How many years of exp. should I get to be an O/O?

I had 7 years experience. 22K in the bank. Good used truck - paid for - when I STARTED !! That is why I did so well......

 

now my friend there is no set limit on how much expeirence you have to have to be an owner operator, if you got the desire and your already trucking for a year your ready , you would be starting with more then i had when i started.

the thing you need to remember is keep your overhead down as low as possible that will take you out quicker then anything else and if possibel buy your own trailer that is where most of your money is at.

and a word of caution, these new shiney trucks look good and there ever so neat but those that make the mistake of buying one usally are out of business in 6 months the payments will kill you you just cant afford 1800.00 or more payments a month in perticular if your just starting and a good used truck makes just as much money as a new one i have 5 trucks running every day and the newest one is a 1990 BUT ther payed for along with the trailers.

that is going to be your biggest problem overcomming your overhead and if you pay attention its an easy thing to do.

can you make it ? HELL YES you can make it , just go for it . its just one big adventure and the adventure never stops.

best of luck to you and welcome to the world of trucking.----southernpride

 

I bought my first one when I was 19 years old and had 1 year driving on my own...By the time I was 22 I had three but then I had to do the worst thing you will ever have to do...I had to hire drivers for the other two. It was hard enough finding decent drivers 30+ years ago...I couldn't even imagine how hard it is now!

I sold two of them in 1977 and have stayed with one since then.

 

$1800 a month for a truck payment is low is it not? I know a few guys up here with $3,000 a month truck payments, and they are making things work just fine, but they are at good companies.

Depending on how much other debt you have, if you have no personal debt, I would suggest buying a little more truck.

I am looking into my first truck right now, and the lowest of all payment options is about $2100 a month. To buy a truck that is 10 years old with 1.8 million on it is just a headache in my opinion. The oldest I would look for is 600,000 miles, and even then, things start to go wrong.

To each there own I guess. I have not ever been an O/O, so maybe I am wrong, but, buying a truck is one of the riskiest things to do on the face of this planet when you really think about it....but I still can't wait to turn around, point to that W9 and say "that's mine over there"

 

If I listen to someone like Southernpride I would still be driving around in a 20 year old piece of junk that would nickle and dime you to death and be miserable. But I didn't and have bought 3 new trucks over the years and two used ones that I started with. My payment is $1800.36 a month on my new one and have been running it since January 2007 so I have made it longer then six months and have no problem making that payment, sure their has been tough times but never missed a payment. The owner operators that loose their butt in trucking have other issues most of the time. The highest payment I ever had was $2200 a month and that was on my first new one and never missed a payment and did very well. You can drive a new or late model truck, live in a nice home and not lose your rear in trucking their are hundreds of us doing it. I also have seen guys go and buy an older truck and loose their shirt within six months because of a lot of repairs or an engine overhaul they had to make and no money for repairs.

I don't advise buying new when starting out unless you are wealthy, So my advice is always buy a truck with some kind of warranty and you can get a good one and payments around a $1000 or less a month. A lot of trucks sitting on lots with over million miles more then likely are going to need an overhaul if they haven't had one yet, that is what happen to me when I bought my first truck, I overhauled the engine within the first three months. You can find a good used truck with 500,000 to 600,000 miles and most dealers will put a warranty on the drive train for additional fee. If you find one that has a fresh overhaul and it was done at a dealer authorized by an engine manufacturer then most of them have a warranty from 1yr or 100,000 miles up to 3yr or 300,000 miles.

It depends on what you want and can afford. It is nice having a paid for truck also.

 

One more thing, owning your own trailer is not always more money. It just depends on who you are leased to. Having your own authority yes you more then likely have a trailer but I have seen leases where company's pay only 5% to 7% for a trailer lease is that worth it. I have done both over the years and currently pull a company trailer and have talked to others in the same line of work with their own trailer making the same or sometimes less per mile, not that could all change when the economy gets better and rates get higher.

 

My best advice, double that money in the bank. The down payment for a truck is just the tip of the iceberg. Its all the other stuff that sucks your bank account dry.

If you can hang in there as a company driver, stick it out another year. Put money in the bank, and then go for it.

 

Herein lies the catch. While I'm no owner op myself, I do work for a company that has lots of o/os pulling for it, and with whom I enjoy conversing in depth about various aspects of trucking ( like I tell them openly, I like to milk them for info ).

Quite a few of them bought brand new rigs, with payments anywhere between 2600-3100 bucks a month ( 1800 is actually pretty low ). Sure, they're not having an easy time of it, as the times are hard. But guess what....most of them are still around : and the funny thing is, most of the guys who've quit and sold off their trucks, have been those with the older trucks, as they got nickel & dimed to death due to constant repairs & down time. In the company that I work for, downtime for an o/o would cost him anywhere between 800-1100 bucks a day by way of lost revenue.

Another key reason why so many o/os have gone out of business, is very poor financial discipline. During good times, the moment the truck ( new or old ) starts generating revenue, the first thing that these guys did was go out and buy the biggest and baddest pickup ( or rig rockets, as we call them in these parts ), a brand new skidoo, and various other toys. Then ofcourse, you have them constantly "dipping into the till". As a result, during a downturn, they're up to their necks in debt ( not all of it related to the truck they bought ), and they eventually go tits up.

As a one-time ( and that too, a very long time ago ) student of business, what I'm convinced about is that, regardless of whether you buy an old or a new truck, your business enterprise must be sufficiently capitalised, to help you weather out-of-pocket expenses, and also downturns in the economic climate.

Another thing that I've learnt during the few odd years that I've been trucking is that, if I were to ever buy my own truck, I'd make sure that I have the job for it first, and then buy the truck, and not the other way around.

Just my 2 cents.

 

probibly the smartest move you ever made!!!!at least you know where your at and the only exscuse you have to cover is your own!!!!!