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

100% their fault.

 

I’ve had paid off equipment basically the whole time I’ve done this, just the way I was brought up, then, according to family, I went and lost my mind and financed a brand new 2025 reefer for 113k over 60 months,

and while I’d like to see the numbers over the year rather than 2 months, it’s been the cheapest trailer I’ve ran since I started doing this.

 

I don’t want to spiral into that debate but that’s been my experience with trucks as well

 

It was nice starting off, it doesn’t hurt to sit, but now I have 52 weeks worth of work, and a lot less things to worry about

 

I'm not going to sink to the level of responding to the one who never seems to constantly learn but I'll share my week without numbers. Why? Personal preference. Every now and then I break my own rule but I do not believe it wise to share numbers on this public forum. I think every time someone DOES share their good numbers 50 suckers start thinking about buying a truck. Those 50 suckers account for 90% of the #####*n' on this forum about how trucking is ruined by new entrants. I wish more people would consider this.

I left Monday morning with a solid run, around $3pm on a multi stop. Had all 5 stops done by Tuesday morning but put myself in a very bad spot (for me). Had to deadhead almost 150 miles to get a decent run Tuesday. Got lucky too! That's a lot of deadhead for me in my neck of the woods but it paid off. I turned up the heat on the calls and emails and scored.

That lucky run was to another marginal area where I again got lucky. Well, maybe not lucky. I again had to work the phones and email pretty hard. Got a really good one out of there (nowhere WV) with a Mom n Pop brokerage who was super happy to be working with someone who spoke their language (I don't mean this literally, but maybe figuratively AND literally). This one put me back close to home Thursday morning way above what I need to average per mile. I was, at that point, just looking for fuel money home.

Once again, I constantly learned what I already knew. Pissing and moaning doesn't work like calling and emailing and fighting hard. I got a decent run and guess what? It turned to crap. It wasn't ready and the broker wanted me to wait half the day to get loaded just for fuel money home or no TONU. I said look dude, if I find another run home in 30 minutes I'm not worried about your TONU. I had a goal and was ready to get home. I got another run for the same rate, took a couple of hours to find it and then ran it. Got home by 5 yesterday.

I'm exactly $1k less gross this week than some of my better weeks trucking and I'm happy with that.

What did I constantly learn? I learned that if you work the spot market hard it will provide.

Here's what I didn't do:
*I didn't wallow in self pity for more than about a minute and while I was I had my DAT alerts on in the background.
*I didn't take freight I didn't want for a rate that wasn't sustainable (by sustainable I mean averages out to a sustainable long term average)
*I didn't sit long in an area I knew wouldn't provide. I had a backup plan and stuck to it. Sometimes that backup plan includes saying F this and rolling home. I was close to that but didn't have to in the end.
*I didn't consider giving up and going to work for someone

I do this every week. I have for many years.

Is this a sustainable business? I have constantly learned this. It is as sustainable as a career with any company. I could go bankrupt tomorrow. So could they. There are no guarantees except that if you want it you'll always have to fight for it.

"Get busy livin' or get busy dyin'."

 

I’m deadheading 978 miles. But there is no point in wasting 3 days of my life in a truck stop waiting for a load that likely is not coming because I’m in a dead area.

 

I don't think everyone has to own a business to be successful. Nothing wrong with a being a employee.

Employees like a few here in this thread, they stand out to the good employers, and those guys are likely to go above and beyond anything a one man OO could make.

I hope those guys get lucky. I do think luck plays into it. 100%. But a guy has to stay in the game long enough to find that lucky time. They don't come around often, and a guy has to still be gettin after it to take advantage of it when it happens.

 

Oh, don't get me wrong Skateboard, I'm not knocking working for someone. Everyone has their reasons for the way they run. I worked for someone for an entire career before this one and miss a lot of things about it but it's just not what I want to do anymore, personally. My problem is that some people who constantly learn haven't learned that there's more than one way to do things.

Yes but you're specialized right? I'm a boring old freight haulin' dry van guy. 100 miles has been my deadhead threshold since day one and I've only broken it up to 200 miles or so a handful of times and maybe 500 twice in my career, and that's when I had to get home for something and times were really good.

I've got a good friend who thinks nothing of taking a specialized load across the country and deadheading 2500 miles back home. They are a team and still average out better than $3pm and are fine with it.

 

wow, its almost like a guy has to think through what hes doing when running a business. What a concept! The youtube crybabys wouldve sat in the dead area at a truckstop, fired up the camera and made a 4 hour long video about how the world is ending. Make sure to buy my tshirts and donate to my gofundme so i can afford fuel to get me back home... Lol

 

I can say with

yeah I am. 3-400 miles is common. 1,000 is not unheard of. I am still at 4.96 pm for the week. So I’m not crying. In fact I knew the whole time that I would probably be doing this and billed accordingly.

I think you can make money with any equipment, you just have to narrow your focus. A niche doesn’t necessarily mean specialized equipment. It could mean specific lane or region. You work that lane or region you learn the players, cycles, rates, etc then you capitalize on that by offering the best service. It’s impossible to do all that if you are just running wild. You don’t spend enough time in one spot the learn the market and you don’t work with people enough to build the reputation.

If you don’t focus you will never get top dollar.