If im a rookie straight out of school and get my own truck, can I go local???

Please keep us informed on how you do so we can post it as an example to others that doing this is a really bad idea.

 

You have to start somewhere to get experience....why not start with a cheap truck of my own and move up from there? Why work for someone else when I can work for myself?

To the OP ask yourself this question

Would you hire someone like that with todays insurance rates and the publics urge for LAWSUITS over everything and anything ?

 

That's the point the posters are trying to make.. experience....and you don't have any.
Good luck.
Mary

 

and wanting to jump in with both feet and buy a truck with no experience shows your inexperience.

I have 20 years experience in senior management in another industry and ran a profitable operation before coming to trucking. While I may have a good business mind and know what it takes to read and understand a line-item p&l and make the hard choices to make a business run profitably..........there's NO WAY I would even consider buying a truck and getting into this industry from an owner/operator position until I had a minimum 5 years experience on someone else's dime learning the freight lanes, what things pay, what things cost, where to be and what time if year to be there and just how much it costs to cover maintenance and up keep and what the margins are.

I guess the the plus side for you is, when you tear the truck up , you won't have to worry about getting fired if you own it.

You our may be the exception to the rule that comes in and makes it with no experience whatsoever. But I doubt it.

Let us all know how it works out for you. You have no idea just how much you don't know lol

 

Maybe I am at a competitive price!?!? Give a new guy a shot...Im not stupid, just inexperienced.

There's more to it than buying a truck and what price would you be at based on your inexperience you likely would not have any idea on a good rcompetitive rate to charge and still be around next year.

Right now your dreaming especially when you post on another thread "ive been looking at some NICE extended sleeper cabs with showers, stoves, microwaves, toilets, etc. real nice stuff! "

 

I'm just going to add my experience here... I only have 2 years experience and i am still very green, and I have far more experience in this industry than op. I have run an o/o truck for the last year (not mine) which taught me the ropes. I am in the process of buying a truck right now, and i can tell you I (from my pov) have a pretty good grasp of what to expect but I have been blindsided by a few things i didn't even know existed (o/o side). I have spreadsheets on projections for best/worst scenarios, and have felt i can still make it work.

@ last company I was a driver trainer and I can tell you that I've had 3 students (2 were inexperience and 1 drove at werner for a year) come into my truck thinking they were gods gift to drivers. They "knew" everything.... EVERYTHING... about driving after school... but they didn't know h.o.s., had no clue really about fmcsa, thought they had to pay B.O.L.'s (i didn't get what that guy meant), didn't know bridge laws (or most truck laws), couldnt drive on busy roads, couldn't drive on small roads, couldn't shift, pretrip, back, turn, drive straight, maintain speed, check mirrors, read signs, maintain lanes, stop safely. One student took off my trucks bumper by hitting a lamp post while i was yelling "stop stop stop", because she was yelling at me "I know how to drive, my daddy taug*CRASH*". The other 2 did pass, but got in their own trucks and both quit within 3 months.

Plz keep in mind you will be investing alot into a world you have no first hand experience in, a world you still haven't really lived in. I applaud you on your bravery and you gun ho mindset, but that mentality can get you in alot of trouble.

 

Yes you can. That's what I did. I got my cdl and bought a truck trailer and went to work. I was never a company driver. I ran local/regional pulling a flat out of brooklyn. I did regional as well for more money. Starting out on local you won't make as much money as otr but operating costs are low. In Philly, people might tell you to go pull containers, but you will do better with a flat, or tank. I have a friend that lives in Pennsylvania. He hauls trash from long island to pa/ Ohio and gets a reload. He isn't home every night (nights throughout week and always home on weekends, never works on them), but makes good money. My dad ran solely local in his career and made good money. He worked for Norbert trucking when they were a good company and cypress trucking in Perth Amboy when they were good. You can pm for some good local/regional companies, or I will send you one in a bit with some companies to check out. Also, are you willing to pull a tank.

 

Things today are a bit different than 21 years ago to start out with no experience biggest being INSURANCE

 

I live in Philadelphia, and to the best of my knowledge, no company will hire your truck without experience.

As a motor carrier with no experience, insurance would be about
20 to 30 grand.

I can only tell you to go for it, because if I said anything else, that would be experience talking, and that apparently has no value to you.