Local freight as an owner operator

How much you reckon you can net as owner-operator locally?

 

I am willing to bet that 90% of first time oo"s goes flat broke within 2 years, and most of them are not new at the game either.
As far as net, there is no way to tell, every different segment of this business pays different, every area of the country pays different, every company you lease on to pays different, that is one of the reasons most try to learn the business before they start making big payments on a truck.

 

Let me put it another way to you. What would be the reward to take the risk? Put a $$$ amount on it. Income per year.

 

Too many variables to even have a clue. How many rich oo's do you know, is one way to look at it.
For some folks risk means nothing, others will drive 40 years and never think there is enough money to take a risk.
In all actuality, some driving jobs will be as good as what an oo can do, when it comes down to how many nickels is left in your pocket at the end of your career.
Being an OO is not always about the money, there is other reasons many of us do it.

 

There can be only three reasons. Make more money, mitigate income risk or save money. Any other reason from a business perspective is meaningless. If one does not understand that then they have no business being in business for themselves as an OO. I have met some sharp truckers but there are really dumb ones out there too. in fact, to be honest with you, this industry is largely built on preying on dumb ones.

 

Well you have a little to learn about life.
There are a multiple reasons, one of which is freedom. Another is you live where there is no trucking jobs that will ever get you home and wages are so low that you could probably pick up aluminum cans and make more.
This industry was not built on dumb ones, like every thing else in life, it has been dumbed down over the years. It has gotten so easy even a cave man can do it, and make a better living than anything else his IQ could do for him.

 

And it does not have much legs left. The autonomous trucks will get all of them in 3-10 years. My simple friends that is all there is to business the 3 simple reasons I gave you. Read up on it. Cheers I agree with some of what you say some of the folks I talk to in this business are so dumb I wonder if they should be in loony house or driving a truck.

 

I doubt I have 3 years left, but if I had 20 left I would not let worry over any autonomous trucks hurting the trucking business, especially not the part I am in. lol, It just isn't going to happen.
Back in the late 70's the brilliant leaders in Cali passed a law that no diesel trucks could be driven in the LA basin, hmmm, how did that go for them, except that they had to retract that law come time for it to be implemented. lol

 

A few more things that a guy has to consider, there are very few long term contracts in the trucking business, virtually none for the small time oo. A guy can always count on a down turn in freight and rates every so often, this is usually often enough that if a guy bought a new truck, at the perfect time, he will still be in debt for the next downturn.
Fuel will also spike and get out of sight about as often, it actually helps my bottom line when it does, but is bad for most oo's, and always puts many out of business, some quicker than others.
To put a truck to work local, unless you are getting in on the ground floor working for some start up type of business, then you have to offer the shipper a reason to switch to you. Usually (nearly always) this is in the form of cheaper rates to, this is a never ending process, as everybody else is trying to get the haul too.
I have gotten in on basically ground floor deals a few times and invested in the equipment to do something different (trailers). What I have found to be the case usually is a guy has one good year, before others decide you are getting rich and start cutting the rates.

I have a log truck, that I treat as a hobby, there is no money in logging here. Some logging jobs depending on location, I can not even make driving wages. The logger I work for could not keep me busy the first season and the mill hounded me every day to haul for them, they paid even less. lol
they kept telling me they could keep me busy, I kept telling them I didn't want to stay busy.
The very next year, three more (successful) oo's bought and spent big bucks on log trucks, importing them from the north west and tried to horn in on my hobby trucking. lol I can only suppose they though I was making bank. Now I am the only one again. lol None of them went broke, they just went back to what they already did.

 

What is it you do in this industry?