Interested in opinions on how to get from cdl school student to o/o

I am guess based on what I have read elsewhere that the quote is staggering

 

That's a lot of confidence! I do want this to work. It is so hard to trust that without any experience at all, that I would be able to pick a used truck that won't kill me in repairs during the first months or year. I want no one else's worn out junk. Been there, done that with farm tractors, that's too expensive. Also, assuming I did this trucking thing all on my own, an absolute deal breaker would be any collateral that involves the farm. No how, no way, ain't happening. The trucking business sinks or swims on its own, so I would put it all in it's own LLC and a lawyer and I read the all financial documents to insure no other assets are involved before anything is signed. That's partly why I see its good to work for a company like TMC for a while, as I said in the first post. Experience is critical in making good choices.

I hope you are right that someone would hire me.

 

Not cheap, but not as bad as I thought it would be, Thanks

 

Update:

Well, I never did buy that 'cheap' truck and learn on my own. All the trucks I looked at seemed like financial disasters. Having done that with farm tractors, I decided not to repeat it with road tractors. Ultimately, I would still rather do local but all trucking companies still have that 12-18 month experience requirement. No way has been found that does not require me to go OTR. When I wrote the original post, I did not have a good understanding of Schneider's IC % program. Several drivers on that program have threads here on TTR and it looks like many are having success. It looks like a good solution to my original problem. I do not want any kind of cpm l/p, especially with a short haul or forced dispatch. Too many failures as one can read about here too. Even though it looks like JCT has a workable lease with most of the truck payment being mileage based, it still is a limited to cpm pay meaning you just want to run, run, run, miles, miles, and more miles. No option to run smart vs run a lot. I would rather figure out how run smart and make okay money that way then to be forced(or feel like you MUST) to run a lot just make anything worth the effort to be a trucker.

As for Mercer, TMC and flatbedding, while that is interesting, I can see how there might be a better way. Doing as much drop and hook as possible on Schneider's IC program keeps the truck earning money, not waiting for your own trailer to be unloaded by people who don't care if you're in a hurry. This is part of the running smart not a lot thinking I am looking for. Patience is a virtue, they say.

 

No, I don't have it figured out, but I have figured out that some things are beyond my risk tolerance.

Never a felony, fear no pee, hair or even fat test.

Thanks for your comment, even if it violated my request for only constructive commentary.