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

Ah you didn't fail. You just went to something better.

 

Yeah I don't hate driving trucks I actually enjoy it. Every bit of it and no matter how much it's changed in the time I've been doing it. I wouldn't do anything else it's my happy place. A lot of people spend their whole working lives being miserable doing whatever they do but I ain't one of em. If I ever had to leave the cab permanently for medical or whatever I'd be devastated.

 

No, he did fail. And I mean him no disrespect, but facts are facts.

Failure is over stigmatized - it is only through acknowledging failure that we grow.

There's a guy I know who leased through SFI, then took the truck to Landstar, then Mercer, then became a company driver for a flatbed company, before returning to the mega that he left to do the SFI lease. At each turn his posts made him look like he was the Hero making the Smart Choice. He still thinks he was a successful O/O. He, Rollin Coal, and so many others made the same three mistakes:

• Not taking an honest accounting of the work/risk to reward ratio and comparing it to other options
• Not preparing to replace equipment
• Throwing good money after bad

During the 'boom times' when guys were on here posting their numbers, they never looked that good to me. Once you figure in the 401K match and health insurance, it looked like they were netting $5-10,000 more than I was as a mega company driver. When you'd ask about how they were planning for replacing their equipment you'd hear silence - especially from the guys running 'paid off equipment'. All that is fine, if they're happy then I'm happy for them - until we get to point number 3 where expenses exceed revenue. They keep trying to dig themselves out but only dig themselves in deeper which drives rates and wages lower for everyone.

I have much respect for Rollin Coal because he has openly and repeatedly has admitted his failures and detailed WHY he failed. He didn't just quietly stop posting and disappear, leaving a trail of "look at how much I've made" posts behind like so many others. I can think of a dozen of Esteemed Members who didn't have that integrity.

 

Out of curiosity what is the Golden Ticket company you are driving for now? I have given this one truck owner op deal 10 years and if things don’t get better soon (LOL) I may need a company job. It will need to be better pay than Buster Brown because that’s what I left 14 years ago to do this line of work. Just kidding the last truck I will ever drive has my name on the title.

 

Miller highlife is the choice of the supertrucker, no surprises here...

 

And what do you pay them, 50 cpm on 1099?

 

I disagree, the highly paid, slightly spoiled Super Truckers are currently drinking nothing but Bud Heavy in the Aluminum bottle! The glass bottles aren’t approved for pool drinking.

 

You should know the name of the company already, but I don't think the company will hire you, you're not qualified.

 

Ok right! Wink wink.

 

1099? How else would you pay an owner operator. They are not an employee they are a contractor that you require to have their own equipment.

Tell us you haven’t learned enough without telling us