What should I Charge My Employer to Operate His Truck?

If you want more control over your operation, you'll have to assume more risk. Now if all you are talking about is running his freight out, but having the freedom to find your own return freight, either he is going to have some say in who you can book that freight with, or you aren't going to get paid for it until he gets paid for it. He's got a pretty good idea who his own customers are and whether or not they will pay him in a timely manner....which is why you are able to be paid so promptly as a company driver. He might have tried the whole backhaul thing a while back and got burned...so he just figures the empty return miles into his outgoing rate. With a dedicated customer, he might even have a contractual obligation to cut the outgoing rate by a buck or so per mile if return freight is hauled since those are no longer empty miles the customer is paying for to have the truck return for its next load....in other words, when you factor in the lower outgoing rate with whatever rate you get on the backhaul...plus the hassle which might be involved in doing that backhaul...you might not be able to do as well as you THINK you'll do. He knows what the terms of his contracts with the customers are...you don't. If he thought there was extra profit involved in doing the backhauls, don't you think he'd be doing them?

62%? Is that what you think is a good percentage for an O/O? I'd laugh and hang up the phone if some carrier's recruiter told me they only paid 62% of the gross while I pay for fuel, tolls, and all of the other costs of operating a truck.

65% isn't much better than 62%. I'd still have to laugh and hang up.

That's a thought I had if I ever bought another truck or two and started hiring drivers...the total amount I get paid for what the truck does (including fuel surcharge) minus fuel & tolls. Everything else gets split 50/50. Only problem with that is I'd be paying that driver more than I've ever paid myself....

If you want the truck, buy it. You can work out the terms of that purchase....either he'll be willing to finance it or you'll get a bank loan. Then either he'll lease you and the truck on to run under his authority, or you can either find another company to lease to that will let you run the truck the way you want to run it, or you can get your own authority and run the truck the way you want. You probably aren't going to talk him into letting you run his truck they way you want to...especially if he is still going to have to foot the bill for the fuel, tolls, insurance, maintenance, repairs, etc. There is NOTHING in that sort of arrangement which benefits HIM in any way. Remember, he parked that truck for a reason. He is selling the truck for a reason. Usually when somebody stops running a truck, it is because it was unprofitable to run that truck, either because there was not enough work to justify the number of trucks they had in the fleet, or because it had higher maintenance costs than the other trucks in the fleet, or it had a major problem that needed to be fixed but it was cheaper to just park it. If that is the case, why would he now agree to fix that problem when he can sell it as-is to somebody and pass that problem off to them?