Woman wanna be with lots of questions...

I would not even consider buying a truck until you get at least a year or two of otr experience. Before sticking your neck out on a truck you need to see if you like driving and the lifestyle change. You could buy a truck and lease on after you have as little as 6 months experience. Most carriers will likely require 12 months or longer before leasing you on. The more experience you have the easier it will be to get financing. I would stay away from lease purchasing from a carrier. You will pay much more for the truck than you would by having your own financing. You also may not be able to take the truck with you should you decide to leave the company. If you take time off those payments will continue whether you are running or not. It seems that most of the lease purchase programs will run about $800/week after everything is taken out. That doesn't include fuel or maintenance costs. If you take a month off, as you mentioned, you will be 4 weeks behind before you turn the first mile, once you return. Don't be in such a hurry to buy a truck. Take your time, save your money and learn something about this business. You need to have a good bankroll when you buy a truck. You can start on a shoestring, but if something major happens, you could be out of business if you don't have sufficient cash reserves. Lack of capital is one of the major reasons so many fail as an owner operator.

As far as toilet stops are concerned, that is something you need to work out with your trainer. Most should be willing to work with you to stop when needed. If not, then ask for a different trainer.

It is possible for you to save $175,000 over 5 years as an owner operator, but isn't likely. Most people are not that disciplined and there is always something that needs attention on the truck. It is expensive to own trucks. If you discipline yourself you could save $500/week if you get with the right carrier and keep expenses down. In fact, you might even save more, depending on your expenses. So many owner operators that I talk with tend to get excited about all the money coming in and forget how much of that money they need to spend on the truck. You can easily burn 100-120 gallons of fuel each day if you are running hard. Fuel is usually your biggest single expense as an owner operator. I doubt that you would be able to save $500/week as a lease operator. There are very few who manage to make a lease purchase work where they actually own the truck at the end of the lease. You will make much more money if you save your money for a good down payment or pay cash for your truck. As a company driver you could easily save enough to pay cash for a decent truck in a couple of years.

It is much easier to take extended time off when you lease to an agent based carrier such as Landstar. If you decide to become an owner operator you will find that you can make more money on percentage than mileage. Most of the lease purchase carriers pay low mileage rates.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

most of the companies will give you miles, the trick is how hard you wanna work. There are truckstop warriors out there and drivers..

 

Maybe this will help, I'm pretty sure others will chime in as well.

1. Since i most likely would be paired up with a male trainer... how much privacy do you get? How often can u ask to use the bathroom? I don't have an overactive bladder and i can hold it for a few hours,... so, if we'd stop every 4 hours or so, i'd be fine. It's just a concern i'd like to have answered. As i understand it's not normal by any stretch of the imagination to have facilities on board.

Every four hours seems reasonable. For obvious reasons stopping at every truck stop along your route is a very BAD idea.

2. How soon after being hired and finish my training can i become O/O? I understand that Swift/Schneider try to push you into a lease. CAN/should i go that route, or should i buy a truck from a dealer? Would the company be ok with that after they paid for my CDL? Any tips where to go if not through the company? Or do i have to be a company driver for the first year?

Don't even go there about O/O yet. First get your CDL, go through training and drive at the very LEAST two years as a company driver before even contemplating being an O/O. Back when I was with Swift, they never pushed me into leasing or going O/O. In fact, it was totally the opposite.

3. As an O/O my goal would be to get my house paid off and both of our cars in about 5 years. That's a total of about $175,000 on top of the 2.5k/months to pay all the bills at home. Is that a reasonable goal? I'd want to go dedicated after that's accomplished. So, i'm willing to spend 5-6months out at a time.

I know many a houses, college tuitions, retirements and etc were paid for on a drivers salary. I believe if that's your goal, then you'll do all the necessary research/work it takes to accomplish that goal.

4. I understand as an O/O i can choose my downtime much easier than a company driver. Since i'm from Germany, i'd like to go 'awol' for 3-4 weeks once every other year to visit home. Would i get grieve from companies, if so which?

Some companies don't like it when you take too much time off. Regardless of you owning your own truck or not. Here again, I wouldn't worry about being an O/O until you put some time in behind the wheel to see if you even like this career.

Hope this helps somewhat.

 

I knew I was slow typing but, wow.. lol

 

It seems that way too many new drivers want to become an owner operator, even before they get into school. I am glad that you plan on waiting for a couple of years before possibly taking the plunge. There is nothing wrong with having goals. I prefer owning trucks than driving for a company. But, some will make more as a company driver. Not everyone should be in business for themselves. We all have different attributes. You can earn a very good living as a company driver. There are some segments of the industry where company drivers can earn over $120,000/year. But, you won't start out at that rate. It will take a few years experience to get to that point and not everyone will be able to get into that type of specialized hauling. Many carriers furnish insurance and other benefits which you would not have as an owner operator. I have hired many former owner operators and lease operators who may have been good company drivers but not good businessmen. I have also had some who were not good company drivers. They know how to better run my company than me, yet they lost their trucks and are working for me. There are some good carriers. I would not look at them as strictly "starter" companies. Look at them as providing you a learning experience.

 

If your primary motivation in wanting to become an owner operator is to take 3 weeks off after 2 years, then I would recommend that you stay a company driver. Most any carrier will be willing to give a good driver extra time off after 2 years. You should have at least a week of paid vacation with a major carrier after a year. And, you might discuss taking off extra time without pay. The better drivers can often get some accomodation from their carriers after a couple of years of service. If not, you could quit and find another position when you return. Dependable drivers with a good MVR and stable work history are always in demand. It would be much easier than buying a truck with all of the added responsibilities and associated costs of ownership. In fact, you could take the time off, take your trip and then buy a truck when you return, if that is what you want to do.