Okay, so I bought a used truck from Crete Carrier.

Hi,

I do still get emails when someone replies to this thread. Sorry for the slow reply; I just don't make it by here more than once every couple of months.

Things did work out okay for me at Crete until spring of 2012, when most of the productivity metrics dropped like a stone. Fortunately, I had saved up while times were good and was able to get a loan elsewhere, pay off the truck loan at Capitol Casualty, and take my truck over to Landstar. The truck itself started nickel and diming me to death with small (and a few not-so-small) repairs in 2013, so I made the biggest mistake of my trucking career: I traded in that Century on a 2009 Prostar. Then I went and financed a Dynasys APU. Don't ever do that. If you want an APU, go with Thermo King or Carrier. They have the dealer network to be able to service their products without waiting a month for parts or trying to route yourself through the only dealer in 500 miles that can do warranty work.

Anyway, here's what I would NOT do, knowing what I know now:

1. Work for Crete again. They treated me fairly while I was a company driver, and all my interactions with Deb Maloy (Crete's Contractor Relations person) were positive. But I have discovered the joys of percentage pay and choosing my own loads (something that Crete once did, sort of, with Load Select, but doesn't do anymore at all)
2. Lease a truck from a carrier, or finance a truck through a carrier. If your source for revenue is the same as the debtor you owe for your truck, that entity has you by the proverbial short and curlies. You'll be in a position of "if you don't do as we say, we can make your life hell." Even if they don't do that to you, the possibility will be hanging over your head like the Sword of Damocles.
3. Buy a truck with an engine made after 2003. DPF is the DEBBIL! I have one, and I got my first DPF horror story less than a month after taking possession of my Prostar. Fuel mileage is constantly in the crapper, and thus profit is always less than optimal. Unless you *live* in California, do not buy a California compliant truck. If you do live in California and want to be an owner-operator, I strongly suggest you consider a move to any of the other 47 contiguous states rather than the purchase of a California emissions compliant truck.

There's more, but that about hits the high points. I'd gladly give $10,000 to be out from under this Prostar and back in the paid-for Century I traded in on it.

I now have my own dry van trailer too. Once the Prostar is paid for, I plan to sell it and either find me an older FLD for next to nothing to spend some money fixing up, or go up to Fitzgerald's for a glider kit like the one jdrentzjr just recently bought. I am sooooo over emissions engines. Then it'll be time to save up for the startup costs for getting my own authority - and the operating money to run my business and my household until accounts receivable start getting received

Hope that helps!