New owner operator, Lease or Own authority?

Lease on with a company under percentage. Like Eighty something to you with or without trailer. And get a whiff of it first, think about it and move on if you feel like it's worth it. Depending on the lane and equipment, I think the market is trash right now until a few more months.

 

As a lease opperator they normally want a year or two to lease on. At least for a decent company.

 

You are going to need much more than 15k to get your authority. A good amount needed to start with your own authority is 50k. I did it with a fully paid truck and 40k. I did not need any loans, but I did need financing for my new reefer trailer.

Most people start the owner operator journey by leasing onto a company like Prime, Landstar, etc. It’s not a bad move. It’s best to take it in stages and move up when you are ready. Moving too quickly in business can bankrupt you. Gain enough experience, seek out knowledge about trucking/business, and save lots of money. Everything else will fall in place.

Getting your own authority will certainly give you more freedom, but it may not be what people are thinking. You can force a schedule or route with your own authority, but that will usually come at a cost. Even the folks that I know who run locally are not exactly your typical local driver with a stable schedule and home every night. Getting your own authority involves lots of sacrifice and hard work.

 

I started my authority with $10,000 and thats down payment for insurance, truck, trailer, and all documents and plates

 

Sure, lots of people do it with less money, but that is why the internet is flooded with horror stories when they started their own authority. It doesn’t have to be that way. I never had problems with not having enough money to cover my business expenses involving fuel, insurance, trailer, repairs, and a whole lot of other small expenses. I have spoken with so many people in person who have told me they used to have their authority, this and that. After listening to them, it almost always comes down to not having enough money to fund the startup business.

 

Honestly, if you don't know the answer, you don't need to own. Simple as that.
Best of luck.

 

How did you put fuel in your truck? Have you not had any major repairs? Somehow I highly doubt you did it with truly only 10k for everything. You had to have access to other funds.

 

Pay no attention to these naysayers, Singh! They're just trying to keep you from getting your piece of the American pie!

Heck, you're only making 5k to 6k a month as a company driver? That's peanuts!

L.A. is a great big city, put a hundred down and buy a truck! LOL

 

He was stating how did I start my own authority... starting as in Paying for everything up front... not buying fuel for months on end... of course ive had break downs and of course i've bought fuel...

 

I'm not saying that you will fail. I'm saying that the ODDS are that you will fail. The only way to put the odds in your favor is with plenty of experience and more money.

Honestly with only that amount of time under your belt, I don't know if an insurance company would even insure you for your own authority. And if they do it might be some crazy number like 30 or $40,000. I don't think there is anywhere that we lease you on with only 6 months either.

You state that you can't keep going on only making 5 and $6,000 a month. First of all that's pretty good money for Where You Are.

Second of all have you ever run a business? There are going to be plenty of times that you make zero. Zero as in nothing as in you worked and worked and worked and you had an expense to pay or maybe you didn't get paid at all and you got stuck, and for that week or that month you don't go out you don't party you don't live the Finer Things in life. And in fact the reality is that you just don't live the Finer Things at all because when you get a paycheck you can do whatever you want to do with it. When it's your own business that money has to be reinvested because you may not need it today but tomorrow you will, and you really don't know in the end what you are going to make except that if you buy a Corvette or you live like you are making 10 or $15,000 a month you most certainly will go broke. It takes time with your own business to get on your feet and be able to realize what money is actually yours. Just because money comes in does not mean that you are making money. In the meantime it's just a slippery slope that you need to keep every penny and you would be much more financially restrained than you are now. And when you figure what it actually costs you when you break down, when your insurance payments keep coming, and you have to pay for the repair, and pay for your house bills and whatever else, driving for someone else actually gives you more freedom in that way.

What I'm trying to say to you is as an employee you have a lot more freedom to spend your money. If money is your goal there are jobs out there driving that you can make $100,000 a year.

I believe anyone can do whatever they set out to do if they have a good enough plan and they are disciplined. But if right now you can't take it and you can't survive making 5 and $6,000 a month steadily, you'll never make it with the ups and downs of what this industry will do to you with your own truck, with very little to no money, and very little experience.

And also I think most owner operators take as small of a salary as they possibly can and the rest stays for whatever is needed.

if you are making 12 to $1,500 a week, and you think by buying a truck you're going to be taking two thousand and $2,500 a week for yourself no no no no no no no no.

If that were the case you wouldn't even make it a year.

Maybe I don't understand you and maybe you are willing to do all the sacrifices needed I don't know. But there is a reason why the failure rate in this industry is so outrageously high.
Best advice I can give you is read through the owner operator section how people started up and the problems encountered and read through the mechanics section with all the expenses and costs and downtime these lousy junkie trucks are costing people now.

Good luck.