profit. Now you could consider buying another truck and become a fleet owner. It could actually threaten to become a daggum BUSINESS!!!

 

I know what the freight pays because we run primarily the same customers and some our the lease ops and all the owner ops I talk to are running their own authority and get paid percentage. All I need do is ask. Plus I can look at loads from some of these same customers on the load boards and see what that freight is paying. It varies some of course from the rate on the boards and the rates the company hauls for, but any monkey could get a general idea by being able to compare the two anytime. The one I just snagged from KS to IL is a low paying load and I would bet my bottom dollar its paying roughly 1.90 per mile.

 

I'm NOT hiring a driver to drive the truck. I do not need tho figure a driver into my business plan. Next you will say I am paying a driver...no I'm not, well yes I am but that's all my pay, I don't have to profit above that to be making a profit. I don't NEED to profit more. What about this do you not get. I have weekly deduction escrow accounts saving money for me and paying for repairs on top of that. Did you figure those into the profit? I have a couple of old debts this week tho cover, around $900 to a hospital in a couple of weeks that I just remembered and $1000 tho uncle Sam to cover taxes for the year and I'm debt free. Asst that point, everything above probably around $750 a week id's going into a savings account at the bank. That will start happening inside of 6 weeks. That's anywhere from another $350 on you a week going into savings. And I never once said I was an o/o. I said I was a l/p driver making payments and a decent living, and I am. If thou need everything tho cover you're truck and $10000 a week besides tho make you happy then goody for you. Personally I think its stupid to have that kind of debt or greed whichever the case may be, but to each his own. I can have whatever I want or need at $1200 a week and can easily live on the $750 a week. And btw, I can get the business going right here and once this truck is paid off, all i need is time, no bank involved. My revenue will double the week the truck is paid off, I owe no-one anything and everything I make is still profit, the day I pay the truck off I will get a large sum of money plus the savings account at the bank. Part of that will go into an engine rebuild, the rest sits in that savings account tho cover expenses and then I start another savings and dump all the extra into it and if I chose, buy a truck with that. But I really have no plans to run more than one truck ever. Therefore I will probably run this one till it drops completely and work on a farm and shop. Like I have said before, until the day you can prove to me that you can take care of a quarter of a million chickens and do all the accounting for that business then don't tell me how to run a business. Trucking is a cake walk compared to that. I did it as a top 5 grower for 10 year's. I'm not New tho Trucking, not new to business and not new to mathematics. I think I can manage fine. But I'll promise you this, if I go bust, I'll be sure and immediately let everyone here know about it. I would do one better and take bets but my wife's health could turn bad pretty easily and that would of course be the end of me driving a truck instantly.

 

And incidentally. I am a well compensated company driver. The company is mine and I'm the driver. Like I said before. Does the actual company I'm a l/p driver for make as much as me or more? Probably, but I wouldn't run the program without turning a profit myself, so I don't care. At the end of the day I'm getting a truck that isn't overinflated on it's price, I have my repair and maintenance costs covered and I still earn that well compensated company driver wage. That's more than you can say for just about 90 percent of all the other l/p programs out there. And to top it off, this is a mid-sized company that uses many of the same customers consistently which gives me ample opportunity to talk to the guys that are paid out and others still under contract so I know that if I keep showing them in willing to run and not sit and gripe everyday, then I don't have to wory at all about being starved out 3\4 of the way through like allot of other companies.

 

You don't know jack #### about what any of that freight is paying. Book it in your own and you'll know a little.

 

Before I bought my truck I drove a truck for a man that is an owner operator for Swift. I couldn't figure out how he could afford to do that, but as time went buy I understood completely.

He started out as a lease operator at Swift over 15 years ago. He's now an owner operator. He paid off the purchase price at the end of his lease, to become a true owner operator. After that he started buying more trucks.

Today he owns five trucks and four trailers. He still has his truck leased to Swift and is a mentor. How can he affod to do THAT?

His other four trucks pull four end dumps running aggregate for construction. His four drivers make far more money than you do and are home every night.

Yes, it is possible to work through a lease purchase and get paid a fraction of the revenue your truck should be making. BUT, if you open your eyes to what is possible, then you will soon realize you could be making at least double the take home you are making today.

As a L/P operator you can't just up and find a better gig with your truck. If you look at your lease agreement you will find that the agreement is only valid if you drive for Swift.

If your plan is to finish your lease and buy the truck, good for you. Hopefully you will then take that truck to a situation where you are able to start making real money.