Trying to get a truck , need some advice

This should answer the question if you should, NO you should not.

I know you are looking for justification for the move but don't.

 

If you gotta run anywhere near 6k miles a week as owner operator your running WAY to cheap.

The truck he's leasing you is junk, the trailer rental is beyond laughable.

Another disaster in the making. SMH

 

I would love to own my own, hopefully in 5+ years .... So not an O/O but I am a numbers guy who loves spreadsheets..... Because I have a desire to actually own more as way to get paid as a retired guy traveling country with my wife.... I've been tracking every load, including mileage, time, and weight hauled (ag often paid per ton), also been tracking all repairs and fuel used.... For over a year.

I'm a company driver in a new (had 86 miles when I got this rig) 2025 model KW W990. I use all this data so I can see what the real expenses and costs are for my future goals. What I've come to understand is that until I can put at least 50% down on tractor/trailer (New) and have at least $200k in the bank for fuel and repairs initially and then a very disciplined money management to ensure each payment received is divvied to ensure future repairs and costs, as well as replacing the rig at 400,000-500,000 miles.... The risks are too great to go O/O vs working with a great company with great rigs and competitive pay. I listened to a great podcast series I that I think was called "Hauling Assets" where the presenter actually started new as O/O and walked you thru everything he did for first year or two including steps, his costs, tips, lessons learned, mistakes made, and was very open with his books and balance sheets every week. Id recommend looking for that podcast and everyone here's advice.

 

I still don't see what the carrier will be paying you.

Running truck into the ground doing 6000 miles a week is not the brightest idea. Goal should be making as much money on as little miles as possible. It's very rare I do a load going more than a day away, often do two loads in a day.
There's so many benefits of running short runs to even list.
That's how I managed to survive even in terrible freight market.

If carrier is paying you by the mile then that's whole difficult ballgame. Most likely a terrible one at that.

 

Well I can tell you right off the bat that you are getting fleeced on that trailer rental. You can rent a trailer yourself for 1/3 of that price.

 

Let me tell you my experience with just such a company, from about 20 years ago (this will be long, BTW):

The company I worked for did just this. They were an amalgamation of I believe 4 smaller companies who came together to form a nation-wide carrier of sorts. We had more than 500 power units, and some 2500 trailers. One constituent company (which was about 30% of the combined corporation) had a fleet of Freightliners with Detroit series 60 motors and Fuller 10-speeds. This company had been teetering on the edge of bankruptcy for a couple of years, and had 'deferred' most maintenance. Most of these units had 600k-750k. I worked as a road breakdown agent, so I saw which ones had a history of problems, plus which ones had gone without regular oil services in the past. There was a close correlation between the two....

A decision was made to start a "Fleece to Own" scheme, and of course THOSE were the trucks offered. I doubt it was an actual written directive, but the type of driver they chose to offer these 'deals' to were almost always guys who had a mark or three already on their record, and were the most likely to soon be leaving the company, either by choice or not. We had a LOT of problems attracting ANY type of driver, and frankly, it was because we had cr@p equipment, cr@p dispatchers, and would often leave drivers sitting out on the road for 2 days looking for freight. A good percentage of the drivers we DID have were either lucky we gave them a truck, or just weren't terribly smart. When I drove, I never would've even considered driving for them....

So, yeah, a few suckers took them up on this offer. A couple didn't even make it to 6 months. Most were gone by 1 year, and the last of the originals gave up on this scheme (quite vocally, I might add; I was afraid he was going to 'go postal'...) at about 16 months. When drivers abandoned this scheme, the company took the truck back and.....conned another sucker to take it over. In the end, they got at least 6 drivers to pay for the maintenance and repairs of trucks they could not afford before getting them back. I left that company around then, and about 4 months later they went bankrupt, stranding drivers on the road all across the country. Not a single driver made any money on their leasing scheme. Not one.

 

It will be cheaper to buy a new truck in the long run. At any time you might have to replace your emission system and the engine. Unless you’re going for keeping a classic style truck, there is no reason to buy a aero truck that isn’t new. -unless it’s got less than 150k miles and is dirt cheap. That’s the reason why they have a purchase program they need a sucker to take over. Keep in mind the first few hundred thousand miles maintaining it is not that hard. After 400,000 you will be replacing parts left and right. That is why you get rid of an aero truck around that mileage. Once it cost too much money, sell it to a sucker owner operator with big eyes, use the money to buy a new one and repeat the process.