Owner Operator, no experiance.

Ridgeline I understand your feelings but not all people that are owner operators do badly. I make a lot more REAL money as an O/O then I would as a company driver.. Everyone have different situation. If you prefer being a company driver that's great

 

I would learn on someone else's dime for a year. It's not for everyone. You don't like it you walk away with no debt. You can always get in, but you can't always get out.

 

Dude, I get what you are saying but I am against failure.

I know I am the odd man out here, but I also see a lot more crap in this industry than an Owner Operator and it irks me to see people wanting to get into this without experience of some sort or another and risk a crash and burn.

Right now I read this past month the failure rate is really high, something like 65% of all O/Os seem to fail. I won't put all the reasons why, but one is over extending themselves, another has to do with lack of business experience.

Most of you don't get this but we all suffer with a high failure rate, owners trying to keep above water by taking sub-standard revenue loads or not keeping their trucks up first and paying themselves last. Our rates are rising but it has something like 15% increase just to bring it up to the rate it should have been before 2009, not today's needed rate.

I look at it this way, even if I sound like a broken record and get bashed for my comments, if it makes a few people think, prepare right and become successful with my words in the back of their head, then I did my job of helping.

by the way I am not a company driver, I have a few drivers and out of the truck for the rest of my life.

 

Guys must be really bored to start threads like this, it's getting so redundant and silly.

 

Im curious, what is it that you want to hear? You already know what you need to hear and members told you what you did not want to hear. Have you noticed that there is no LISTENING, just hearing.

And so, I listen. I listened to you even though you told everyone who is already at where you want to be that you will not listen. You have my attention...tell me what it is that you want to hear and I will tell you.

"Six, I want to know if i can lease on to a place with zero experience?"

No. Not that I know of. Sorry. Any other questions?

 

Imagine going to school for an education and telling the teacher that your goal is to own and operate an ice cream stand (lofty dreams as kids, right?) and how you only want to learn about things that will help you with your goal. The teacher no doubtly will put you high on the list as a probable failure in life.

It would gave been so much more advantageous to say, "Mr Ridgeline, I would like to be a successful owner op, a successful business owner. This is my goal...how should I go about getting there?

 

Drive for someone for 6 months just to learn driving and then go on your own. The most important thing is to get a good truck and know a good local mechanic, which can be trusted, since it looks like you don't do your own wrenching.
Having business experience and a lot of common.sense, is more important than being a driver for 10 years.
I went on my own after 8 months of being a company driver. Did I make mistakes? Hell yeah! But you don't learn business being a company driver. Being a cook for 10 years vs 1 year, won't necessarily make you a better restaurant owner. Honestly, I gained tonn of knowledge from this forum, keep reading all the o/o threads and you will know more, than a driver who has been on the road for 10 years

 

You won't learn the business side of it as company driver either you'll just figure out if you actually can live as a truck driver. I'd be fired if I worked for somebody else the first time they tell me I gotta take that load going the opposite way from home on Friday afternoon

 

You wont learn ALL the business side of trucking being a company driver, but you do learn.

Had a friend that was given $100grand by his father to start a coffee shop downtown. early 90's when Starbuck was a character on Battlestar Galactica. It was a hit! It was the only coffee shop in the area. Every morning, people were lined up around the block. Every single morning. Money just rolled in.
My friend, however, after a few months, shut the place down because, "I don't do mornings and I am tired of getting up at 4am!"

Guess what he never learned? The basics. If you are going to work at a coffee shop, when is the busiest time? He should have been able to "do mornings" BEFORE he ever thought about starting a business.

Most people come in to the business because it looks easy and "it's just driving." And usually, they're out before they even pay off their school loans. What happened? After all, it's just driving, right? Riiiiiight. "I missed my family...couldn't stand being away." (translated: I miss my mommy and mommy tucking me in!). What are the basics in trucking? Ever notice that the vast majority have accidents within their first month of solo driving? What would happen to a rookie owner operator who keeps hitting stuff. We all know that the megas are self insured because of so many accidents. What would happen to an owner operator at a decent company that kept screwing up?

"But Six, I'm different. I have a degree! I would have hired someone to run that coffee shop for me."

Are you kidding? The people you want to meet and talk to come in there every single day. I want to know them by name. I want their business. I want them on speed dial. There's much more to good business than numbers and stats.