Need Some Advice

You have the offer because someone else could not make it work.
You've done 'some' of the math, and you kind of understand why the other guy could not make it work.

Some people do make it work, even some solo drivers.
But most don't.
Some people are very good business people, some are not.
You really need a good business sense to make it work, as well as working very long hours and cutting every corner.

You use 2000 miles per week as a baseline. But also consider that once you get the bills paid, it is all pocket money.
If you could do 3k per week you would be making much more than a company driver that did 3k per week.

Of course, that would be 3k LOADED miles for a L/O or O/O - vs. 3k combined loaded and mt miles for a company driver.
Unless I'm mistaken, they don't get paid for mt miles.
In the past week I've been repositioned from Denver to NM, and from there to Phoenix - before I ever got a real load.
The week before my last home time I was moved from Chicago to Memphis because they were 130 loads short in the Chicago area.
So in the past 2.5 weeks I've been deadheaded nearly 1500 miles to areas with freight, and as a company driver I am paid for every mile at the same rate as loaded.
What would it have cost me if I leased the truck?


I've heard it both ways.
1. The company makes more $$$ when they lease the truck.
2. The driver makes more when they lease the truck.

Well, it can't work both ways at the same time.
The customer is charged the same either way, so unless all things are equal one end of the stick is always shorter.

 

me personally, i would never lease or buy a truck. no business sense lol. imo...leasing benifits the company. if you owned the truck outrite, you benefit. a few guys here on the forrum are l/o, pick their brrains b4 plunging in. good luck on whatever you choose to do.

 

Ya might try reading this and others like it, Good Luck ! http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-adventures-continue-dfo-gets-truck-hops.html

 

I wondered if the original post was quoting pre-Swift Central numbers. I've spoken with a couple Central O/Os and they both told me that Swift was doing everything possible to break their contract and put them in a new contract that favored Swift. Since this is a Swift forum I went under the assumption of Swift forcing any new Central O/O to run under a contract similar to ours. The Central O/Os SHOULD get paid more than we do for dealing with a refer, I wouldn't go back to refer for less than $1.05 per loaded mile with our FSC.

 

I said "fixed costs", as in what shows up on my settlement BEFORE I run a single mile. People need to understand that there's more (A LOT MORE) than the truck payment to calculate into the equation. Fuel is the one area an O/O has control vs a company driver. I think about every single fuel stop BEFORE I put a drop of fuel in my truck. Since I shower EVERY DAY I add that to the equation as well. I rarely "tanker" any fuel into the next week.

I enjoy the day to day planning required to keep my truck "in the black". If you're not a good planner and prefer to "wing it" leasing/owning a truck might not be in your best interest.

 

That there's my problem.

When I finish driving I want to relax.
I don't want my time taken up by researching fuel costs, inputting numbers into a spreadsheet, calculating how much the mt miles are costing vs. what I'll make loaded and everything else.
I'd rather cook a good dinner, watch some video's, call family and chat on a forum.

As a company driver I don't need to worry about fuel cost, so I have more control over that aspect.
I never have to fuel where Swift tells me to fuel, unless I am running on fumes. I can go to where I want and simply call for fuel.

 

$1.07 + $0.32 is still going to be a tough gig.. $900 a week payment works out to $0.45 a mile (based on 2000 miles in your example) + $0.57 for fuel (as you said) = $1.02 a mile operation. $0.37 left over, and conventional wisdom says for the first two years with a new truck, set aside $0.05 for all miles then $0.10 thereafter dedicated for maintenance.

Can anyone eat and pay their bills on $0.27 cents per mile?

 

It's not what a generic company driver can run vs a generic o/o ... it's what you can run. this why a rookie should run for ay least a year, to establish their baseline.

If what you run, whether it's what you're comfortable with or all you can figure out how to get, is 2000 miles. Then your math is in the ball park. You will be better off as a company driver.

But your fixed cost is, well fixed. That cost becomes diluted, the more miles you run. Solo O/O that are making it are averaging north of 2500 a week and closer to 3000 consistently.

This is where leasing gets a bad name. There are lot of company drivers that are like you, averaging around 2000 a week give or take. Then they talk to an O/O who is in the 2800 range and they get the belief that O/O get the miles, because they are O/O. So all they have to do is become an O/O and the miles will be there. Unfortunately that's not the way it works. The O/O that are getting 2800 miles or more, are getting miles because they know how to, they would get those miles even if they were company.

This is among the reasons leasing gets a bad name. The company driver that is getting 2000 miles that becomes an O/O, will likely continue to get 2000 miles. They will fail and then denigrate leasing as screwing them over, since the company never "gave" them the 2800 miles they believed they were owed simply for being an O/O.