My first year as a lease driver

This last year has been a learning experience. I figured there is some value in what I have learned and so I thought I would put it out there. There have been some ups and downs of course but it was worth the experience. I have enjoyed my time out here and look forward to continuing my journey.

My start was with no savings and was offered a walk away lease truck after working for the company for a year. I took it and didn't look back. Notice I say a "lease truck" not a lease purchase. The truck is given back around 450k and you get a new one. Right off the bat the truck was heading for the shop to get some issues fixed and that was when I found out it had 225k on it already. I was told by the company to look over the truck and if I see anything that need repaired and they will take care of it. So I gave them a list of a few things and they stood by there word. Within the first two months the oil pan blew a gasket and a couple other small things came up. I let them know about it and they paid for all the repairs again. I was told then that I would be responsible for everything from that point on which I thought was reasonable.

My first couple of months I wasn't making what I thought I could but I also understood there was going to be a bit of a break in period that we would be feeling each other out. After all now I could refuse loads if I wanted to but I didn't. I liked where they were sending me and was already used to the way things were done. Of course the earnings grew from there and leveled out pretty soon. I had to learn what where the best days for me to take off when I wanted to take some home time past my 34 over the weekends. It took me a little bit but I figured out what made the most sense financially.

After a few months I figured out how much home time I could take (if wanted) while still staying in the black. I opted to work about 24 ish days a month and take a week break twice a year. Of course this was always subject to change depending on goings on and needs. I took the time to figure out what my costs were and what I needed to make to cover the truck and my house bills sorta a break even point. I figured out very fast it was best to look at the big picture rather then focus on the day at hand. It was not unusual for me to have to take loads where I would break even or lose some money, but I never ran any load that didn't cover the truck costs at least. With that said when I would look at an entire week or month it would average out to be over what I needed to just break even. In a perfect world every load would be over your break even point but we don't live in a perfect world.

I spent my first six or eight months just running my 24 ish days so I could build up some savings. Then the holidays hit and I took some time off there. Then after that winter hit and I was forced to take time off again. California will close down the highways at the first inkling of bad weather unfortunately. So in total I ended up taking off about a month between December and February. It was a hard hit to the pocket book but I never went into the red just got very close. If there is one thing I have learned this year it is this. You need to be smart with your money and save for those "unforeseen circumstances."

Being dispatched is a bit of a pain. I would rather be able to plan my own loads, but I don't want to give up 14% of my pay to have that luxury. The company is not self dispatch and the one's I know of that are pay way less of a percentage. Now after talking to other drivers that are paid per mile I figured out I will never do that. I was averaging making about $.60 more per mile being on percentage.

Now fast forward to today. I have only had two breakdowns with my truck. I am happy with the company and have set some goals to meet this year to help improve my numbers. I made what I would consider decent money. Was able to do several upgrades and remodel projects to my home and invest into my hobby. I really enjoy the feeling of not being stressed out about trying to run as many miles as I can so I can maximize my earnings. I set a number I like to meet every month that I feel is good and can reach it pretty easy. I have learned a lot about the business side of the industry and have been able to do some things on my own both for the maintenance of the truck and the bookkeeping side of things. I took this opportunity and ran with it. I am planning of increasing my knowledge of the business side so I can do as much as I can myself to increase my bottom line. I saw a post on here once that rang true for me " don't be and O/O for the money do it for the freedoms." I feel like doing this was so much less stressful then being a company driver for me. I have gotten to do so much more due to making better money and that has been a main contributor to my stress level.

So here are the numbers for the year pre tax.

Total miles DH/Loaded = 101,098

Earnings = $196,804 / $1.95 PM

Truck expenses = $123,879 / $1.23 PM

My wage = $ 45,000 / $.45 PM

Profit = $ 27,925 / $ .28 PM

 

It's going to be a little more then that $600 a week because you got a factor in my 34-hour reset most weekends also. I would knock that down to probably around 42 or 43 weeks worked as a good guess. I think I'm more around the 650 to 675 profit per week range. Just goes to show you what most people say is true . You will not get rich doing this but with a little luck you will take home a small chunk of change, enjoy your freedom, and get a good learning experience.

 

So after reading your post again I think some clarification is needed. I consider my wage 45k to be my take home. The number you are figuring is what I would say is my business profit per week.

Now that it is explained let's go over that profit. If I were to break it down to a weekly number I would divide it by 52 and not my actual worked weeks. My reasoning is my costs for the operation don't stop when I do so dividing by the actual number of weeks would be more accurate. That number is actually $537 a week profit to the business. Shocking ain't it.

 

I don't like to put the company I work for in these public threads so I'll just message you directly. I don't need a bunch of people trying to call and start trouble for me like they love to do you know what I mean

 

I have already started trying out things to increase that number. Mostly concentrating on my fuel of course. I watched a video from a youtube trucker that basically said "pay attention to the price of everything you buy because several small savings will add up to a big number by the end of the year." I never really payed much attention to my small purchases until watching that video and all I can say is wow. It's not a big number yet but it is on its way up. Another thing I noticed the other day when I fueled up in a place I rarely have to was the fact that I pay pump price due to it being a Com Data card purchase. I could have gotten cash before heading out that way and saved myself .10 to the gallon plus the 1.50 charge to my card. Would of saved almost $20.00 in just that fill up. Um duh.

I really think my first year was just doing the same thing most new L/O's do. Not really paying attention as much as we should and just enjoying the new extra money I am making. I don't want to think about the savings I could have had over the last year if I would have been as attentive as I am now. Just makes my brain hurt so I wont think about it lol.