How did you get here?

This is the "ask an owner operator" forum... And I'm asking ALL of the owner operators...

How did you get started? Did you grow up trucking? Work an office job then move to starter company and work till you owned? Did you save your cash and start outright with a paid off truck and authority? Maybe you are one of the lucky few lease purchasers that made out in the end? Do you have a thread on here somewhere detailing your story?

I know that's a pile of questions, but I'd love to hear the stories that got you from just starting out, to owning your own truck and business.

I'm being nosy lol. As a semi experienced company driver with goals to own, I love hearing the success stories as well as the cautionary tales of failure I can learn from.

If you have a thread going about your "adventures", feel free to link it here.

I look forward to getting some response on this, thank you

 

Got fed up with my dad telling me to do something at his steel shop then loudly proclaiming to the office at large how stupid whoever did x was, when x was the logical conclusion of exactly what he had told me.

(Preventative maintenance bills, ordering materials at least 2 weeks before we needed it so i could make sure we had everything etc etc)

Told him i was headed home at 10 in the morning, would be back after the staff left.

By the time i got home, wife had me an interview at a trucking school. Had lunch, then went there.

Went, looked at the options in front of me, filled out paperwork to get the ball rolling.

Went home and tried to convince myself it was a bad idea for an hour or 2, went in and told my dad i was done, asked what did he need to make my transition out smooth.

Next monday started with a specific goal to go flatbed.


Went with tmc, about 6 months in they changed my dispatcher from a guy that made me bank to a lazy guy that didnt know what a preplan was. started running my numbers to see if i could make it as an owner operator if i bought their truck. Started tracking everything to see how it lined up with their pay.

Stuck it out nother 1 year, then called a local guy that did oversize crane loads (5 truck operation) and asked if he needed drivers, company or owner operater, he latched onto the o/o and asked if i owned a truck or not.
Told him no, he took my number and told me to take the call that would come in 15 minutes, he had a company driver that had just gone through an irs audit for just not filing taxes for 6 years. His 20 year old truck was for sale, set it up as 17500$ payable in 1250 a month. Paid it off in 1 year while learning to wrench and how much i didnt know.

Made it on hopes prayers and shoestrings.

Didnt go in banking high enough, that hurt, still sometimes does but im still around and driving that old truck (7 years later)

 

I started out driving box trucks that did not need a chauffeur's licence as it was called back then and I was 18. Got my class 3 licence when I was 20. I met a guy who was an owner operator and we became friends. When he told me what kind of money he was making I decided to try it. I saved some money and bought my first truck. It definitely helps to have friends that are owner operators to guide you along the way until you know what you are doing.
In my opinion. The biggest thing that results in owner operator failure is mechanical problems. So picking the right truck is essential. Hauling cheap freight will put you out of business as well. Put as much as you can afford away weekly for maintenance, even when you have really good weeks. Continue to build up your maintenance account, because you need to remember that when your truck is down you still have bills to pay. So you need to be able to support yourself out of that account if your truck is down for a week or two.

 

i worked for a company for 25 years that has mostly smaller trucks with a few class 8 drivers. At year 15 I was sick of the people, the politics and being run to death like a robot. Before I walked out the door I took a chance on a 2nd shift PT truck driving job. Fell in love. They trained me and I must say they trained me well judging by what I've seen since. I stuck around 10 years. Got the pension, 401k is strong and no more raises so I went out on my own.

No regrets. Even if I leave trucking I'll never be able to work for anyone again.

 

Thank you all for your responses. This is exactly what I was hoping for. Hopefully some other members continue to pitch in!

 

I was around trucking as a kid. From the time I was born until around 14 when they sold the company. They had been trucking over 60 yrs in some form or fashion until 2000. I never in that time learned anything about the business or what was going on, just was around it.

I never expected to be in trucking but one day as a fork lift operator for a machine shop, a potential opportunity came up. The President needed a warehouse to receive and deliver parts just in time. Believe it or not at 23 turning 24 yrs old I presented a plan to the big guy and ended up winning the contract.

I started my company and rented a small warehouse, bought a fork lift, and a very old truck and trailer. After about 5 yrs the customer went out of business but in those years I saved back, learned, and bought 2 trucks while starting a freight brokerage.

I drove the first 4 or 5 years and then eventually had drivers. Thankfully after the big customer went tits up I had diversified enough to keep going. So here 13 yrs later have slowly grown into a 10 truck asset company and strong brokerage. I still have the warehouse but use it mostly as an office, yard, and cross dock.

Nothing is easy but yet nothing is impossible. You have to save your money and be smart. The boogey man is literally waiting for you around every corner it seems.

It’s been a very tough row to hoe but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Although, I wish I wasn’t going grey by mid thirties! lol.

Maybe I’ll retire early and it’ll be worth it. It’s priceless seeing my boy by my side learning new things daily. I get to spend a lot of time with him and that means everything to me.

That is the very short story believe it or not. And if you don’t know trucking it’s not the end of the world. You have to stand on your own two feet.

