How did you BUY your truck

I am a heavy equip mechanic by trade. Trucker by choice lately I guess. I have always owned my own mechanic truck and tools. Most big contractors hire you and truck kinda like being an O/O. So I worked 12 to 16 hrs a day for the contractors. Worked 4 to 8 hrs a day for the smaller one or two machine guys for 25 bucks an hour when dealers were at 100 an hr. All my moonlighting money went in an account for a truck and trailer. Course the expenses of the extra work came out of the extra money. Cooter's Diesel Serv was born from it too. I had a deal made for a truck so I bought my trailer new financed. When I went to pick the truck the fella I made the deal with crawfished. So I had a brand new Merritt cattle drive I'm making payments on. I decided to wait for the right truck instead of rushing. 6 months later my truck was repoed by its original owners. It had been ruffed up even thou it wasn't used. My old boss would have rolled in his grave had he seen it, his widow called my wife and said if Cooter will put it back to what it was over time just come get it pay when you can. It just so happened I had a stash and didn't need to tote the note. I had to haul a few loads in multicolor as I went from radiator to back axle first. Trailer payments were getting tough. But it made a lot of money that first year pulling scrap steel and cattle. My mother had connections to get me the scrap haul without it I would have failed I think at trucking I have always kept the yellow iron separate. I had a number that when it was lost I was done wasn't gonna go bankrupt. So for all she done for me I decided early on that I was gonna call the ol truck MAMA CRIED. I wanted to shut down 2nd week of Oct to paint it. Her birthday was on the 25th. My surprise to her was gonna be to have that on the back of the sleeper and her see it for the first time on her birthday, when I scaled in with the first load that morning. She passed away from a sudden illness while I was prepping the truck. Never seen her sick a day of my life. I did make thru her scale on her birthday it was sprinkling light that morning, hadn't been back to Arkansas Steel since.

Sorry for the long post but you wanted the details and there they are. Getting started was hard. We just kept slamming gates and doors till we made a hole for us.

 

WDT your not asking for much. Truck makes my living, seen all of my country many won't see. Money sucks, but the view is great.

 

At one time I made a commitment to save a minimum amount of money out of every check. I have always been a saver. Whether you plan on buying a truck or not, everyone needs to have a plan to save money. Once you start saving, it becomes second nature where you don't need to think about it. There is no reason why anyone should need to finance their first truck. If you are disciplined, you can save enough in a couple of years to pay cash for a good used truck. It may require you to not go out or buy some video's that you want until you have your money saved. If you are driving and living from paycheck to paycheck, you may want to wait to buy a truck. If you have a lot of debt, then start by paying down your debt before buying a truck. If you have money taken out of your check that goes directly into a savings account, that might work better for some people. If not, then as soon as you get your paycheck, take out money for your truck and put into your savings account. It will surprise you at how quickly your savings will grow. The more you save the quicker you will be able to buy a truck. If you choose to finance a truck, you still need to have a plan to save for a good down payment. I would rather wait a little longer and pay cash so that I don't have a payment. I would also rather start with a good used truck rather than buy new. It is not good business to obligate yourself for such a high payment buying new when you could take that amount needed for a down payment to pay cash for a used truck. There are good buys on used trucks around. Just because it is used doesn't necessarily mean that it is junk. Let your business provide the means to buy a new truck, if that is what you want. Many fail in this business due to over obligating themselves.

 

When I started out in 2000, the megas were paying .89 a mile and you had to have a 5 year or newer truck. I was making .42 a mile split team. When my teammate left to fleece a truck from Prime, I went to .28 per mile. There was no way the numbers worked that being an o/o paid more than a company driver at those rates. I was making roughly .35 at a regional gig in 2001. With my $4k cabover, I basically doubled my take home, doing the same job, so the numbers worked. No matter what in this life, if the numbers don't work for risk/reward, they don't work. Only a fool goes into something where the number don't work.

