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

One of the first lessons I learned when I came in the office was "not to put your business on the street". I learned it the hard way when somebody I trusted got me to run my mouth about my role and goals in this company. If that wasn't bad enough I also blabbered about rates and coverage and a few other things that would have been better left unsaid. The guy I did all that talking to, a banker, passed the information on to his brother who was trying to get started in trucking.
There are rules...and they're surprisingly strict. They're not really written down anywhere but almost everybody understands them anyway. You learn them a little at a time but you better be learning them.
These people that whine and complain and project themselves to be victims of circumstance and expect the world to treat them like a celebrity because they bought a truck never last long...but they're sure noisy while they're here.

 

Nope
I wouldn’t share my favorite fishing hole

but I wouldn’t be afraid to tell a beginner fisherman that he will catch more fish if he goes to where the fish are, than if he stays where the fish are not .

this chick , in the video linked , didn’t give away any secrets .
She showed where the freight is originating .
And where it’s not originating .

It’s the same as mentioned with the banana thing ,
Sometimes you can make more money just coming back empty , as long as you got paid enough to deliver the freight .

I know a guy that used to regularly take loads to a small West Virginia town.
He knew he wasn’t gonna find a load leaving that area so he just made sure To get paid enough for the delivery to compensate for the deadhead miles back to where he could get a load.

I’ve delivered loads to central and south Florida , and I knew there’s nothing leaving that area , so I just got paid enough for the delivery to make up for deadheading back to Atlanta where there is plenty of freight .
I didn’t waste one minute trying to find a load leaving Florida , there’s freight leaving Florida but it pays so little it’s not even worth spending the time to load it .

you can be in Atlanta from Miami in 10 hours .
And the load you will find in Atlanta will pay enough more than any load leaving Miami to compensate for the 10 hours and the fuel .

trucking is a business just like any other .
Except most people get into trucking without having any idea who their customers are .

you think chic fil a opens a restaurant at some random location without knowing who their potential customers are and without having done some research into how much profit that new store will likely earn?

And without researching how much that store will cost to construct ?
What the labor will cost what the insurance will cost what the chicken and potatoes and natural gas to cook it will cost ?

there’s tons of videos on YouTube that have lots of solid advice on how to estimate the operating costs of your business and how to find direct customers.

 

The girl in the video paid something like $8,000 (maybe more) for the info that she is sharing with everyone. It's some special subscription with a freight data company. If you had the same membership, which you paid 8 GRAND for, would YOU like it that she shared the info with others that didn't pay a dime? And then those same people turn around and use this info AGAINST you?

So you said, "but I wouldn’t be afraid to tell a beginner fisherman that he will catch more fish if he goes to where the fish are, than if he stays where the fish are not ."

Of course you wouldn't be afraid to tell them. Because it is common sense. If someone can't figure this out on their own then they have NO BUSINESS being IN BUSINESS. So you told the poor fisherman that he needs to go to where the fish are. But then he replies, "Okay, thanks. So WHERE are the fish?" Now you draw the line. You're not going to share your secret.

Any simpleton knows that you have to go to where the freight is. But are you going to give him a map with directions on where to go? And YES, as you and others have said, the info is out there to be had. But it is NOT common knowledge. Newbies, for the most part, don't come into this business all-knowing. They wing it along without any plan, work ethic, business background, money or even technical knowledge. I'm one of those that lacked technical knowledge. And I will die not knowing half of what you old-timers know (career age not biological age, because I'm getting up there myself) when it comes to maintenance and mechanics. But I'm okay with that, because I had the other traits in place. Some of these guys coming out of school have no BASIC knowledge. But the info is out there to be had. But do they have the wherewithal to obtain it? Are they willing to grind without having every weekend off? Do they expect OTHERS to do the dirty work for them? That's what I'm talking about.

 

I want to share with you something that is unrelated to the topic at hand, but the idea behind it is the same. THIS HAPPENED TO ME 3 MONTHS AGO.

I'm running power-only right now because the yard where I park my truck doesn't have any more trailer space available at the moment. So I'm doing well enough doing power-only that I don't have to put up with the headache of trying to find a spot to park the whole rig when I come home. But sometimes I'll have a load-out trailer for 5-10 days. So I found a nice spot between a small industrial park and a residential area. There is enough room for about 20 full rigs.

So last year, a friend of mine asked me where I park my rig when I'm hooked up. I thought nothing of it and told him. He's been an owner-op a lot longer than me and must have hundreds of contacts here in the Vegas area. Well, after a while I started to see an increase in the number of rigs parked in "my spot". I asked him if he had told anyone and he replied that he had just told "a couple of friends". You probably know the rest.

So around November, I started noticing the piss bottles, the trash bags, etc. I thought to myself, "This ain't gonna last much longer." I thought about putting signs on every truck scolding the idiots to clean up after themselves before the city steps in. But I didn't, because I knew it would be in vain. So, fast-forward 2 months. I came home in January after being on the road for about 6 weeks. I go to my spot and I noticed that no trucks were there. What WAS there was a sign that said, "No Parking. Violators will be towed."

What do you think I'll respond when my "friend" or anyone else, asks me where I park my truck now?

 

Well said. The banana thing, that's how most of us local people do it. I'm not gonna waste my time trying to bring something back that won't deliver until the following day unless it pays the same or more than my outbound load.....Or...... if I don't have a load yet for the following day. Usually by Friday I know what I'll be doing for the first few days of the following week. Sometimes even the whole week like recently we've been doing the same load day after day.

 

Do you think an app that eliminates brokers and gives a small carrier a direct line to shippers is the solution? When a large shipper has contracts with the Mega’s and a truck has a problem they send another truck to pickup the product or to recover the trailer from the other truck.If it’s an owner op that shipper is now at the mercy of the owner op so no I don’t see the shippers switching to an app.Large brokerages and megas give those shippers a piece of mind that an owner op can’t.

 

Doing some quick math with my spread sheet I keep track of all my expenses, revenue, rate per mile and all that with, I added in the 25% cut the company I am leased to takes off the load rate. If I was under my own authority, with the same trailer rental costs I am already paying, I think I would actually do a smidge better than I am right now in the current market.

 

Didn't know you only started in 2018, I kind of thought you'd been at it longer. Around October 2019 is when we started running the boards and the rates weren't the best then either but fuel was cheaper. Still pulling out of the same shipper we ran the 1st load with back then. Then 6 months later covid hit Lol. If someone can be profitable in bad times like this then you prefer much have nothing to worry about.

We ran a lot of New England back then, going up to northern Massachusetts quite a bit, now we don't venture out more than 180-200 miles away

 

I’ve spent more than I’ve made for this whole year.
Should I blame the broker for not raising the rates to cover my losses?

Doesn’t work that way, not all the time will you do amazing, and in these markets, even without a truck payment your .66 cost per mile is way higher.
Fuel alone busts that, not to mention insurance.

 

I was a company driver (local line haul) for 10 years prior so I wasn't new to the truck, just the owner op side.