Knowing what you now know, what would you do differently?

I would save up every last penny as company driver and become an owner operator with my own authority as fast as possible.

When I can get 1 load paying $6500 taking 3-4 days to deliver and after fuel and insurance clear $4000, and basically make more money in that one load than most company drivers make in a month, no way would I ever go back to that $100,000 a year job as a company driver breaking my back working for McLane,.

 

I did a thread recently about how great my O/O experience has been trying to motivate company drivers to throw off the yoke of the man and got attacked by other O/Os and company drivers alike. It’s good to read a few posts from some who wouldn’t have it any other way. The load I’m on now has 1295 miles and pays $5800. Most hookers and drug dealers don’t make that much.

 

I waffle. There are so many freedoms I'm enjoying that come with leasing this truck but it really is demanding and I worry about money and taxes all the time. I think the tilting point for me is all the electronic nannying esp. Electronic collision control crap. I can't live with that.

 

Your thread was assuming we were all dummies and you found the magic potion to fame and fortune.

 

I stand by my statements about ambition and company drivers being chumps, at least those who work for companies for years and wonder why they aren’t making the big bucks. Our economic system is set up to reward business owners. If you aren’t one already you should be working toward becoming one. The man is gonna get his. Employees get the scraps left over.

 

I think things have just changed a lot over the years? Back in the day a company driver could make about as much as an owner op but there were a lot more things against owner ops than there is today.

Deregulation was still new and it was hard for owner ops to get good loads, JB and the undercutters were still new, owner ops couldnt get the subsidies the bigger companies could, owner ops spent a lot of time striking for better conditions so that affected their income, it was a lot harder to get Operating Authority back then, truck financing was harder on them back then and owner ops couldnt get the breaks on fuel that big companies could.

It was just a whole different ballgame back then, so thank an old owner op for going through hell for you. And Im not referring to me, I was a company driver back then, though I did sympathize greatly with owner ops.

I advise any of you to get the Video "Trucker Wars" if you see it in a truckstop somewhere. It was published by the owner of Overdrive Magazine, who is now deceased, several years ago and accurately depicts the way things were back then.

Another thing, most companies were still union in those days, so yea, drivers made a lot of money then. Even the non-union companies paid pretty good so they could keep the unions out.

Had a whole set of different "Mega Carriers" then, who are mostly gone now.

 

Please, not to change topics, but can you elaborate more about this load? I'm all ears. I can't seem to ever get rates that high at the moment, other than a power only FEMA load I hesitated on a few days ago that was 400 miles for $4000.

 

There you go again assuming things you don't know about, many don't want to take on the debt, others are not equipped to be owners. You also think money is what this is all about, naive at best.

And you became an expert with what ... ?? ... six months driving as an owner?

 

Two or maybe three points:
That was then, this is now.

Authorities are too easy to get, and cdl are a joke.

About 40% of the industry was unionized, I think the last number I heard was less than 3% now.