How much experience do you think is needed before becoming an O/O?

I dont doubt it for a minute.

And for every one like you I can point to at least 10 that didnt...

I on the other hand worked a farm as a kid, drove trucks in the army. Owned a successful printing business for 9 years. And drove a truck as a company driver for 30 years before I bought my first truck.

My background and experience gave me the assets needed to make it in this business.

You on the other hand, frankly, got lucky. Right place at the right time. My advice is better suited for someone that wants to succeed in this business. Yours is basically "take a shot, you got nothing to lose". Which for YOU is fine. It is very bad advice to give to someone you dont know...

And I daresay that you did indeed learn things while on the road. Listening to other drivers. Experience with dealing with brokers/dispatchers. ect so on and so forth.

 

No experience is ok if you are business savvy. The truck driving is the easiest part of the business. If you are not for sure you are ready to be a business person then stay a driver.

 

This mean you do not have any at this point. Better start learning before you go out and buy a truck!

 

There's this one guy who...I mean, the first five minutes of his videos is him loudly thanking god and kind of humblebragging about how good god is...he let it slip that he wasn't making any profit and a breakdown last year had him a couple moments away from closing up shop and selling his truck.

But to watch his videos during that time? God was good, and he was BLESSED. Doesn't even know how to spend all the money he's making. Lol

 

Why does a person need to drive for someone for ten years? If it takes longer then a few months to learn how to drive with any kind of common sense then they should not be in a truck. Maybe a couple years if they are trying to learn different kinds of trailer freight but not for the truck it self.

If they have no clue on running a business then they will fail even if they can drive a truck real good! Glad I did not listen to someone like you as I started out as a O/O and only in my 4th year. Hell I would have 6 more years before I could go drive a truck I own. Just laughable on that statement.

 

Thank you, That person has lost his mind. I mean really 10 YEARS are you kidding me? What kind of truck is that person driving? Ha Ha

 

10 years sounds pretty steep, but it would really suck to jump in with both feet and buy a truck fresh out of CDL school. What happems if you start driving and then realize you just hate dealing with with all the BS that comes up but you are stuck with a truck payment?

 

Ok, laughable. Really? Lets see...

What do you do differently NOW than you did 4 years ago? Nothing? Not a thing? Havent learned a thing in 4 years? How about money situation? Bought a used truck and spent a fortune keeping it running, right? 10 years is enough time to save up a down payment on a new truck.

Want more examples? I can go on

and on

and on...

And you are right. If a person has no business sense, they are (probably) going to fail regardless.

Back when I first got my CDL (in 1984) a company wouldnt even LOOK at a driver that had less than 2 years experience before hiring them. Maybe there was a reason for that? Maybe, just maybe, experience does matter? Nowadays it doesnt seem to matter to most companies. And I see more and more stupid regs put in place because of it. Maybe if drivers had more experience coming out of school, there would be less reason for all the regs? I went to school for 9 months. I had 125 hours in REVERSE before I left school. We had to parallel park a truck. Kids now a days cant even get into a hole at a truckstop without hitting something.

Experience matters.

 

I did just that. I am sure if you are a business person you understand what it is gonna be. Just like me I understood what I was getting myself into. I had a plan to buy used and get into a new truck within second year. It took me a little longer because of break downs but I managed to get my new truck and still going. Now in my 4th year and still doing decent considering the market I run. Had I not had bad luck when it was great rates I would be doing a lot better.

 

Yes it is laughable. I bought a used truck and had break downs like most people do. Did just fine and ordered a new truck that took 14 months to get and would had done a lot better if that new truck would had been delivered in a normal time frame.

In 4 years I have not learned any driving skill I did not already have in the first 3 months of driving. After first year I learned more with dealing with the shops from being an Owner and had nothing to do with being a driver. I already had all the skills to run a business and asked many questions on here to get all the little details on how business was done in this industry.

So again I will call your 10 year plan a joke. If it takes you ten years to save the money is one thing and I could understand something like that.