So, I figured I might as well finally post my experience on owning my own truck. This may get long because, well, I have nothing better to do right now. I'm also going to try to be honest about things and decisions I made. This worked out well for me but this could easily get that sticker saying: Please don't try this at home.
I've always looked at owning a truck. The numbers never seemed to add up whenever I looked at it though. I was working at Frito and a buddy of mine had left there to buy his own truck and start hauling fuel. I was skeptical at first, but he had a friend who did it and seemed to do well. After a couple months he starts showing the breakdown and I see that this is the first opportunity I've seen where the money is worth it. I start really looking into it. Plus, I'd always wanted to haul fuel for no real apparent reason.
Frito was a pretty good job and pretty good pay. I've always said I wouldn't own a truck just to make the same or even a little more. I was running worst case scenario math and it still just came out way better to switch. I'm talking even having to rent a truck for the whole month bad. I also worried about Frito long term. I was in a bad motorcycle accident when I was younger and didn't know how I might fare with the physical job down the line. It had gone downhill as well, and I'd seen it over a long time as my dad drove there for 36 years. I had a lot of people tell me I was stupid for wanting to do this. Seeing the real numbers from someone I knew and trusted, I just didn't see how it could go wrong.
I talked to my wife and told her how things were for us financially. That we'd be able to get the house we wanted down the line and probably retire decently. She's a teacher so pretty much it all falls on me since we don't apparently value education in this country. I tell her we would have to probably cut back on spending to accomplish some of those goals, or I could just make more money. She agreed making more sounded better so I decided to greenlight it.
So I set my plan into action. Step one: Cash influx. We only get paid once a month where I lease on and understood that would be a wait for that first check. I also know that at the end of the day cash is king and what you need when all else fails. So I decide that I'm going to start paying all of our bills on credit cards and not pay them off for the first time in my life. I've never paid interest on anything other than a house and personal vehicle at this point. I keep all the cash from my paychecks to create a safety net. I already had enough money to put a down payment on a truck without doing this, it was purely a safety net move for cash. I also had a 401k that I was not going to touch, but I guess it'd bail me out if I had to and could go back to being a company driver. I also had 3 weeks of vacation and had to do unpaid training for the fuel job, so I took my vacation while being trained. That worked out nicely.
I look around for an old crappy truck. Find plenty and finally find the one that's old and crappy, but the right kind of price old and crappy. I knew there were things wrong with it but I thought it could at least give me a couple months before I'd really have to start dumping some money on it. So I buy it, get my first truck loan for 18 months to help build my business credit up and off I go. I could have bought it outright, but it made much more sense to keep the capital for repairs. Any used truck is going to need repairs, most likely right after you buy it because that's probably why someone got rid of it in the first place.
Now I'm hauling fuel. At this point I realize that I was meant to haul fuel. I had never enjoyed driving so much. I was home everyday, except a random day here and there. Now, I spend every Sunday night in the truck, but it's my choice and something I look forward to. A night sleeping without a 4 year old around is always nice. Anyways, I pay myself basically what's needed to get by and start paying to have the truck worked on and fixed and keeping money back for emergencies and taxes.
I want to note here, that I'm not working on the truck myself. I decide to work six days a week and doing that determined that I would not even look at the truck on my day off. I wanted to spend it with my family. That sixth day more than pays what I end up having to pay someone to do the work. I don't even grease the truck, I have the shop I park at do it. I've built truck chassis for a living before, so it's not something I can't do, I just won't.
The one thing that Is bothering me is the downtime with that truck. Paying for the repairs isn't even that bad. I'm making enough per day that the downtime hurts much more than the repairs. I have two shops that get my truck in and out, so they're not adding to the downtime. It's just every time something happens, I'm losing out on a lot of money.
Continued below
My first year and a half
Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by DirtyBob, May 19, 2018.
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RedForeman, Truckermania, JoeyJunk and 1 other person Thank this.
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The fuel hauling community is pretty close knit, at least around here. Most of the O/Os are pretty open with each other and you can pretty easily gauge repair costs just from talking to each other everyday. The one thing I start to notice is that pretty much everyone with a new truck, whether it be a glider or a standard new truck, is really doing better off than the guys running higher mileage trucks. I talk to a lot of them about it and start doing my own research into what my costs would be. I start tracking guys downtime and and covert those days to a cost based on my average daily pay plus their repair costs and it's quickly obvious to me the lack of truck payment quickly gets offset by the additional down time.
I know there's already a whole thread being argued right now about this. I personally think you break even in the comparison either way you go, if both an older truck and newer truck are good trucks. I will say the only one that can beat my payment/downtime/repair cost ratio with my new that works with me is driving a 2000 w9. He has a great truck though and at least what I see around here, he has one of the few that are that good.
Regardless, what I have at that point is not a good truck, so the whole old truck vs new truck doesn't even matter. I'm making money but I can clearly see I could do better by moving on. I was about to really go all out and fix everything that needed done on it as I was about to leave for vacation. I then decide since I already knew I was going to move on I might as well just use more of that for a down payment on a new truck. I find a '16 Volvo 430 that's been sitting on the lot and they're looking to get rid of it cheap since they're bringing in the '18s at this point. So six months into owning my first truck, I get a brand new truck for a steal after putting $20k down and now I have two truck payments. Yes, I did not trade mine in. I figured I could get more out of it on my own as it's a crappy old truck that no dealership will pay much for. I drop another large sum into putting a pump on and take off on vacation with two trucks now.
