Taking the plunge. My journey as an O/O.

And you want to trade in already?

 

Yeah, what's wrong with that? lol

 

There you go........

 

I wasn’t putting anyone down for trying to work for themselves but when you can make lots more money working for someone else and no headaches at some point you pull the plug and go to a company. Cobb vantress has drivers making 80+ a year and they don’t usually work 4 maybe 5 days a week. It’s team driving though. I wouldn’t do it myself but some people don’t mind it. Theirs lots of places that pay good money and full benefits. He’s not making any money at 1.35 a mile. It doesn’t take a math whiz to figure that out. If he doesn’t have any breakdowns he will show some profit but as you can see breakdowns happen. Yea sure some lease purchasers have made it but at what cost? He could work at a good paying place for 4-5 years and pay cash for a truck. Not everyone is going to have their own business. It’s just they way it is. I just can’t stand to see people get screwed by these Megas and that’s all he’s getting. I hope him the best.

 

Man I have been fd so many times, whenever I walked into a shop I would start uncontrollably squinting my eyes and stuttering. Lol. Had to take matters into my own hands. It's all you can do. Live and learn kind of thing.

 

No. Crete is where I am starting, not where I plan to be. Right now, Crete is giving me plenty of miles and I'm easily paying all my bills and living comfortably. Once the truck note is paid off, I will begin looking elsewhere - probably either Landstar or Schneider Select, where I can use their load boards.

I was planning on doing this earlier this year, but an engine rebuild and several other not-insignificant mandatory repairs threw me back more than half a year on the plans.

 

At this point I am not learning a great deal, true, but I have not paid off the truck, and Crete is still giving me plenty of miles to pay the note and pay myself.

When the note is paid, I will start to look to move to a different company where I can use their load boards. That's been the plan since day 1, though paying off the note was severely delayed due to an engine rebuild at the end of last year.

 

Most people will find it very difficult to buy a new truck as their first truck. I looked into it. I could have done it, but the offered rates were... not anything I'd accept.

After dealing with a used truck for a year and a half now, I can tell you that my next truck will be either new, or with less than 100k miles and lots of MFG warranty on it.

Used mega trucks are abused and maintenance badly deferred. Then the new owner gets it and everything starts to fall apart.

Better to buy new and only pay for routine maintenance, and let the dealerships fix all the things that break. Since the mega-model is what they sell their trucks into mostly, the trucks are engineered to go 400-500k with few problems.

So, the best o/o business model for new trucks, if you can get decent financing, is to do it the way the megas do. Once you get to 400-500k miles, sell it or trade it in on a new truck.

That's my future plan, but I've put so much money into this truck at this point that I'm going to stay in it for at least another year or so, even after it's paid off, unless something fails catastrophically.

 

After the engine rebuild, you can stay in it for another 5 years. Rear ends should be fine, all you will need to do is tranny and clutch for about $6k (if you don't go to a dealer of course) and then wear and tear items (brakes, air bags, shocks, starter, generator, e. t. c).

 

Clutch was already done as well, LOL, just a couple months ago.