What am I missing?

None of the trucks I've picked are based on the looks, with the exception of how it relates to how well they were taken care of. Buying new you get reliability, buying old you save money, but there is a "sweet spot" I think around 25k where you can hedge your bets. Center of the bell-shaped curve is usually safest, mathematically speaking.

 

its up to the company on what the standards are on trucks but 1pof is right if you don't have a truck payment they don't have the forced dispatch to use on you you don't need every piney you can git

 

100% correct............but............

It costs 2.00 a mile to run the truck to make a ''profit''...

There is no 2.00 loads out there right now....we are all hoping it will change but it dont look good till 2010 sometime..

I am looking at 5 load boards right now...give me a city and i will tell you what the rates are as we speak..100 mile radius of that city...

 

PharmPhail:
I know you wish to be an o/o and are look at every avenue as to how to go about it. Well coming from experience and I am sure other will agree, that COE were the way to start as an o/o, and the reason for that was that a COE could be bought cheaper then a conventional. Now the COE did not have all the luxury's as a conventional, but they still did the job. See bottom line is to get freight from point A to point B at the cheapest expense to you, thereby increasing you profit. Now a days a COE is hard to find and find one in good shape, because everyone wants to drive a conventional, which in turn has caused the market to fill with decent older low cost conventional. I started out by running a older COE and worked it and then traded up as I saw fit and reasonable. I admit I even fell into a sweet deal once on a truck, but still the bottom line is to get the load from point A to point B at the cheapest cost to you and at the highest rate/mile.

 

my dream ride....

 

I'll take a quote for Charlotte!

I'll also take a list of your brokers in PM, especially since you've undoubtedly done a lot of trial and error and settled on those 5! (PLEASE???)

As for the truck, the real question is will the 6k truck REALLY save me any money?! If I absolutely KNEW That to be true I certainly would do it. But the results WILL be disasterous if I have a major breakdown in the first couple months. The warranty could be my saving grace, the higher price reduce my likelihood, and allows me to spread my expense over time rather than a 10k lump sum repair all at once.

btw, I absolutely would drive a cabover, for few days out and back runs.

 

AGAIN IT IS CALLED ''PICK YOUR POISON''

300.00 WEEKLY IN NEW TRUCK

POSSIBLE 300.00 IN USED TRUCK(NOT LIKELY)

REGARDLESS YOU HAVE GOT TO JUSTIFY THE 2.00 A MILE COST PER MILE TO ''OWN'' A BUSINESS...
1.50 WILL NOT DO IT.YOU WILL WORK FOR FREE...TRUST ME...

AGAIN,I NO YOU ARE SMART SO LOOK AT THE BREAKDOWN I GAVE YOU...ITS CRAZY BECAUSE EVERYONE HAS A HAND IN THE PIE...

ALSO IN A 12 MONTH PERIOD (LAST YEAR) I SPENT ON MAINTANECE A TOTAL OF 6,000 DOLLARS

12 MONTHS X 500.00 = 6,000

NEW TRUCK

12 MONTHS X 1,300(payment) = 15,600 PLUS MAINTANENCE COST...PLUS HIGHER INS. PLUS INTEREST RATE...

YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE.I just saved in a year time at least 9,600..not to mention the ins i saved and interest i saved

 

PharmPhail:
Thats where a good mechanic comes in. One that knows trucks enough to help you find a good used one. This I admit is not an absolute, that that truck will last a year or more, but it does give you an understanding of its current condition.
Even with a new one you can get a bad one, and I have talked to some that spent a lot of time in the shop and theirs were new.

the difference with between the new one and the one was the new one they still had that big payment every month.

 

I am going to have to cut some corners like health insurance. I've actually never even taken a policy as an employee. What is the realistic difference in the damage portion of the overall insurance picture from a truck owned outright and one valued at around 20k? I'm not thinking that would be a terribly large portion of the pie. I will be paying what is probably a ridiculous amount for insurance anyway my first year.

Those numbers are good, I'm listening. I actually think that weekly payment is low for a NEW truck. I'm looking at 1k a month even for mine, but only for under 2 years as an aggressive payback.

 

PharmPhail ( 1pod ) is right, no matter how you look at it, it is getting harder and harder to for an o/o to maintain a truck out here and still have a decent bring home pay. I admit you could do good this week running, but next week may s**k, there is no standard of pay out here, it is what someone said a craps shoot from one week to the next.