Update on truck buying and becoming independent.

you should have started by saying that.

you are not making bad money. the problem here is you want to run a certain way but you cant because it doesnt work like that unfortunately. best advice from me to you. if you want to have that type of work -home schedule, it is much more profitable to be a DRIVER than an O/O

 

Here’s the short haul and long haul service intervals straight from Detroit’s website.



You’ve gotten a lot of good advice in this thread. You have your reasons for wanting to be home and unfortunately being an owner operator might not be the best way to meet your personal home time needs. It’s hard to get ahead and save money when for the most part you will have almost a fixed income every week. You don’t have to be gone for 3 weeks at a time either, that’s not what I’m saying. But I think of you opened your mind to maybe being home once during the week and then weekends off you’d find a lot more options and I suspect your income would rise. You’re working long hours and hauling stuff that requires a certain trailer and you’re not making much money for it.

I tried being home all the time for a little while last year. I enjoyed it for the most part. I had a decent amount in savings, and I wasn’t pulling money out, but I also wasn’t adding anything to it. So I sold my trailer and now I’m doing something different where if I want some extra money I go run over the weekend. I’m not saying that’s what you need to do, but I think you need to at least look and see what else is out there. If it is a true need to be home daily and not a want then you really need to look at your business model and see if it’s even sustainable. If it’s not then my advice is to bow out before it breaks you.

 

Everything long fld said

Plus
Owning a rig you have fixed expenses such as truck payment and insurance
Those numbers stay the same if it’s parked or rolling

Your cost per mile is going to be much higher than the guy running 120,000 to 150,000 miles per year and that is where the potential to fail is going to be

The more miles. Repairs aside if you have a needy truck the less it will cost and the higher your profits will be

If you. Or anyone financed a new truck and trailer the fastest way to see it at auction would be to run low miles

I’m also not sure getting your own authority will make the situation any better

 

.....
you’re willing to do what you gotta but it ain't come to that.
You got a whole lotta reasons not to make money to be starting a business imo

It doesn’t affect me either way you go- if you want to succeed you need to do what you got to do. Telling us all every reason what you’re doing is ok does not impact us in any way, if you want to make it happen you’ll be figuring it out pretty soon or getting out of it.
Best wishes to you; it’s not as easy as a lot of people make it out to be.

 

Just another piece of advice

Once you get some $$ in the bank don’t always do every repair yourself unless the money and days to repair Vs income lost works

By that I mean sometimes you’re money ahead by paying a shop $2000 for a repair and be back on the road in a day rather than save $1000 and take two weeks off doing it yourself

If I can make more money per day than what repairs cost and my days to do it myself would be then I’d go to the shop

Personally I do next to zero on my equipment myself
I’d rather drive an extra day and use that $$ for the shop than spend my home time wrenching

 

I’m rooting for you man. Hopefully it all turns around ASAP

 

I don’t know what all is in your area but I’d start keeping an eye out, talking to other owner ops to get some leads, and start shaking some bushes looking for a better gig. If I were in your shoes I’d be making plans to switch to something else by the first of the year if things don’t turn around where you’re at.

The good thing is you already have the truck and you’re aware that you can’t keep going like you’re going. That’s why I suggested a timeline to make a change because before long you could look up and it’s 12 months from now and you’re in the hole doing the same thing.

 

This is true. As you run the truck you'll get tuned into it and as an owner-operator if you're sharp you will notice every single solitary thing about that truck and when there's a problem you will instantly know it.

I had my truck aligned by a bunch of a-holes and I will never do it again I will completely do it myself.

So I'm driving the truck and I feel some kind of a weird vibration. So instinctively I know that there is something not right and not usual with this vibration.

So I say okay it's time to grease it let's see whatever. So as I'm under the truck greasing it I'm just generally looking around to see if there are any problems and don't I see on The Airliner suspension one bolt is broken and the other bolt is loose ready to break.

This idiot that did my alignment did not torque the bolts and therefore one broke and the other one was moving around ready to break and my rears were ready to go flying down the road because he is an effing a hole that does not know how to use a torque wrench.

Then I was speaking with a friend of mine that is a mechanic and he said you know what you're tuned into that truck. You know how it should feel you know how it should ride you know what it should do and any problems that you have you will notice instantaneously..

So use it run it enjoy it and pay attention because when something happens, you will know it.