Owner Operators, who’s in and who’s out? (poll)

Bridgestone has been 2 sets and one set of Firestone before this set. So average about 130K on each set so far. I was running all with 100-115 PSI. I am gonna run these at 120 PSI and see if it works better. The last set of Bridgestones had plenty of tread on them but had delaminated on the edges on both tires. I thought I hit something on the passenger side and made that happen but a days later the driver side did the something. They no longer make that version of tire so gonna guess I had the last run or they started to have issues with them and stopped production.

The ones I got put on yesterday is Firestone FS509's and was a little les then $450. If I remember right I got about the same out of them as I did the Bridgestones. They are about $200 cheaper than the Bridgestones, the place I got the tires did not have the newer Bridgestones I was gonna try out so I just went with these. Might be the last set I put on here before I sale the truck so not to big of a deal. I would also like to try out the newest Michelin X Line's that just came out this year.

 

My last Volvo I had no luck at all with Michelin tires. So on this truck I have never ran any of them, maybe they are better now but I had terrible luck with them.

 

Have you tried the newest Michelin X Line tires. I think they are XLINE ENERGY T2. If I decide to keep this or buy new next time I want to spec those out. They look pretty nice and love the drive tires as well that match.

 

I still only run xze on the steers, but I do like these Toyos on the drives,

 

And another miserable company driver dreaming to be a big trucker with his own numbers:

 

I'm not sure what your point is. That everyone should be a company driver with a good company just because they are a good company?

There are lots of reasons people want to run their own numbers, and lots of them, me included, don't care what any company is paying or 'what you have to do to get it' as he says.

I worked for a big company for 25 years. Now I run my own. For my reasons.

This guy is happy where he is, for his reasons.

 

Some big time truckers here are making a lot of fun for guys like this one. And there's nothing funny about it.

This guy is doing much better without taking any risk than 99%+ of the people here. And that's not right. Just found his video couple days ago.

These big time truckers don't drive vans or reefers, probably not flatbeds, so the tide hasn't reach them so far. But it will reach them sooner or later.

 

Tough to draw a comparison to a private fleet driver.

I will say before I leased to FCC my time was spent leased to carriers with specialized freight. I did better hauling livestock, food grade pneumatic, hauling livestock feed, and doing pad wrap loads than a lot of guys running their own numbers chasing spot freight.

I don’t understand the negativity. If someone is happy with the results they’re getting and can have the lifestyle they want then who are you or anyone else to say they’re not doing it correctly? I know guys grossing over $400k doing hazmat and I know guys leased to the same company who work less than half the year and gross $250k. If someone is happy then it doesn’t matter. If someone is constantly miserable then maybe it’s time to look at other options.

 

How do you don't see the negativity? A big portion of the industry has been hijacked. Is that ok with you?

 

What’s your solution? Sitting around whining doesn’t accomplish anything. The segments that have been “hikacked” are the easiest to get in. If you don’t like it then change your operation. Or get out. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.