I need some advice on becoming an Owner Operator post military.

Atlanta is a major transportation hub , in fact that’s the reason the city’s there in the first place. It was built up around a railroad intersection, then when the interstate highways came along , having three major interstates intersect in almost the same place as the railroads did. Then having the major airport located there instead of Birmingham or Montgomery.

you need to decide what kind of freight you want to do,flatbed or van? local, or short haul regional, or long distance OTR, or dump truck or dump trailer?

do you have a place to park the truck ?

Do you want to get your own authority or lease your truck on and use someone else’s authority until you learn how the business works and get your truck paid for and rebuilt so it’s reliable ?

There’s money to be made in each of them if you know what you’re doing.

which also brings up the question , not to be nosey, but do you have enough money saved to get started in trucking ?

if you are not going to be running California , I’d highly suggest that you get a pre emission truck , which will be from 2002 or older depending on the model etc.
And I’d also suggest going even older and getting one that doesn’t have any computers on it at all, from before 1995 or so depending on model .

also consider that you can make really good money $70-90k as a company driver doing linehaul for a union company like YRC, or UPS or working for a company that delivers gasoline to gas stations.

There’s plenty of threads on here and info elsewhere that tells everything you need to do
Owning a truck can be rewarding but it can also be a huge money pit.


https://youtube.com/c/DavidMcGill

 

If you are going to lease on with L/Star go ahead and fill out paper work to get leased on with them to be sure you can get thru their hoops you must get thru to get leased on to them?

 

I was just using Landstar as a reference. I was just wanting some insight. I very well may do that just to get my self started; learn the ropes and such. And I appreciate the info.


That’s a lot of money to have saved up. I’m not even close to that so it may take me a little longer but that’s ok. I will just be patient. I currently work locally and have a family at home. My wife goes to school as well so for me, I am just able to put back so much a week. I really appreciate your insight.

 

If you have a wife and kids try applying to a local dump truck company. Many pay quite well and if you get your own dump you can stay fairly local as well. Good way to get established in the industry so when you DO go O/O you mostly know whats whay. and we dump drivers are all pretty laid back and a mostly good abet somewhat rough crowd.

 

Oh yeah brother, I was in a roll off for roughly a year and a half. I guess I’m ready to reap the benefits of my hard work. I’m just trying to go about doing it the right way and take in as much possible information as I can get. I make good money now hauling a tanker. The company I work for over to contract me but it would be 70/30. I just want to make sure that would be a good choice before I jump on that. I appreciate the advice. I never minded working a roll off, I just wanted more $

 

Luckily my wife is supportive about where I’m at and what I’m trying to do. A lot of people hate the road, but I don’t mind it. The point is to make sure my family don’t need for anything and trucking has definitely blessed me that way. I’m just ready to take the next step

 

I run flatbed out of north Carolina. Between the truck stop load board and relationships I have made with direct customers I am home every night (unless i choose not to be) and I make really good money. My wife and kids are the reason I started my own business.