What other owner operators will not tell you when you are new.

Every business ever started has failed. I dont know many business that have been around more than say, 150 years. Yet we can assume business has been around since cavemen were in caves.....you are only guranteed to fail in every business... It is up to you to create something beyond that... If that is to hard for you to handle then go work for somebody that can handle the daily ### kicking that business gives you... Quit making excuses for failure and realize it is 100% based on the choices you make.. Nobody elses fault but yours..

 

She's easy on the eyes, but she is one of the problems that I alluded to several weeks ago. I mentioned that certain people on Youtube are giving away WAY too much information about the market, and then complain when their income falls. She is giving away this important information for free, so now every one of her adoring newbie owner operator fans flock to where the action is, and the landscape changes. I know I may be exaggerating a little, but my point is valid.

Now, I have nothing against helping people out. If you're at a truck-stop and have no money to eat, I'll buy you a sandwich (but I won't give you money). If you don't have money for a shower, I'll give you one of my free ones. If you need help sliding your tandems or tarping your load, I'll help you. But I won't give away my trade secrets. (Not that I have many.)

I'm a newbie, so it really doesn't affect me. It actually helps me if I take advantage of it. But for those of you on here that have been busting your arses for many years (even decades) to develop your business and learn your craft, it really bothers me. It isn't fair to the people who paid their dues on their own. She needs to decide if she wants to be a teacher or a business owner. She doesn't realize that she is undermining herself AND her partners.

 

Stop relying on bottom feeding brokers to control your revenue stream.
Go out and get yourself some clients, cut the middleman out.
No business can survive without clients, and brokers are not clients.

 

I was thinking the same thing. See a lot of folks around TTR who went to a place like Landstar right on the uptick of covid and claimed it was absolute crap after covid. When in reality it just went back to normal.

The question you ask about "todays load boards"..I am not sure how long you have been in the o/o scene, but it sure sounds like you did no research at all at anytime during any part of your driving career prior. Not attacking you, just my perception of the way you ask it. Did you go from mileage pay to being an o/o, and never earned percentage of gross at all?

Direct shippers is no surprise the way to go, most anyone with even just a little common sense would say the same. I think the reason most new ones fail, apart from "under capitalization" as some would call it, is a sense of freedom they think they have when they really don't have as much as they think. A family member of mine recently got his authority and sat around for weeks waiting for his IFTA stickers and stuff to come. He COULD have run still, with his authority and just gotten trip permits so he was at least making something. He wouldn't do it, wouldn't run getting trip permits so just didn't run. I personally think making money is better than making no money at all. He ended up having to let go of another pickup truck he had, an asset in reality, to cover his fixed expenses while he sat on his duff waiting around. He does hotshot though, with his 1 ton and his gooseneck. Even before he got his authority he would make some decisions i.e. deadhead 1000 miles just to go home cause he didn't want to wait until the following morning to check for a load on the load board. He seems to do his best though when he goes to the Illinois area. Just a problem I guess for him to get there from Texas.

 

You are absolutely right. When you strike gold you don't go running back to town blabbing it to everybody.

 

You definitely seem stressed out.

 

If you think the broker is in control of your business, then you've got the wrong mindset to begin with.

 

You sure did, the very first post.

That implies a conspiracy to cause new o/o to fail to prevent them from success.

Every business has a middleman or could have one. I have friends in retail produce, who want to talk about a business with layers of middlemen, it is food. One of them spends every night at the market bidding on produce and is finally getting in his head that working with Farmer's co-ops is better than instead of fighting against his competitors.

It is clear or should be to anyone who has the desire to get into business - this is one of the easiest businesses to get into, it has no hidden gotch yas involved, it is a path that thousands have gone down, and there is a lot of help and material that can help with the journey.

AS I SAID this site alone has thousands of YEARS of experience to tap into for anyone for FREE if they have an open mind without expectations of what they want - not need - to make. If someone comes here to justify their plans, they will be disappointed, the sharks will tear up the plan and there will be blood in the water because the experienced people have seen every different scheme or plan and know what works and what doesn't.

Most didn't succeed as much as they wanted mainly for the number one reason, they don't have money to do it right, and they think they can do this cheaply.

But it is obvious, to tap into an industry that generates $900B annual revenue and there is no age limit or limit on ownership, is really easy.

It isn't a bad thing to fail, it is a bad thing to blame everyone else for the failure.

 

Really? They don’t have to buy or lease real estate? They don’t have to purchase whatever they’re selling from someone and then try and sell it for a profit? If you open a pizza shop where do you plan to get all your ingredients?

As far as the other post you quoted, maybe I am calloused. But it’s from reading hundreds of these threads when rates are low, but then you guys don’t make a peep when the market turns the other way. I sure didn’t see any “brokers are the devil” threads on this site during Covid when someone could fall out of bed in the morning and make money. But there sure was a lot of that talk on this site in 2019 and now. It’s too easy to become a carrier. If there wasn’t the explosion of new authorities during Covid the spot market wouldn’t be so out of whack right now.