Lease onto a company

You only have 6 months experience tho... landstar and Mercer will not work with you... and you cannot use DAT running under someone else's authority unless they are setup on DAT
If you have the money you can obtain your authority and insurance but the startup cost to do all that with only 6months experience are gonna be upwards of like $16,000 for all the down payments u have to make...
You can however take your truck and run under those companies I mentioned earlier... I believe one of them will take you with your truck

 

It’s hard. There’s some real good info here to be had, some of the members are top notch & truley help others out.

The problem is most are arrogant jag offs. Like teenage kids, they know everything, you know nothing, and their Treat you like trash because you’re stupid.

Weed them out. You can get what you’re looking for here, it just takes effort.

 

I totally agree with GreenPete359. I am in the exact same scenario as you, Tebosqeezy. The only difference is I have 7 months instead of 6. My goal is to lease through Landstar as well, once I have a year's experience. I do not agree that you have to have 3 to 5 years experience to be a successful O/O. I also have asked the same question and got the same negative crap from jaded, know-it-all supertruckers, even when I asked for no negative comments. They can't answer your question plainly without trying to force the "you will fail" comments down your throat. GreenPete was smart to say to weed them out. Take the usable information from those genuinely willing to help and apply it if it helps you. There's some really good info on this forum from some really great people. My advice? Research until you can't stand it anymore. Then research some more. I have spent many, many hours on this forum and others learning everything I can. I've researched endless trucks and trucking companies as well as countless hours watching youtube videos to pick up anything I can before I take the plunge. Yes, many people fail but if you educate yourself to the fullest extent and are responsible, sensible and have a business related mindset you will do fine. Just make sure you have enough bankroll to withstand a turbulent first year with breakdowns and the huge learning curve. I think it's awesome that you're doing what you're doing. Forget the trolls....they need to get back in their sleepers....hahaha.

 

HE won't fail, he knows what's what.

 

I'm also new to the industry - would ask for you to keep this thread going with updates on your progress with the company lease (Good Luck) - I'd like to get 100K-125K miles under my belt before consider O/O (may look into hot shot also after gaining good experience ) - I've read, seen mixed reports of leasing from a company. Here's some questions. I also have seen & read good things about LandStar's Lease program (good load board) -

• When leasing under another companies authority, tags, permits & leasing their tractor/trailer are you restricted to using only their load board? I also understand that there are smaller mom n pop fleet operations that lease their equip't & you operate under their authority, permits/tags?

1. You are responsible for the insurance?
2. Do they file the ifta/irp quarterly filings or do you?
3. The lease is tax deductible, which is why if the load boards aren't restricted to strictly their controlled boards, it may be worth considering
4. Who pays for the maintenance/repairs? If your leased truck is being repaired for over 1 week, do they provide you with another temporary truck to run?

• If you are able to use any load board you want, it may not be the worst deal? The downside is you don't own the truck/trailer after the lease (I've seen some balloon payment options where you do own the truck in the end if you want)?

Since you're operating under the companies authority, I would assume Brokers will use that as the years of experience (along w/insurance) to determine if your good to deal with?

I'm trying to understand the downside of leasing from a company, specifically if you can use any load board you want & deduct the lease expenses? No matter what, you pay that lease weekly or monthly...

 

it takes experience and you can earn as you learn if you keep an open mind. seems like you are in love with the dat load board and there are quite a few good loads on there ,but also it's a collection of crap loads that can't be covered by carriers and brokers. the load board is just a tool let's say a hammer and sometimes you need a hammer but you better learn how to use the other tools . probably the idea of a load board sounds good because you are on your own and pick your own trips . but you can do that with working with agent's direct . at present its easy to make it just working off the load boards but as the economy slows down or truck capacity increases the first hit comes on the load boards as carriers are not posting loads there on there looking for loads and agents have enough of there regular haulers to cover there loads . and what's left is all the cheap skates and bad loads . it's happening a little now I have heard several guys on here saying that the rates are Goin to crap but quite honestly I haven't noticed it because I am working with agents I have worked for for years but sometimes I do need that hammer so I use the load boards but it's not the only tool I have . for example after a hurricane there looks like it's easy money to be had running supplies but what I do is call my regular agents and ask if they have loads they need covered. they have loads not going to hurricane relief and truck capacity tightens and sometimes they are scrambling for drivers . and that's remembered down the line when truck capacity goes the other way . my best advice to you is talk to as many owner ops that you can and keep learning . it's nice to have $50000 extra lying around the bank to start out with that's great but you can start out on a shoe string and make out

 

CFI only requires 3 months TT experience. However I can't seem to find much about them as far as pay percentage or miles or anything. That tells me they're probably super cheap but that's just my guess. Can you share what you know about them?

 

I do know that if you have a truck you can lease to CFI. They pay 1.00 per mile plus fsc which is around .27...so 1.27
They pay for your IFTA taxes and they file them, they also pay for plates and Qualcomm. Only thing you gotta pay is a small insurance fee and fuel. Not a bad gig but you gotta run your butt off to make any amount of money...

 

I am leased with the sister company of CFI. The only real difference is that I am on percentage and the load board. I am not that sure about CFI, but can say that you really do not have to run that hard to make decent money. Before I went percentage I averaged around 2500-2800 miles per week and still brought home a nice check every week. Now on percentage much better, but then right now for the last almost 3 months, I have just been dedicated to FedEx out of Indy to MI and back. About 2100 miles per week, but then I am also getting paid the FedEx rate, and not work more then 6 hours per day. That I like