Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

I worked as a company driver before and after I did the OO thing, and for the same personal income I’d rather go back to running my own truck. I had insurance through my wife's employer and put my own money into 401k.
One good thing about the timing of when I sold my equipment was I went into cardiac arrest in October 2022, and had open heart surgery a year later. I was lucky to be working somewhere that had enough PTO to keep the paychecks coming while recovering.

 

A common theme amongst the successful L/O and O/O that post on here is "I have health coverage through the VA/spouse". Say you'd still been an O/O when you had your health issues - would your business have survived?

In my opinion, health insurance is one of the most ignored data points when comparing a company job to 'owning' a truck.

 

The spot market is full of guys with the same attitude. That’s why the spot market rates stay cheap. As long as guys are happy making the same as a company driver it will never change.

 

I don’t think it will ever change that much. The Spot market is primarily carrier rejections, just overages that need to be covered. When carriers aren’t rejecting much freight and have the capacity for their customer, there is less need for the Spot market. -In other words, Services are not needed. It doesn’t matter what you’re operating costs are, The Spot market carriers services have little value when this happens. Expectations of utilizing the Spot market as primary income doesn’t really make sense. There’s not much stability. It’s amazing to me how many owner ops just go for the Spot market and want to self dispatch. They believe they’re getting freedom but in the end they are really getting sloppy seconds. - Then pushed aside until a load is available. Then all the sudden whole bunch of these owner ops are fighting for the one load. Getting a load off the load board it’s like going thru a pimp to find love. You never know what’s gonna happen. It might work a time or two, but you’re better off finding real love by doing the hard work. I’m not sitting on a high horse here, I use the spot market. It gets me back from where ever I deliver my customers freight. I just don’t see it stable enough to run a business. If it was, we wouldn’t see so many complaints in this thread on the Spot market.

 

my health insurance is $522 a month, it gets budgeted accordingly

 

It’s a good question and I’ll never know the answer. That would’ve been 4 years in.

Do many guys start off hauling contract loads and not cut their teeth on the spot market? I imagine most guys get some experience under their belt then specialize in one certain area, like oversize or HAZMAT. I want from hauling explosives for a company and went on my own as flatbedder.

 

Everyone has their own story. Some guys start off working on the spot market, then move to something else. Some start out with a customer from the get go. You can go bankrupt on both ends. The thing is, driving a truck has a little to do with being somewhat successful out here. You have to be big on sales. If you don’t wanna be a salesman then it’s best to lease on to an outfit that has a sales team. A successful sales team figures out how they can most benefit their customer and get the customer to give them an opportunity. You must demonstrate to your customer that you can deliver their product, more efficiently then the competition. You’re nothing but spam. It’s not about what works for the owner operator. The owner operator matters not. it doesn’t matter what lane you like to run or what kind of loads you like to haul. There are plenty of trucking companies out there that are willing to do everything for the customer. So if you have a limitation, you’re not worth giving an opportunity to serve. SERVE. The biggest reason why guys got a business is they don’t know how to serve. This becomes apparent when times get tight. Same thing holds true to our own operator leasing onto a company that is got their things in order. If you are not serving that company, you’re not gonna make money. You will be put on the back burner or just let go.

 

I pay just over 400 a month. No cheaper thru my company either.

 

Mine was right at $600 and finally just said hell with it. It just is not worth it for the amount they cover and how much I had to fight to get anything done. Never would pay for an MRI I have tried to get for 3 years I was on it. Pretty sad,maybe it will change in the next year or so and I will try again.

 

Mine's $329.