As far as banks go, very few lend on class 8 trucks. You'll have a greater chance in them lending if you live in a rural/agricultural area and stick with smaller banks. Of course, you'll need a business plan! Why would you start a business without one? You aren't one of those that just thinks I'll buy a truck and get rich, are you. If you're going to finance a truck, you HAVE to have work lined up for it. The bank will require that as well, and it's just stupid not to. If you buy a truck outright, and let it sit a few months, no biggie. If you have to make a $1,500-2,800 payment, that will eat your reserves quickly. Speaking about reserves, truck repairs cost a lot more money than they used to. My turbo on my 2000 Detroit engine is $700 brand new, one for a 2004 Detroit is $2000 plus for a rebuilt one. Some of the other brands can get up to $4,000 for a turbo. A rebuild for my engine will cost me about $6-8000 locally, my friend just put a head (no core) on his 2008 Volvo, and it cost him $20,000 in the end. The last thing you want to do is come in underfunded, so a breakdown or two takes you out of the game. What if you get sick? What if your wife or husband or children get sick. This is why a reserve account is so important. A large line of credit can take the place of the reserve account if you are financially responsible.

You need to ask yourself why you want to start a trucking company. In fact, why don't you list the reasons so we can pick them apart. There is a lot of myth out there perpetuated by the counter of knowledge. Typically, you'll work harder as an o/o than a company driver. You'll also have less freedom as that truck note will be due in a few weeks, then tags will be due, etc. Dang, need new drives, where's that $4k coming from, etc etc.

 

In my first trucking life, 25 years ago, went to FL dealer in Elmhurst, IL and bought old cabover...drove it and had a driver for a 2nd I bought shortly thereafter for a couple of years before I got out of it and sold both. 2nd trucking life 3 years ago, bought a repossessed T300 expediter to put a driver in it, to 'save and add' to retirement. Great truck...bought more expensive Sterling from dealer 2 months later that just about busted me. 3rd trucking life, sold both of those bought tractor/trailer from dealers last summer, got own authority, have since added second tractor & a reefer from a commercial loan a bank threw at me at 5.5%. Would not have been able to start this or buy any of them without 'main' job I had at the time, now this is main job...just paid guy over $1,700 for last week, which is not unusual, and still can't find another driver...lot of people want that $.40 a mile, I guess, instead of the $.70 for all miles he made. Gotta love it.

 

We are in the process of purchasing our truck now... Our story...


Started with a 'starter' company, as company drivers. Hubby was an O/O in the 80's and wanted to go lease, so we did. Leased a 2012 Cascadia with 16 miles on the odometer. She now has 650K on the odometer and we've put all of those on there. We know her maintenance history and how she's been run.


Now with the lease, if we ran over a set amount of miles we were charged 'over mileage' ... Which is general practice at least with cars, and I assume trucks too. If during this time we decided to lease a new truck, the over mileage would go with the old truck; so we would lose it. Since we are purchasing the truck, that over mileage will go towards the purchase price... And it equalled up to 20K + ... That made for a good down payment.


The fun part has been that the company we lease from, leased the truck from Daimler... So we are a 'sub' lessee... The bank (U.S. Bank, where our business account is) wanted to cut a two part check. One to where we lease our truck, and one to Daimler, the title holder. Our lease company said no... Send the total amount here, and we'll pay off Daimler. Our bank pulled out!!


This is where we got creative, and we are praying this will not bite us in the .... We pulled the amount we needed on a short term loan (60 days) from Hubby's IRA. We sent that to our lease company and will get the title in OUR name. Our bank is holding our loan open until we get clear title and then will fund the loan, so we can pay back our IRA within those 60 days... If we don't get funded, then we just paid cash for the truck, and will have tax and penalties, but that's the risk we took.


Doing this will drop our lease payment of $569/week with additional over mileage of $150 +/- /week to just over 225/week!! Well worth the risk to us!


This way our options will be open to changing carriers... So we are researching... It's will be nice to know the option is there!!

 

861 is a decent red tractor. Partial to older orange myself. I started out pulling another farmers trailer to deliver my straw and bring back his hay. Thus, the agricultural loan.

 

Allis Chambler?

 

Yes. We use orange but are changing to Deere due to dealer network and service quality