When it's $1.48/mile versus .48/mile why not aspire to be an o/o?

I would say this is more of an issue once they get off a miles based contract.

And I am Guilty (with extreme prejudice) of this. I am actually getting a life and not a slave to the truck with less miles that are paying well on my percentage contract.

 

Every person operates differently so my numbers don't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things. But i will share some basic info of what i have been doing for the last several years.

I do not spend more than 180 days on the road a year. Now that doesn't mean i don't work at all on my days home, many of those home days i did a short cross town run that took a few hours of my morning. that number is based solely on per diem number tracked for tax filing. Never bothered to actually count up the days i don't work at all.

My net is only about 60k to 65k a year. Pretty low at face value but put it in perspective of point number 1. I work less than half the year. I could obviously work more and make more, but i don't need to and i enjoy my time at home with my family. Every heard that saying work to live, don't live to work? I take that to the extreme. So far this year I've worked about 14 days. I've literally spent more time fishing/tinkering with the boat than i have in or near the truck.

I pull a flatbed and am leased to mercer transportation.

This is the holy grail for me. But it didn't happen instantly and it wasn't by accident. Ive been doing this 23 years and i promise you there were years that i worked my butt off. But somewhere along the way i figured out if i stopped spending money on stuff i didn't need, and started making that same money work for me, that i didn't have to work as much. Things like i don't need a new diesel f350 every three or four years. My 04 f150 does everything i would of used that new f350 for. I could retire on the money i used to spend in order to impress people i didn't even like.

 

I think a good businessman would put most of the revenue towards the truck, then pay himself a paltry salary to keep his income and FICA taxes low.
Then years later when he wants to retire he can complain about how little Social Security he gets.

Meanwhile the company driver has company provided health insurance , at a small cost to the driver, and a 401k and way higher Social Security checks when he retires.

 

Are you counting on social security to retire?
I'm not.

 

You absolutely have to spend money maintaining a truck. But when the truck doesn't need anything, and you have the maintenance/emergency breakdown account funded how do you "put it towards the truck"? I like chrome and lights as much as the next guy but Jesus I've already got 105 lights. Any more and I'm gonna be shooing aircraft away.

 

The term owner operator applies to tap different types of trucking. 1 is leased to like what i do. I own the equipment, they legally lease it from me. How much control the exert into the truck operations will vary from coming to company.

The other type is a guy with his own authority. This is more accurately termed independent owner operator. A true 1 man trucking company.

 

$1.48/mile? No.

You can do better.

I'm averaging $2.80/mile, day shift, monday - friday, home every night.

 

When your truck is leased to a carrier you are basically renting them the truck. Weather it be for a certain amount of money per mile or for a percentage of the revenue that the truck hauls.

Some would say yes some say no. When you are leased to a company they typically supply their D.O.T. numbers and administrate some of the gov't b.s. associated with that. For that and the other services they provide they retain some of the revenue from the load.

Beyond the D.O.T. numbers..... It all depends on the contract. Some companies provide you a load board and you can pick your freight from there. Others dispatch you on loads that you are obligated to take. Others say "go work the load boards like an Owner op"

Larger companies have negotiated contracts for discount on things like fuel and tires.

To be successful you need to change that out look. He is kind enough to let them offer him loads for the time that he chooses to work......

 

Exactly. They work for me, i don't work for them.