Need advice on best way to get a truck and become an O/O

www.OOIDA.com is a website that can answer your questions about that.

 

If you can swing it, saving your money and paying cash is always the best idea. Tall order for most I understand but this is the way to do it for a first time truck owner IMO. Well established guys who've been at it a long time and know the business can walk into a Peterbilt dealership and finance a new whatever (assuming they have the credit of course). There are nice older trucks in the $20-30k range. Leasing or financing a trailer I could see though.

Stay away from the truck lease deals. Plenty of reading you can do on here with the search button as to why it's a bad idea. As for how to find work, you just have to start asking around and talking to people in your area. Possibly even your current company. There are also the bigger owner-op outfits like Landstar and Mercer but check with your own company first would be my idea.

 

I'm in the same boat and have been making phone calls and talking to people. I'd suggest leasing a truck if you don't have the cash to buy outright. It's tax deductible and it's not a huge commitment. I would not suggest financing because you have no business experience or credit and you're going to be looking at 40-50% down with 40-50% interest rates. I've shopped around and I have a high 600s credit score. Insurance is also going to cost a lot so I'm looking for something as cheap as possible while still maintaining the requirements for leasing on to my company.

Edit, by leasing, I mean leasing from a dealer, not a carrier. My company offers leases for $600-700 a week for 2018-2020 model Cascadias and ProStars. I'm looking to lease the same model truck from a dealer for $1,300 a month. Half the cost of these lease purchases through carriers.

 

If you are to leasing to a carrier and operating under their authority, then your insurance cost will be less. Physical damage premiums are usually 2-3% of the market value of the truck. Bobtail insurance is usually under $1,000.00 per year.

As @Chinatown stated, check out the OOIDA website for info. Google owner operator and check out Youtube. Get a notebook and take notes. Good luck.

 

If someone is telling you 40-50% interest that’s just a nice way of saying they don’t want to deal with you without actually saying they don’t want to deal with you.

 

Start reading, all the answers to these questions are on this site and many more.. . Financing a truck and leasing it to a company is about as simple as it gets...

 

Wow...

Who is misinforming you?

 

A huge suggestion from someone who may seem pessimistic but knows.


Watching the industry and markets, has me really worried.


Not for myself but for others who are marginally alive in this.


You guys all want to get into this owner operator stuff, but you need to take a serious look around at what's going on in our country.


Right now it may be the worst time to get into a new venture, with the crap in congress and their inability to do their job and the states not doing theirs, plus this flu crap threaten to close down the country, it isn't really the best time to get into something that has a 15% success rate in good times when the industry could slow down a lot more than we seen this year.

 

Right on, brother. Some people here think I'm FOS on my O/O views and it's completely natural for a company driver to have thoughts and dreams of their own truck. I did it, and it was the most gratifying thing I did job wise, even though I personally failed miserably. It's true, all those company gripes go out the window, all is great, until the NEW challenges pop up, making the company gripes look silly. Take a break, find another company, but don't do the O/O thing, not now.

 

My advice, and I’ve never personally seen this fail is only two steps. If you can’t do number 1, wait until you can.

1. Buy a truck with cash
2. Lease on with a small company paying 80-85%