Owner Operator with a new truck

Estimated salaries (profits) are going to be all over the board. A guy running for $1.80 - $2.00/mile is gonna make a lot more money than somebody leased to a mega at .90+fsc.

On a new truck, you're gonna want to figure .30/mi for truck payments. At current fuel prices .40-.45/mile, so you .75/mile right there. Fuel and truck payments will be your biggest expenses, but there are plenty of small ones as well. You need to find one of the cost per mile worksheets and play around with the numbers using new vs used equipment.

FWIW, an experienced owner operator could go out and buy a new truck and make it work. But just starting out, you'll be building yourself quite a hurdle to clear with that big payment. I personally believe that a newer truck is great if you KNOW how to turn a profit with it. For a new guy, that $500-$1000 payment is gonna be a lot easier to manage during the learning curve than a $2500 payment.

It all depends on exactly how much you have saved up and I'm not talking about a few thousand. You need to have several thousand just to float the slow months and the bad choices. Learning curves always take a turn through your wallet. Never, ever think it wont.

 

Sixty grand is actually on the thin side to do it right. And that's not including the truck or trailer.

Take out all your start up costs, including plates and insurance, factor in the time from your first expense to your first load. now run that truck for up to 45 days before the checks start rolling in. You're looking at 15k minimum just in fuel and driver wages. do the math and you will see that 60k is not a high figure at all.

 

OP, are you wanting to buy a truck and start with your own authority or lease it to a carrier?

 

Imo don't factor. Use quick pay from brokers if you need it. I figure high $0.25/mile on maintenance. New carrier plates plus insurance could be $15,000 a year. $1,500 truck payment (if not paid off and used not new, $18k/year). If 6 mpg at $2.25/gallon that's $0.375. That's basics and no income tax or drivers wage. Figure you take $750 a week self pay that's $39k. Add all that up and that's $1.075 based on 10k miles a month. Bigger payments will be higher. Trucking is expensive. Just remember you gotta budget even if seem like you have big surplus just remember what complete engine rebuild cost. It's not if stuff will break its when.

 

$60k is a fair number. $30 for the truck (down payment or older truck outright), $5-10k for insurance and setting up the business and authority, the rest for operating expenses and maintenance. Anything less and you're one good breakdown away from either going in dept or out of business. Also what if a shipper doesn't pay you for a month or two? That's what the extra money if for. Of course you could pull it all off on credit alone if things work properly but they never do and it makes you less profitable.

 

I'd just get a local job... But if you're set on doing it it depends on your mechanical ability. If you can do everything including inframes then definitely used. If you can't new might work better for you. Also if you run local and have a good mechanic used can work well too.

 

Personally, I would suggest leasing to a carrier at first. Let them deal with the headaches of collecting the money, finding the customers etc. Problem is, if you don't have driving experience. Most are gonna want not at least a year of experience.

 

What kind of trucking do you want to do? Flatbed, van, refrigerated?

I would actually suggest that you drive for someone else for a year no matter what. Do your research and get a job with decent sized company that hauls whatever you would like to haul once you have your own truck. Driven their truck and track the expenses on it just like you owned it. At the end of that first year, you'll have a much better understanding of the business side of it. You'll also know whether or not you want to continue. It's a LOT easier to get out of THEIR truck and go back to a previous career than it is to get out from under a truck payment.