Some numbers for new O/O

I'd be shocked if they paid for registration and all insurance, they have to pay UCR, maybe I guess they could pay 2290?
whatever the case it ain't making up for the thousands/week lost compared to even a not great % rate. AIUI they have a few different rates for different distances, and $1.75 is the highest, for shorter hauls. The long hauls are less.

I cannot imagine something Crete could possibly do to make it economically competitive with what I'm doing. I don't think what I'm doing (nearby mid size carrier with their own customers and trailers that just use O/Os) is anything special, it's just not bottom of the barrel leasing onto a company with nothing to offer except taking a cut of spot market freight you could've gotten on your own. Or, god forbid, lease-purchasing.

those things you mentioned are like, maybe $6k/year? In two or three weeks running a normal %age at almost anywhere would beat that to death, let alone 45, or even 52 weeks.

Ok I guess insurance is more than that but I guarantee you those guys are paying for insurance. And if they're getting REALLY cheap insurance, what I'm doing is apples to apples anyways and beats it still. I'm at like $6k/year for insurance right now because I don't pay the freight side of it/trailer interchange and the company has a good record. Whenever I get my own authority obviously it'll have to net ahead of what I'm doing now in terms of increased cost vs increased revenue. I don't think it would've up front and going out of business isn't an option I want to entertain so I did the slightly lower risk approach.
That's the upside to leasing on. But if your rates are that low, like $1.75 MAX, you're in a whole new type of risk and it isn't worth it anymore