Without getting too much into detail, I have had a financial event and have the ability to purchase my own Truck without having a truck payment. I've been doing Company Driver for 3.5 years now, local, LTL, home daily. Can anyone on here get me some realistic info on if Purchasing my own truck, with zero truck payment, and running Shipping containers out of Charleston SC and let me know if it is profitable? I do not want to throw good money away at being an OO if the payout isn't worth it. How much could a Local OO make, realistically, if they were pulling shipping containers out of a port, with no truck payments.
Stay away from the ports no money in it. If getting your own auth is too pricy with insurance find a reputable company to lease on to. The rates are pretty much what they were 30 years ago pulling cans
I doubt containers will be worth it. There is a pilot closer to the city? Next to a fleet pride, or some other truck supply place. Go talk to those guys, driver, OOs, and see what they say. Containers can be real heavy. If buy used it can go real well or real bad with truck repairs.
If you have tank, hazmat and twic Boasso America did good out of Charleston SC, they off of Sewanee rd. They do out one day back the next. Other then that I’d stay away from intermodal work and I did it for 4.5 years
I worked for an intermodal company one time as a company driver. The 0/0's were all decent people, but very poor. Talk to real estate agent about buying rental property and also manage it for you, so you don't have to deal with anything except check your bank account each month. Dozens of drivers on this forum have rental property. Later you can become an 0/0 and always have that rental income as a backup plan.
I concur with taking the money and going into real estate. Whatever truck you buy is only going to depreciate. Whatever property you buy is only going to appreciate. But if you must, get your own authority and get your own trailer or at least lease onto some company where you can actually make money. Containers are the bottom of the barrel. Buying a truck in cash so that you can pull containers is like buying a Ferrari so that you can go out with crack hores.
I looked into real estate years ago, it’s more regulated then trucking on what you can/cannot do with property you paid for...
Just because you don't have a truck payment doesn't eliminate that type of expense. You are running a business so you will still need to be putting a significant amount aside for eventual equipment replacement. This is in addition to what you are setting aside every week/month for maintenance, tires etc.