So you want to "own " your own company

Dave, I would suggest you decide on a name and go ahead and incorporate prior to applying for authority. Otherwise, you will need to pay an additional fee for a name change. I have had C-corp and S-corp. There is also the LLC. I have not had an LLC. I think the S-corp works best for the small company with limited stockholders. Profits are taxes like proprietorship under a S-corp. You will need to apply for the S-election with the IRS. No one will know which you have other than the IRS. The primary difference is in how you are taxed.

 

Great info on this thread.

I'm new to the industry and this forum.

I've been receiving automated emails from a site called 'trucking truth', the website distributes/propagates info about the transportation industry as a way of his webpage promotion.

The owner of this site has sent something that may be a bit controversial regarding being an O/O, and I thought, who better to ask than experienced, successful Owner Operators on this forum.

Brett Aquila (website owner), sounds like a colorful nice guy, and much of what he writes makes sense, but this particular article kinda made me question his veracity, does he have an agenda maybe or just a bad experience? Much of what he writes seems to be true, but from a very biased perspective.

Anyways, would any experience O/O's be able to comment on this article?

http://www.truckingtruth.com/trucki...ure-thinking-about-becoming-an-owner-operator


Thanks.

 

I think he has a myopic view of the industry and gives himself way too much credit regarding his knowledge of business. There's a lot wrong about what he posted in that blog. Its a reflection of how little he apparently knows about business. He even admits he's never owned a truck or has any plans to do so. He should stick to writing about what he knows more about: being a company driver.

Creating profit as an owner operator comes from managing costs and offering service better, more efficiently, and/or more innovative than larger carriers can. Simple as that. Somehow you have to create value that doesn't exist, or may cost too much, from the likes of larger players in the market (Prime, Swift, JBH, etc).

In fact, his example of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (NYSE: KKD) doesn't support his premise at all. It's obviously anecdotal and not based on facts, easily found with about 2 minutes of internet browsing. The KKD business strategy is a lot more sophisticated than hawking doughnuts at a commodity price point. Aside from a unique product (recipe) and retail locations where you can buy them fresh straight out of the grease, they are leveraging and improving their supply chain model to improve distribution and reduce costs. Wild fluctuations in their stock price that occurred 2001-2004 were largely a product of irrational valuation and short sellers (day traders). It had little to do with company performance, as during that period, they performed close to guidance published in their SEC filings. The link is to a blog post from May 28, 2004, around the time of an extraordinary drop in KKD stock price.

 

he completely lost me here

not for nuttin, but how can someone who never even tried being an owner operator even remotely attempt to comment on it
(mind you, i have never been a drug dealer, but no matter what the rewards, i can definitively say, it is not worth the risk)

however, he says you cannot make a dime being an owner operator, i am sure there are about 30 guys on this forum that would vehemently disagree with that

so i would not take anything else he says

 

Makes sense.


He mentioned one advantage the big players have over the smaller fleets are their volume discounts on repairs, fuel, parts etc. how big of an edge is this? Haven't been able to find anything on the forums about this.


Also, I called Kriska Transportation out of Ontario, Canada regarding pre-hire, a few days ago, and honey lips (aka:recruiter) mentioned that they have the loads and the trucks, they just don't have the drivers, the trucks are just sitting there. And these guys offer .435 cpm fresh out gate, benefits... also read some posts from their drivers on a Canadian forum just to vett these guys, they're happy, 10-12,000 miles a month, relatively consistent, no issues with dispatch, regional, paid waiting, looks legit. So if a relatively good medium size carrier with all these benefits, decent start pay, and bonuses is having issues with driver retention...I'll ask the question another way:

Are there any posts on here about O/O's successfully hiring and retaining drivers to expanding their 1 truck operation into 2,3, and 4 mico-fleet?

Any info would be appreciated.

 

Whiteline pays 86 net home everyday weekends off. 72%

 

What is there per mile pay like

 

Avg out 1.86 mi 2.00 mi. They will run you however you want. Best part you work for the shipper . No middle man.

 

What is there website?

 

I've been off the road almost 15 years and I've decided to try it again. I don't like the 9 to 5 life and quite frankly, I don't care much for people. But, I gave it a good try and now I want to go back to driving. I know things aren't the same as when I started back in the 80's, but I am willing to try it anyway. I would like to know if anyone knows of a small fleet owner that would be willing to let me lease on with no recent experience. I can drive fine, have over a million accident free miles, just not recently. Any help is appreciated