I started my OTR career out as a company skateboard driver. I decided very quickly that I didn't like being told where I had to go and when I could go home. So 3 months out of the starting gate I bought my first pete. The black 379X. I DO NOT reccomend you do this.. unless you are ready for the long and hard road ahead of you.
Fortunately for me I knew a broker before I started driving.. so I already had a friend in the business. She knew what I wanted and what I didn't want so we got along really well. If I wanted to be home, she knew to give me a load that delivered close, or I would just dead head home. I didn't care... it was my truck and my fuel. If thats where I wanted to be.. then thats where I was. I also DO NOT reccomend this...
It was a hard hard 3 years paying that thing off on top of the bills I already had. When I wasn't home I was running hard and illegal. I ate alot of hot dogs, crackers, bologna, and drank water. If I got a hot meal at a truck stop.. I was a king for the day. Yeah I had the extra $$$ to put what I wanted on the truck. But I sacraficed for it. I had no wife and no girlfriend. So it was a lonely go of it all. But I wasn't around enough to have a good relationship anyway. Plus all the stress I was already under, I couldn't see putting that much more upon myself.
I ran good loads and bad ones. Almost no layover times. When i was getting close to the reciever I was on the phone with my broker getting something else lined up for the day. I ran more than one log. I DO NOT reccomend this!!!!
So for 3 years... I lived pretty much in my truck.. was home quite a bit but not as much as it sounds... ate hot dogs, bologna sandwhiches, and crackers... was late on every bill except for the truck...
But I had that big black Pete and no boss and no one to tell me what to do. Ever. That was exactly what I wanted. I could stop any time I wanted too. Take the loads I wanted. Go where I wanted. In my eyes, I was king.
Why I quit O/O OTR....
The last few months I was running skateboard, I came home for a week. I needed the down time bad. Well while I was home I met the most amazing woman that is now my fiancee. I knew right then that I had to get off the road. See, my father was OTR when I was a wee boy. Never saw him, talked to him on the phone a few times a week. But other than that...
I started thinking to myself, I want to start a family... but I knew in my heart that i couldn't do it on the road. I couldn't leave my kids and wife. My hats off to you guys that do. Its gotta be rough. So I ran a little harder.. paid it off and bought another truck in cash. Its nothing special, just a little pete for local work. Sold the 379X to my cousin.
Am I completely done with OTR work? Who knows. I am for now though.
But if you are wondering if you will make it as a O/O... of course you will. You just have to want it. Bad... And a little suffering comes with it. But to me it was all worth it.
Want to be a O/O? Here is how I did it, why I did it, and why I quit it.
Discussion in 'Ask An Owner Operator' started by Pete_379X, Aug 27, 2007.
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OH much blessed one! Owner and driver of the ULTIMATE cowboy catalack!.....YOU DID WHHAATTT!!?? 
You SOLD it! After all that work to get it paid OFF!?!?!? DUDE! I would have put it in a barn wrapped in cloth and plastic! Do you have ANY idea what that thing will be worth in ten years or maybe even considerably less? Words of wisdom from a much more experianced hand. You will marry her, She will want KIDS (spelled $$$$$$$), to raise said young'uns she will want NICE HOUSE(NOT spelled "fleetwood"), OH, and one more thing....Unless someone has come up with a pill or shot that cures "the itch", YOU'LL BE BACK...
Chip truck'n, dirt haul'n, log tugg'n...gets OLD quik! MY advice? Buy another one, (if he's smart or reads this reply he'll NEVER sell it back) Marry 'er, get'r schooled, get 'er licensed and team it hard till it's paid off, then when sha says "honey, I want a house what don't roll, you'll be able to sell that pre-2008 longhorn cady on the open market (they will pay BIG bucks down under for it) and get her a real nice nest to lay them kids down in. OH and get her a real good phone to....she'll NEED IT!!
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