I can't afford to work for $800 a week anymore!

Yes, you should be able to finance a decent truck with about $10k down, keep in mind you will need at least that much in reserve to cover expenses until the money starts flowing in, plus the unexpected breakdowns that will occur. It will cost you a few grand just to get the truck home, prep it for work, and get it to orientation if you lease on somewhere, not to mention the couple of weeks you are not working. If you are going independent it will cost you a few grand to get your insurance in place and set up your authority, plus you will need 6 or more weeks of operating costs before the money flows.

Wrong time of the year to go independent, rates are way down and looking bad for then next few months. An election year is always bad on rates, companies wait to see what the next 4 years will bring before they spend a lot of money, lots of excess capacity in the van, refer, and flatbed markets, even specialized since construction slows down. Low oil isn't helping either, too much competition from former oil field companies looking for flatbed and specialized work to keep their trucks moving.

 

You have contacts? You have good paying work lined up who will pay in a timely manner?

Check your withholding, Federal and state tax will eat you alive if you only claim a 1 or 2 deduction and single, probably much more then you will need to have withheld [bottom line] as a driver with typical itemized deductions.

If you think you have cash flow problems now, they can get much worse when you have your own truck and it's own set of new liabilities, especially in the first 3-6 months until you get established. And if you have self discipline problems (with cash), forget it.

 

Only $10k will be tough, it may take half of that or more just to cover you while get your truck home and on the road. With limited cash like that I would really think about leasing to a company rather than being independent. I will say, you have more money saved that most company drivers before they try to go on their own, good job with that. In all honestly, do not expect to bring home more than you are right now in the beginning, it takes time to learn the ropes and system when you are on your own. Even after doing my own thing for over 10 years, and being in a specialized market as a car hauler, I still have some bad weeks. Granted, I am set up differently than most, own two different companies and am a partner in a third so my truck operation is not my only income, but it still sucks some weeks.

Think about this for a bit, last week the average spot market van rate was $1.67 per mile, including fuel surcharge, average open deck was $1.92 all included, and it will cost almost that much just to own and operate your own truck and trailer if you were independent. You will be paying income taxes based on what you profit, sometimes payroll taxes if you pay yourself instead of just taking draws from your business, all of this adds up. Meaning, to equal your $800 bring home as a company driver you will need $1,200 or more after all your truck expenses. If you want to net $1,000 it will cost you almost $1,500, and there really isn't that much margin in trucking right now. I have one local, class B driver that is paid a bring home of $750 a week salary, for me to pay him that I set his gross at $900 and then have to pay $270 a week on top of that as workers comp and payroll tax, so it costs me as an employer $1,170 a week so my driver can net $750. It will be similar as an owner operator for you, assuming you do your taxes legitimately and have the proper insurance in place (if Wyoming requires wc on sole proprietors).

 

Sounds like you need to do LTL or food service.

 

Then you know the answer. The question then becomes do you do it anyway risking everything, knowing full well you are horribly underfunded.