I have $100k cash and 6 months CDL-A experience. Where should I go leasing?

Yes but other costs are more consistent. To operate a truck costs lots of money whether its moving or not. I'm not sure if you’re trying to do lease purchase or buy a truck in order to lease on to a company. My bigger concern is your experience level. 6 months is no experience. That means you started at the beginning of the warm weather season so you haven't even trucked through winter months. You haven't been driving long enough to see the bad and the ugly, as well as the dark side of the industry. 100k really isn't that much to operate a single trucking business without going into some sort of debt. 100k these days is just scratching the surface. That's just buying the truck. You'll have many more expenses than that. I think you'll stand a greater chance of being successful if you gain more experience, and learn the industry more intimately, and that takes years. At the same time, you can increase your capital.

 

You need lots of capital to survive til things pick up, I don't know that 100k is enough. There is no clear cut timetable for when things will pick up.

 

I think he's saying that if you can survive now on the meager scraps you get you'll be golden when the market picks up. And sure if you can make a profit it would be fine, but there's no guarantee we're at the bottom or that it will improve any time soon.

 

I understand what he's saying....but the question is whether 100k is enough to survive off the load board scraps. I'm skeptical about that.

 

I think a lot of guys break even point is way above a dollar a mile meaning fuel, maintenance, pay, and accidentals. It's not that you won't be making money. You'll be actively losing it.

 

This makes 0 sense to me. I don't understand your logic here. An owner operator means you're running a business. Part of learning how to be an owner operator is learning how to profit and manage costs. Taking loads at a dollar per mile means you're going to be upside down fairly quickly. I'm in Michigan right now.... Pilot down the highway in Ottawa Lake is charging $3.95 for fuel and the mom and pop across from them is $3.49 for fuel....big expense. 1 dollar per mile? Brokers are going to love you. It costs closer to $2 bucks a mile to run the truck. I may be low balling that number. At that rate, I fail to see how you'll pay yourself 500 weekly.

 

Exactly what we need some more help driving down rates and wanting us to teach him how to do it.


That’s just what it sounds like to me.


I will say this it takes longer to go broke sitting there doing nothing than running to cheap.