Instant O/O and Load boards

No experince, no one is going to lease you on, look up some of the companies such as Mercer, Schneider or LS and look at their requirments.

 

Almost anything is possible. But you are approaching this as a hobby and not a business. The responses you are/will get are based on being a viable business model. And when you state it is not about the money you will get resentment because for almost all on this board it is about the money. It is how they feed the kids (or spoil the grand kids). And they are feeling the pinch of too many drivers that don't understand the business side and drive the rates down.

 

Obviously I want to be successful at doing this and make money. What percentage of people out there across the country drive there own truck that they bought would you say? Also if being a O/O is almost impossible from what I have read and the suggestions why does anybody do it?

There has to be a viable way to be a O/O or a L/O of your own truck from the start and be successful at it. I am trying to find that "business model" that makes it possible for a new driver to do this.

 

There is no business model, because only fools do what you are trying to do. Yeah if your Dad or Father in Law has money to give you to buy a big pretty truck. Then really who cares if you make any money. People keep telling you the same thing over and over, and you can't seem to follow sound advice. You have no idea where the dead spots for freight are. Which most companies will send you and then you end up having to drive empty for 500 miles to get in a good area. This is not Burger King you can't have it your way. This is Real life buddy. And you have to grow up and start learning how to follow those who have your best interest at heart. You are just like these guys who wait for the one person out of a thousand who say's you should lease purchase a truck from some crappy bottom feeding company. Please tell me you are super young and just immature. I hope there is hope for you somewhere. Good day.

 

Your expenses will be so high starting out like you are talking that you can't afford to make any mistakes. And the mistakes every new driver makes you can't afford as a business. First step is learn the driving part at the expense of someone that has a business built around working with new drivers. Then once you have made all the rookie driving mistakes on someone else's dime you will have a better shot.

Other option is have very deep pockets that will allow you to get through the first year of increased expenses and learning mistakes.

But the "new" truck model you talk about is one that you should avoid.

 

I read the first couple pages of this thread -- and then saw it was close to 500 pages long -

I have skipped to the ending---and I guess PharmPhil is gone from trucking. I further surmise, only reading fifteen pages of the 479, that a bad trans doomed him.

My question: To a guy seemingly so intelligent, Pharmacy and Accounting Degrees and all, how could he not bank $500/week for deferred maintenance/repairs/replacement of truck?

In two years, which is the 2008 when the thread was started to April 2010, he would have $50k in a piggy bank (100 weeks x $500/wk). Bad trans? Sell the truck for $1k scarp metal and buy another one. Two years service out of a close-to-ten year old truck with no mortor or trans going out or no engine ro trans being previoulsy overhauled is 'services rendered'.

Rob, it seems, made a small fortune out of a large one attempting to O/O without experience.

 

it was more then a bad trans he made lots and lots of rookie mistakes the fact that he really didnt know the first thing about working on his own truck and other related problems is what eventually doomed him i was around when this posts was coming to life and everyone had high hopes for him but what it basically came down to was the fact that he didnt have enough experience sad story really if he had a lil more backround in trucking and a lil more mechanical apptitude he might of made it. also he didnt quite make 8 months if i recall the rest was just everyone trying to figure out what happend to him when he pretty much quit posting

 

Ok. So I spent the better part of quite a few days making my way through this thread. It is safe to say the ending so far is a bit anti climatic...lol. And I say that only because there really is no ending to the story...yet. I have to hand it to you Pharm, if you are still checking in and reading, it takes a lot of you know what to come on here and post your entire story good bad and ugly. So hats off. Im guessing despite the level of honesty it is not easy to make that final post that says " It didnt work" Or maybe it did and you are really busy right now...Im hoping for that ending.

Here is what I learned. Getting your own authority is, for the most part, pretty easy. Financing a truck and getting insurance is a little more difficult. And making money once you have both is just straight up difficult. That being said it is not impossible. And Im sure much more went on behind the scenes that we never read about on all the issues that came up but the outward appearance was that some details were skipped or ignored in some cases. And Pharm what I got out of all this is the secret to being an O/O with your own authority is ..the details. All the little things you normally take for granted are multiplyed in trucking and each one has a cost associated with it. It seems like nothing to take a load paying $2.00/ mile 250 miles then dead head 250 and get another load but really you just cut that $2 rate to $1. Same goes for idling and driving faster than needed. All means money being spent. Company drivers complain about rules when they can not idle or go faster than 60 but and O/O understands the cost. That company guy would slow down too if he had to pay for fuel. Its the little things piling up over time that shut down trucks. Idling makes a $2 rate become$1.97 fuel could drop it to $1.60 and maintenance or a big repair could take it down to $1.20 or less.

So maybe the O/O idea behind this thread ended in failure, maybe we will never know for sure but I can say this; the thread is a sucess. It did what it was intended to do. It chronicled the ups and downs of a person starting a transportation company. It inspired others that may have been thinking about to either re think the idea or go for it. Posters have been both supportive and critical and both sides added something to the overall story. Pharm made rookie mistakes but he was a rookie and his mistakes opened my eyes to a lot of things that happened to him that I might not of thought of when I go for it in the future...But now I will think of all these posts and try to avoid some of the pitfalls. So despite the outcome there is success within any failures. It was great drama and an awesome teaching tool. I hope this is not Pharms last attempt at this O/O thing. I think we both learned a lot here and will take all that new knowledge into account going forward.

Thanks again for a great thread. Hope to hear more from you and would love to see and ending to the story some day.

 

might be awhile if ever, when you hear from Rob aka pharmphil, last i heard about him, was a photo of his mugshot from NC. he's really hit bottom.

 

Wow .. Sorry to hear that