Should I take a chance and drive for O/O?

Thank you for the extremely helpful advice, it really is appreciated! Great post!

Addressing your points in order:

It's 48 state van, elogs w/Garmin Dezl. Sustainability of those numbers is my number 1 concern. He's insisting the freight is there, but I have my doubts in terms of how long it will be that way. He's telling me he's looking at light loads that are about to expire and capitalizing on "desperation factor." His big nut last week was a 3000# load, 800ish miles, 26 stops for $4400 delivering magazine racks to Walmart stores. Took him 1.5 days, spent 300 in fuel. He immediately got another load going 400 miles with 43,000# of cargo for $2200. Granted, these are anecdotal numbers and I don't expect them to be sustainable, but if it's half that good on the normal day, I'd still be way more interested in that over making some corporate fat cat even more rich.

I certainly do like the aspect of choosing my own destiny. I don't mind working hard, maxing out my clock every day. I spend almost no time in truck stops and rest areas except to eat, sleep, and ####. My wheels are nearly always rolling. Ideally, I'd like to run hard for 7-8 days, max my clock out, take 3-4 off, and repeat. If I can net 2000-3000/wk doing that, that's a win in my book.

Pay format we've talked about is percentage of ratecon. We haven't actually gotten to numbers yet (definitely on the docket), but I'd be using his DAC/ITS, fuel card, etc. Brokers pay him (the business) within 48 hours, he settles with me weekly after overhead and fuel. That's my ideal situation, assuming the accounting is on the up and up. Then my only headache is putting money aside for 1099 taxes.

Carrier packets are on him. I'll have to scan and send bills and such to him, but he's just adding me to his existing brokerage accounts. According to him, it's a 5 minute exercise for him to put together new carrier packets. He's got a premade package of info they all need, he just addresses it to whomever and sends it. From what he's told me, he's already got dozens filed and calling him every day to haul freight. Apparently that puts him in a position to be choosy with his loads.

From where I'm sitting, there is certainly a vibe of "too good to be true," but on the other hand, seems like a solid opportunity if it's even half of what is promised.

Thanks again for your advice, your comments were very helpful.

 

Exactly. I told him up front I have no interest in the truck or the expenses that come with it. He gets gross, takes out OpEx, CapEx, and some profit to roll back into the business, rest is mine. He's apparently got everything in a spreadsheet already and over the next two weeks he's going to crunch the numbers for how they look for a second truck and we'll talk hard numbers from there.

 

Me too. Of course that will be the deciding factor.

 

The wine and roses part I get for sure, I understand as a second I'm not likely to experience things the same way. If he's getting wine and roses, I'm only counting on beer and dandelions.

As far as I can surmise, he's taking nearly all the risk on himself. My only risk is not getting paid, at which point I give the truck back and go get another company driving job.

I'd be interested to know what kind of situation you're talking about in the dealing with other issues part and communicating as a third party. You talking about damages and safety issues? Those are concerns of mine, not sure how that will be handled yet.

I doubt it's a scam, like I said, he's a friend I've known for a year now and went through driver training school with, but I'd be interested to know what story you heard about if you're interested in elaborating over DM. If it was just some rando I met on the internet, I wouldn't even consider it, but we do have history. I know where he lives and he's never given me any reason to doubt anything he's told me up to this point. I know he's got a clean background since he went through all the same background checks I went through.