Is the owner-operator a dying breed?

What...do you want a brownie-badge or a cookie? You seem to spend alot of time on here for someone who runs 120,000 miles. What about that BIG run that you said on another thread that you run all the time? Looks like you might be messing up your spreadsheet this week.

 

That's my view also. Some will always carry on. Some will quit and some will start. It's everywhere, not just trucking and not just small fleets either IMO.

 

I run 4 rounds, 4 days driving, 3 nights in the bunk 2400 - 2500 miles depending where my TX return lands. Then I take 9 days or so off. Gives me a chance to review the management of my .80 rpm taxable income. Its in the budget, can I show you? A brownie & milk will be fine. Thanks

 

My badge is what I have done with my net outside of the trucking industry.

 

Not to take a crack at anyone in particular, nor take a political turn, I think this article misses a bigger picture issue related to work ethic and sacrifice. When a market gets less easy, it thins out the herd and creates opportunity for those that hang in there and get through the hard stuff.

In order to be successful at any type of self employment, there's a degree of hard work and sacrifice that it takes to make it work. My birthday puts me right between the baby boomers that got work ethic pounded into their heads at an early age and the kids of hippies that got a lot more care and entitlement. Fortunately for me, my folks are very square and I got more of the former than the latter during my formative years. It seems the cycle is repeating with the millennial kids to a degree. The ones that aren't drinking the government entitlement kool-aid are now going through their teens seeing the struggles people are going though with this recession. They never knew the boom times and easy finance money that their older peers may have had available. In general there seems to be a trend among the very young adults coming into the workforce. More aren't looking for an executive job right out of college, and they are taking the hard jobs expecting to have to gain experience and qualifications to achieve more.

I guess my point is that I see some groups pressing forward in this industry and in general, regardless of government or industry regulation. Older folks that will just suck it up and soldier on having been through hard times before, very young people hard charging enough to make it happen, and a few oddballs like me in the middle that just aren't afraid to do some things the hard way.

 

You know you are on the road to success....its all uphill. Paul Harvey....you know who he is.... Congradulations and soldier on brother. I #### should would rather show them than tell them in any forum.

 

LOL...You not very good at math then. How does that add up to 120,000 miles per year? Also, when looking for loads, you find them right out the gate without downtime? You might want to look at your own math there.

 

I stand corrected most weeks 3 days and 4 nights at home. I completed 12 rounds this quarter and i am taking the beginning of the quarter off the truck. 9. Days. Thanks for holding my feet to the fire. Bet you are doing well.

 

I leave on Saturday morning deliver on monday reload and get home on tuesday evening. Make my delivery and drop my trailer on wendsday. 90% of the time I know my p/u info by friday afternoon. Of course 1 in 10 has ohhh that canceled!!!!! 1 in 4 rounds may require that I spend Tuesday night in the truck. But im normally home by noon on wendsday. I do give up my weekends, kids are grown. But .80 net seems the best I have right now. Im sure it will change one day like it always has for better or worse. One thing I know for sure is nothing stays the same. Me and my leased owner operator have been doing this for 2 years. When we started I was going to Oregon from TX and back. The customer has up the load count to 2 every week and I return everyweek now. When we need off they use a common carrier or a large national broker with leased trucks to get what we cant.

 

And that is exactly my dillema since I live there.....wtf, I'm not supposed to come home after 2013, screw them!! I refuse to comply because I believe the cost of doing so is a total lose-lose given the age of my equipment and how well it has been taken care of. I will not be forced into making a bad business decision, if I can't find a way around these regs then I will either move out or sell out, one of the two.