What would an experienced o/o buy?

Well, just to clarify… I'm not getting into a lease with any company. When I first started, I was definitely all about getting into a lease as soon as I could. But then I started looking at the numbers closely. My plan is to stay as a company driver for at least two years. I want to have a down payment and financing for my first truck, so however long it takes to qualify financially, that's when I will buy my first truck.

Thank you for your comments. I know that I do know a lot about failing in business because I have done that several times already. I know a lot about finance, accounting, real estate, restaurants, and construction. But I don't know squat about the trucking industry, and I know that. I'm here to listen and learn. I'm here to lay out my ideas and see who tells me it's stupid and why. That's why I'm not planning to do a lease anymore.

This is the only place I can work as an employee and make enough money to support my family until I can get into the entrepreneurial side of it. So I'm here, I'm hungry but not willing to do anything stupid to satisfy that hunger, I'm ready to learn, and I really appreciate everybody with experience chiming in.

 

Please explain: what is "the long way," and what is the way that you are presumably suggesting I should take through "an open barn"?

Thanks in advance.

 

I have heard that term over the years and never figured it out either. I guess it really should be divided into two categories... O/O specs for profit, or O/O specs for stupid.

 

What it means it you are walking around the barn instead of walking through it.

In other words your search for info may confuse you more without taking the first steps in getting on the road.

Why I say this is you may box yourself in by thinking that there is only one type of freight or one way to setup your projections.

Get on the road, don't worry about the numbers just yet.

It will come together.

 

I met an old cowboy at a truckstop who had just built a brand-new Peterbilt a la carte. He was really excited about the fact that it was exempt from the environmental laws because it was considered hand built. I forgot how much money he told me he spent on it, but some of you probably know, and everyone else can imagine. He didn't look like he was probably all that slick with financial calculations, but it's easy to misjudge a person. Anyway, unless he was expecting that thing's resale value to stay skyhigh, it seemed like a silly investment to me. It looked really cool, and he was telling me he could tweak it to get it up to 1500 hp, and as he said that, I could almost hear money falling out of his pocket.

Like someone else in this thread said years ago, a truck is a tool to make a living. It's great to have nice tools, but at a certain point, you are throwing money at bells and whistles on a depreciating asset, and those extras wont provide a return on investment. That's the way I see it anyway.

 

How does a truck with a big hood, air cleaners and stacks make someone stupid? If it's what they want, who cares?

 

The same way it makes a guy stupid who spends his money on lifting his pickup truck, putting a four-inch exhaust pipe on it, and buying big knobby tires. Americans spend money to inflate their egos far more often then they crunch numbers and figure out what is going to help them get ahead. This is why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I'm sick of hearing poor people complain about that. I'm poor too, but I know complaining about rich people and asking for a handout will not make me happy. Only working hard and being successful will make me happy. Spending lots of money on a sexy looking truck is going to drain my financial future away from me. And it does the same for everybody else. It's stupid. Unless you just have that much #### money… In which case you probably aren't interested in driving over the road anymore.

 

I guess I'm stupid then. I'm currently sitting in the fifth truck I have owned, every single one has been a classic styled truck. I've made a lot of money over the years with my trucks. Could I have a little more had I only bought trucks based on efficiency? Sure, but money isn't everything either. My next truck will be somewhat of a combination of the two.

I sold my first house I bought several years ago and bought one that was a hell of a lot newer and bigger. It's nothing super special or fancy. But it's what we wanted, certainly didn't need it. I guess that was stupid too, since what we had was good enough.

 

If the numbers work, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your money. As long as the profit is there first. I'm glad if you can afford that and still do well. But for too many folks they put the cart before the horse and end up going bust.

 

I guess I am in camp dumb dumb also then

The only real difference is a little bit poorer fuel economy. That debate has been had many times. I still refuse to believe if I had bought an aero truck with the same drive line that it would do much more than maybe .5 mpg above what I get now. That doesn't amount to much in my world. I am not interested in any manufacturers proprietary technology. No volvo stuff or detroit auto transmission for me. There is something to be said for enjoying time at work also, seeing the amount of time I spend in the thing. That is worth the extra expense to me. All the compliments I get are just icing on the cake. And I haven't even really dressed it up yet. Classic trucks are just that. It's a to each their own thing. I think running an aero truck at 60 mph trying to get the best fuel economy while being paid a fixed rate per mile isn't too smart. That doesn't make it wrong. It all boils down to there is more than one way to skin a cat.