New or Old, $150 or $1500 in 8hrs, it is all up to you

I understand insurance varies greatly, perhaps some real world examples will get posted? Load insurance, I imagine, is based on the value of each load, and perhaps, such things as perishability, oversize/dimension, things of that nature weigh into it?

PM should be somewhat easy to estimate based on a per mile basis given make/model/year. I have an excellent understanding of PM vs. repairs having been a mechanic for 25 years. If anyone reading this is meticulous about PM, perhaps you would post a % of annual expenses, or $ amount? Repairs are unexpected expenses for the most part, things that break without warning, parts that are not serviceable or fail suddenly. That is an aspect that requires a certain % or $ amount be set aside solely for absorbing or softening the event when it occurs, what is a good sum to set aside for such things, generally? Any examples, anyone?

Is the expense of "authority" set by each state, or by the FEDs, and what exactly is an "authority"?

 

I don't have any sympathy or concern for those dumb enough to give away their labor and their capital investment and can't think in terms of keeping current in technology which is very costly and the budgeting (depreciation) required. Anybody willing to get into a business where new equipment (power) can easily top $150k and will run for rates that wouldn't even support equipment where there was no note or interest desrves to fail ... slowly or in a free-fall crash, it doesn't matter. The sooner they fail and stop messing with the market with their unfounded cheap acceptance rates, the better.

 

You act like being an O/O is free and everything earned is pure income.

 

Why be a company driver?

1) I get a new truck every three years, if I want one.
2) I like the fact that after a full week of driving I don't have to spend my weekend under a truck to working on it, chasing parts, doing paperwork, lining up loads or chasing downs guys who owe me money.
3) When I decide I am done with my driving career I will just clean my truck out and move on to the next thing, not worry about if someone will buy my truck and trailer from me.
4) If the motor blows up or transmission pukes all I have to do is dial the phone and scream "It is broken, fix it", not worry about how I am going to pay for it.
5) I can take three weeks vacation and still get a paycheck every week.
6) I pay $40 a week for health, vision, and dental insurance.
7) Paid Holidays at $160 each
8) If there is me and 2 owner operators from my company unloaded in the same place guess who gets first pick of loads home?
9) And here is the biggest reason. At the end of the year when I divided ALL miles driven by total pay it came out to $.75 a mile. I don't think I could do that as an owner operator.

Now, don't get me wrong, I honestly looked at being a owner operator about four years ago and after running the numbers for the work and time involved it isn't worth it to me. One of our company drivers became an owner operator two years ago and his honest opinion is " In the end I make a little more then when I was a company driver and I drive a fancier truck, but there is a lot more time and stress involved".

 

Great points Jumbo.

 

Too many don't know [or establish] the difference between "profit" and "reasonable salary" and often interchange the two and/or treat them as one in the same. "You mean the $800 I advanced myself at the casino comes out of my trucking profit? There was $3000 in the bank account ... WTF? What does gambling and trucking have to do with one another?"

I know not all owner-operators think like this, but alas, I get the feeling many do. Too many can not manage money and have no concept of saving or budgeting. They have lived their whole live paycheck to paycheck and they assume you can be an o-o on the same concept.

 

But the fact that you SHOULD be building at least a little equity (value) in your equipment should help make the additional time and stress worth it. If you're not building equity, you've done something wrong in the beginning or you're doing something wrong, ongoing.