New O/O Advice

Maybe @Nahbrown will give some suggestions.

 

Honestly man. I wouldnt there is a laundry list of why jumping in to be an O/O with no experince is an awful idea. But the most relevent ones off the top of my head.

1. Your insurance is going to be absolutely insane cost wise.

2. You have no idea how a lot of things work and how to work with or around the issues, many of which WILL bankrupt you.

3. Your an inexperinced driver, your going to make mistakes, your going to miss loads, your going to have issues. Under a company they can just dispatch another truck. Under you, your black listed.

4. The cost to entry is high and risk even higher, somuchso even experinced drivers with YEARS of experince under their belt and good heads on their shoulders going owner op currently have a 7 to 9 out of 10 failure rate depending on what source you use. And nearly anyone who doesnt have a firm hard grasp on what they are doing goes bankrupt.

5. 1 week on 1 week off is a rare bird shift. With 1 truck you need contracts because the spot market is unlikely to pay your bills. Good luck getting a 1 on 1 off that will pay the bills as a startup with no history and no experince.

6. Even experinced O/Os miss stuff setting up a company. You not being intimately familiar with everything is likely going to bite you in the ### with the DoT and tax man.

7. You dont know how much stuff SHOULD cost, or where to get the best deals. This will drive your cost of operateing through the roof. Buy a michlin tire? 1 place its $1600 the other its $900.

8. Being brand new to this your likely going to get hit with a 20 to 40% APR on your first rig if you go even remotely new. And going used can be an absolute dumpster fire. Trust me on that. Been there done that have the T shirt.

And these are just off the top of my head. The more i think the more im going to advise you its a really bad idea.

 

Yup, i just dont want to see more peoples dreams go up in flames over a bad mistake. And jumping into trucking feet first is a big one. A lot of people dont realize how bad it can get and it can and absolutely will bankrupt you.



Forgive the white out uptop it has personal info but ima share it anywau. This is an example of a fairly simple AC repair. A big repair like say an injector, you could be looking 10-20,000 easy. A tow bill? $10K plus in some areas. When i had my major wreck i lost out over 100k and nearly folded. Hell just recently i dumped 18k into a new transmission and 20k into a rebuild and my truck blew the block less then 2000 miles later and i had to scramble.for a new one. Keep in mind these trucks start at about $60,000 for a used truck worth a #### and 100-140,000 for one that will be fairly bullet proof.

Last year i ran pretty close to $70,000 in fuel alone. Maintance and oil changes was even more. My first truck nearly broke me. I say it a lot but go check out my new owner op thread sometime to see a worst case scenario. And i am a 5th gen trucker who grew up around these with dozens of family members whos entire life revolves around this industry. And again i nearly failed.

Trucking can be a wonderful.fuffilling job and even carrer. But it can also rip the life out of you, your family, and your dreams in a heart beat. My advice is to wait until your life is on a better place then come back and find a job to get at LEAST 3 years under your belt (id say 5 ideally) and go in with at least 50k in reserve for repairs 15k for fuel and a 25% downpaymeny. @Chinatown can help get you set up with a good stable and well paying first job when your ready.

In the meantime if you still want to be around these trucks, go get a tech degree as a diesel mechanic. It both pays well and is a ton of fun if you enjoy working on machines. It will also save you an absolute fortune and make it so your nearly assured to succed as an owner op when the time comes. Being able to work on and fix your own rig is HUGE.

Regardless best of luck mate no matter what you do, and dont feel shy to ask around. There are many of us who would be more then happy to guide you to the best path we can. Though its on you to chose to walk it.

 

Remember starting in the military? What would that look like if on the first day, they arm you and dropped you off in some war zone? What would be the odds of success?

 

Hi Chinatown, thanks for the heads up on this thread.


@Nayrd

After 20yrs as a USAF SERE Specialist I retired and kept my security clearance active for 6 years before My wife and I attended A 6 week community college CDL course and immediately started driving as a team. Our goal was to be together and maKe as much money as possible. To that goal as soon as we had the required experience (usually 2yrs). We bought a truck and started hauling Secure/sensitive DOD frieght.

See my next post

 

Did you and your wife train in the same truck at the same time. I know of two companies that do that.
If I remember correctly, you trained at a company in Alabama.