 

Great story MW. From some stuff you've shared before I always wondered how you got from there to here. That's pretty cool. One thing jumps out and it fits in my story too. LUCK! Good luck trumps brains a lot of the time, at least for me. No offense. Lol. You were in the right place at the right time a few times.

 

lol thanks. I’m a believer though in creating your own luck. Now, if your walking down the side walk and a huge brick falls right behind you then that was luck. But if your successful in the long term then it’s not by accident.

There was probably 60 other people in that meeting, including my older brother, and none of them saw opportunity. But my friends always called me money as a kid lol. Not because I had money but because I was always hustling. In fact while I had that forklift job, I was doing two other things pretty much full time and continued to do one of them for about 3 yrs post starting the business. That money actually is what allowed me to buy my first sleeper truck outright.

I will admit however, being around trucks as a youngster helped me to see that yes, this is possible. Being sort of stubborn that I am, I never asked my family for any help or guidance. And the truth was, in the 8 or 10 yrs from when they were in trucking, to me being in trucking, things had changed drastically.

 

Well I was always around trucks and equipment as a kid. When I was very young my father was a small excavator and then he went into the heavy equipment Union as an operator. It seems like we were always in the garage doing something. He really was a mechanical genius. He wasn't the greatest teacher but I learned a lot - I learned a lot more than a lot just being around him.

I ended up working for different contractors and trucking companies and I just wasn't someone made to work for anyone else. And when I say that I don't mean that with any disrespect to anyone at all because probably more often than not you're better off with a really good job. Even my dad that was the best thing he could have done was go into that Union because to this day he's 93 years old and he still has benefits thank God. But I was just someone that was never content working for someone else and I was never comfortable and I was willing to do the extra work required to work for myself

And from being around my parents I knew what it was like to have your own business. I knew what it was like that when you make money you didn't make that money you have to put money aside and put it back into whatever is making you money. In fact my father would always tell me you have to take whatever you have and make it safe and dependable. And then whatever it needs if it's making you money don't be afraid to put the money into it because it's going to come back to you. And I guess for me anyone reading this if there's a lesson I would really say to them it's that. I've known guys they had equipment and trucks and they would cry like a baby when it was time for repairs. That's the wrong attitude. You need to make whatever you have dependable and then when it's time for repairs do what you have to do and now it's even more dependable.

But at any rate I found a really nice Freightliner fld120 my favorite truck with a blown engine so I bought it. Perfect truck for me owner-operators specs just perfect.

Then it sat for several years as I became caretaker for my parents. That was an extremely difficult period of time. Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do and get through it. I'm sure that made me a better person anyway.

But as that was finished thank goodness I was financially able to buy another truck a dump truck because when I flip the hood I saw a really nice Cummins big cam engine. Then I found out it was a Recon engine from Cummins and it had 140,000 miles on it. Then I found out the clutch was done 10000 miles ago and the transmission was rebuilt at that time also. I was very fortunate to get it for a good price. I wanted to have a mechanical engine because I didn't want to be bothered with ever going to the dealer or having any Electronics because any repairs I will do myself. And I wanted something simple and dependable.

So I pulled the engine and transmission out and I sold off the rest of the truck and I did great. In the meantime again I was so fortunate because I became friends with someone that knows those Cummins engines better than most people will ever know anything. And with his advice and my mechanical skills I worked that engine over top to bottom inside out and the whole truck itself from front to back. I went over everything and anything that I thought could possibly be a problem.

I was again fortunate because I bought my trailer at the beginning of the pandemic. No one knew what was going to happen and I ended up getting a really nice trailer for a small amount of money. And again I brought that trailer home and I went over the bearings and the brakes and the drums and the cams and replaced everything else that needed to be done to make sure that that trailer was going to go down the road every day and not have any problems. I see trailers like that now for sale the same year for 10 and 12 even $15,000.

And yet again I was fortunate because coming in at that time it was just exactly the right time for me to do this it was the right time with the rates it was the right time for everything.

For me, my truck is perfect for me. It fits me like a glove. I love my engine and thank God I've only had to do a few small minor repairs to the truck. For what I do it is absolutely perfect.

I realize most people are not going to be able to do what I did. But the most important thing is to make sure that you start with something good. Maybe it's something good that you can just turn the key or maybe it's something good that you have to put 10 or 20 thousand into to make it safe and dependable.

But once you do that and you have something good keep up with it and it would be continue to be good to you.

You know my father used to always tell me I'm lucky I know him. It was kind of our running joke. And now when I see him I tell him I'm lucky I know him. And then he laughs and he says yes you are, lol.

 

What a great post. I love the word fortunate. I use that a lot. It’s different then lucky.

I love that part about your parents and hard times. I remember when I was say 6 to 10 yrs old my Mom just crying and I’d ask her what’s wrong? She would just say that things are tough and it’s hard to pay the bills. What am I gonna do?

One would think that would make a person never want to be in business, but in a sense it prepares you. I’ll never forget when they first got Comdata, and those faxes would come in many times per day right to our living room. However, it was better then when she would cut multiple checks to give to the driver to head out with. Some drivers by the time they got home would have a $1 paycheck from all of the advances. Not kidding a bit.