So that down payment and pump money was what I had put away for taxes. I wasn't too worried about not paying quarterly because I knew the penalty was small. Having a pump now, I had increased my revenue decently and my net was looking much better now that I had a truck that was running great day in and day out. The move worked out very well for me, but I started to worry about taxes. I had no idea what to really expect being my first full year, and I had made a ton of money. I just keep setting aside the majority of my money, leaving it in the business just sitting there. I still have all this credit card debt to pay off, but even with the monthly interest considered as a business cost, I'm well above anything I had ever made before. I work my rear off for the next 6 months.
At some point in here I end up selling old faithful(or not so faithful) on contract to this guy who had gotten screwed pretty badly by some O/O doing the whole 1099 illegally thing. He had already hauled fuel and was going to come work with us so I figured it'd be pretty safe knowing what kind of money he could make. I also went into this knowing full well I could never see a dime from it. If I got screwed it wouldn't have been the end of the world. I always viewed that truck as a cost so anything I got was nice. He ends up getting fired from here within a month but finds other work with the truck. Didn't think it'd go well, but he's actually kept up on paying, albeit late a few times. I don't even say anything about it, as long as it comes, I don't really worry. I got way more than I would have selling it straight up.
I get my end of the year accounting done and feel pretty good. I have more than enough to cover taxes not figuring in depreciation. I wanted to leave that out so I couldn't really get surprised. I do my own accounting but not the tax work, so CPA does his thing and I end up owing half of what I had put away for taxes. I told him I hadn't payed quarterly and he asked me how much I had in the bank. It was one of my favorite moments of this whole thing was seeing his face when I told him as I could tell he thought it was going to be another one of "these guys" who can't pay their taxes.
At this point I've paid off all of the credit card stuff I did to switch over into this. I have enough money in the bank to cover anything business related. I actually have taxes paid off quarterly and even two months early at this point. I have a truck that's been amazing for me. I net more even after taxes than I really ever thought possible. I work the same schedule every day.
The best part is I do something I actually like and thrive in. I really don't think I could ever go back to doing normal freight work.bewhite90, RedForeman, fargonaz and 5 others Thank this. -
DirtyBob and HopeOverMope Thank this.
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That's great Bob, glad it's going well for you. I'm in the process of getting my authority and a new truck. I decided a long time ago if I ever did this I was going to get a new truck with a full service lease. I don't want to worry about repairs or down time. I can't wait to get started.
DirtyBob Thanks this. -
DirtyBob Thanks this.
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When she comes home she's usually working a good 3-4 hours every night between planning, grading and dealing with parents . Today, on Sunday, she's going to to dance recitals of her students because they asked. Does she have to do this? No, but she's invested in her job and her kids. Spending time on the weekend doing planning, grading, etc. Her first two weeks of summer this year she's working everyday. Usually the week before school they're working. That doesn't include decorating her room like she usually does every year.
She has a Master's Degree and her pay is well below the average that you mentioned. In 10 to 20 years it will be decent but I want to be set in 10 to 20 years not getting started. She started at our current District the last year that they pay more for a Masters. When we lived in California she actually had decent pay and we live somewhere that was an expensive to live so it was all right. That average pay is being bumped up by the high cost of living areas.
We spent $3,500 out of our pocket last year that goes towards her room or teaching supplies and tools. We get $250 tax credit for that.
Now her pension is good. I will never bank on the government keeping that intact. The pensions in multiple states have come under fire recently. We're both 34 years old. That's a long time for politicians to bleed that dry.
Then there's all the nights my wife comes home crying because parents have been extremely crappy with her or something bad happened to a kid. She's very emotionally invested in her job and you really have to be to do well at it.
When I started college I went for a music education. It took me two days worth of education classes to realize I'm not the kind of person that can put the personal investment needed into doing that job.fargonaz and Truckermania Thank this. -
What a great post! I'm glad to hear everything worked out for you.
Trucks always cost you a lot of money whether it's old or new. But I would say to anyone thinking of doing it as you did it that if you buy an older truck you really have to take the time to go over it and try to bulletproof it the best way that you can before you start. As you said, it isn't the cost of the repair it's the down time.
It's really a good story that you have to tell. Good luck.DirtyBob Thanks this. -
As a former Frito driver and now owner operator I wish you great success. I probably would still be at Frito with 25+years seniority if they hadn’t closed our plant, but I am extremely happy now that they did. From your post I can see you are focused on the different aspects of running a business and not just driving the truck. I am a numbers cruncher and I feel that closely watching all of my numbers helps me to be more successful. Before I started hauling cars I talked to several owner ops hauling gas and I knew I could make great money doing that and be home daily. I decided against it when the company I planned to lease on to told me I would have to work the weekends. Good luck and keep focused and I believe you will be successful.
DirtyBob Thanks this. -
You're pretty much working at least one weekend day hauling fuel. I work the entire weekend, but that is my choice. I've always liked weekdays off since no one else is out when I go out and do things. It also allows me to get work done on the truck without taking a day off since shops are always open on weekdays.
I park next to an auto plant so talk to a lot of car haulers. They always seem to like what they do but I don't think I've ever gotten any real numbers out of any on what can be made.Banker Thanks this. -
Last edited: May 21, 2018
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