please explain Owner Operator why lease to a company?

Thanks all for the information in this thread. I have a semi-related question; If you are leased to a company as an O/O with your own truck, can you take time off whenever you want? Or is that only when you run your own truck and trailer completely under your own authority?

 

40---> are those numbers being leased to Landstar or with your own authority/being leased?

 

Was wondering the same, you beat me to it.

 

Mercer -vs- Landstar BCO....
Is the main difference, you search for your loads on their board with Landstar instead of having a dispatcher at Mercer telling you your options after each delivery?

 

Really? As a Mercer Driver, let me tell you the real deal.
At mercer we don't have a dispatcher telling us our options. We have a load board very similiar to Landstar. At Mercer we have Coodinators(like dispatchers) that will take care of most things for you like calling agents if you want. Some of us don't use the coodinators.
At Mercer, we have a first empty, first in the area gets the load vs. at landstar you have to call the individual agents and first call gets or who the agent decides gets the load. All mercer agents make the same on loads, not more if they are brokered out like Landstar.

At Mercer and Landstar you can take time off anytime you want, practically without notice and nobody seems to care.

 

Ok, I thank you for that!
That's why I love these forums, you learn things that you wouldn't, even if you read a company's website from top to bottom (which I did... Landstar and Mercer)

 

So....One can be profitable as an L/O?....

Seems to me...Almost all the bennies of an O/O with an O/A without the headaches?...

 

I'm a L/O ( lease operator ) not a LPO ( lease purchase operator )

I make roughly $1.52 a running mile ( loaded and empty )
plate is paid by carrier
I get extra for hazmat 0.06-0.08 depending on where it goes
I also get a 0.04 bonus for safety and on time delivery

so you could say I make
$1.56 all miles
1.62-1.64 if Hazmat
then throw in at least 0.01 for the plate

I also get detention after 2hrs at most all customers at $30.00 a hr

I think my lease is pretty solid

 

2013 was $1.97 all hub miles.
2012 was $2.24 all hub miles.
2011 was $1.87 all hub miles.
I do lots of dead heading, and haul oversize loads, leased to a carrier pulling their trailer. No trailer rental etc, just my % to pay for me and the truck, and thats it.

Martin

 

Is there any benefit to getting your own authority and than leasing into a larger carrier? I would assume no need to wait 30-45 days for broker pay..? Pros cons..?