Why do most owner operators fail?

how about POSTING the rest of the facts to go with that statement you so kindly pasted.

EMPTY IN CALI. so that really doesn't say a lot now does it.

 

It looks like a new o/o would be better off buying a natural gas truck. With more fueling stations coming online. There will be a window of opportunity to make good money. Just keep in mind the politicians will eventually step in and screw everything up. But until then, paying $2.00/gal could boost your revenue considerably. What do you think about using natural gas trucks?

 

Your exact atatement was "when empty OR in cali. The "or in cali" infers your fuel mileage is higher, whether loaded or empty, at those lower speeds, which does correspond with "fiziques" involving speed and fuel mileage. Laws of man may change, but laws of physics does not.

 

Funny, you modify what you posted (removed the "or"), she posts exactly what you posted and you get on her for not correctly posting facts?

 

ok, you must be a company driver on mileage to run those miles.

 

Depends on what day it is, or maybe what hour. Sometimes he's a company driver, then other times he plays an O/O. Depending on who he's trying to b.s.

 

Miles do not equal money...... for you they might, but the majority of O/O's do not get paid by the mile.

And I have made more money sitting sometimes that i do running, especially when I get detention time for a border crossing

 

I just read another one of his posts in another thread where he said he is only making $500 a week!! 4000 miles for 500 a week? WTF!?

 

I think the underlying factor in all this is just being efficient with your time, period.

Your typical average noob company driver, and I'm not saying this to be critical, but when I was noob, this was true, not having gotten the stamina for long trips, and only making it 500 miles before getting too tired to keep going - and also, every mega-carrier driver parks at the chains, when I try to find as many smaller mom and pops that typical have less trucks parked there. Get to your customer, unload as early as you can, sometimes call ahead and find out if you can park there when you get there at midnight or whatever, etc. Don't stop at the truckstops every 3 hours, just go go go, if you have to stop to use the restroom, stop at a rest area, use it, then keep going. I typically try to spend no more than about an hour of my day getting fuel and grabbing something to eat.

Also, you go 75mph all the way to your customer, and they are closed anyways, so you gotta wait until morning, and then you go and talk about being able to drive 100 more miles a day than someone with a truck governed at 62, and therefore you can make 500-600 more miles of pay, well I just don't buy that. There are way too many more factors that you CANNOT control that will eat up your time, so the key is to be efficient with the factors that you CAN control - and that includes finding better paying loads, driving a little slower, I wont go 75mph and then end up in an accident due to someone else's fault, then get the blame because I was the one speeding in a high profile vehicle.

I like Bill's idea of working smarter, and yeah I think there ARE times when getting to your customer faster will help give you that extra 45 minutes to get unloaded before they close, so you can go pick up that next load earlier, or at least get to that location - that extra 45 minutes could buy you an extra 2 hours of deadhead time that you would spent the next day. So yes there are those factors to consider.

Even driving for someone else, I am always crunching numbers in my head, memorizing mileage through each state, knowing where I'm stopping ahead of time, etc etc etc. Always thinking about something.

 

My running speed is often determined by the load. If I have a load that must be there at a certain time I do what I have to do to get it there. If I have all weekend to deliver a load monday morning then I normally reduce my speed to around 65 mph.

Where I am running determines alot too. If I am driving through Wyoming on I-80 I do at least 70 mph because I can pull most grades without shifting, whereas doing 65 I would have to shift a gear.