I know it’s not the most recommended thing to do, but has anyone gone from rookie driver to O/O?

My background is I’ve had my class A CDL for about 10 years but I never did much with it.  I’m a retired firefighter but I drove a dump truck part time over the years.  

I’ve been thinking about getting my own truck, getting my own carrier, and hitting the road.

If you do it’s best to have a business plan. I know one guy has been successful and a bunch who haven’t.

Right now freight rates are really low.    


Are you willing to be out for weeks/months at a time? (There’s a reason for this question).

Yeah I’ve thought about that, I’m not looking at brand new trucks.  I’m looking at the 40k ball park with money set aside  for repairs.  

My goal was to be out 2 or 3 weeks, back for a couple of days and then go back out.

Ok.  Well, my suggestion then (guaranteed weekly rate for an O/O in a specialized area) wouldn’t work for you with that schedule.  



Frankly I don’t think the freight market is going to improve in the foreseeable future, so it’s hard for me to pretend I think it’s a good idea.    Having said that, if it’s what you want to do, and you can afford to park the truck and go get another job to get by on when the freight rate falls below your operating expenses…

I’m open the hearing all ideas, what was your first suggestion?  Is there a particular specialty that you recommend?  I hear flat bed is still pretty good.

I was going to suggest that you look at leasing on with SET (or one of the other companies that do the same thing).    

Basically, you would get a set weekly rate, and drive from stadium/arena/venue to the next, carrying audio/stage/lighting/swag for entertainment tours.     Once you’re unloaded you’ll sit and wait for the show(s) to be over and reload, then head off to the next concert venue.    Did I mention you’d get a crew badge, and get to eat with the rest of the crew at the catering building/tent/location?   The catch is you commit to staying with the tour until it goes on break.  


Whatever you do, do something that is specialized - but keep in mind even some specialized guys are struggling right now.  


If you wanted to haul temperature controlled foods, there are some options there as well I might be able to give you some contact info for, but you’d need your own trailer (rented, leased, owned, whatever - but it wouldn’t be provided to you).  

Interesting, I’ll give that a thought.  I’ve never heard of SET, I always thought bands hired their own roadies/transport crews.

The tour manager would usually contract with companies with a known reputation that specialize in entertainment work (like SET, Upstaging, etc).  

I suggested SET because you can go with them as an O/O, with the conditions I mentioned.  

Lease on with a company hauling frac sand.. money is decent and it's close to home. They provide the trailers.

I hate to say this, but hauling cars from blue states to red states is big business right now.

I know someone making big money hauling cars out of California. He contracts a lot of it out because he can’t keep up. CA to TX and CA to FL auto transports are in demand. From what I understand it costs more to insure auto transport than freight, but he says it’s worth it.

I've known folks who have tried it and didn't succeed. Maintenance, taxes and insurance drove them under.

@jollyg83


Ran across something that might work for you.  

Still looking at doing this?

@Woodchuck1

Yes I’m still looking into doing this.  Thanks for thinking of me.

Outfit associated with United (movers) but they aren’t ‘bedbugs’.     They look for both company drivers and owner operators to move pre-packaged goods in a dry van (they provide the trailer) from warehouse to warehouse.    Only limitation on revenue seems to be the hours of service.  

My friend and former co-worker is leased on there and hasn’t seen a downturn in rates, and is grossing about 30k/month, but he runs harder than most.     They like owner-ops to stay out three weeks at a time, but not mandatory, which I thought might be close to what you’re looking to do.


Given that I gather you don’t have recent verifiable experience with a class A rig,  I’m unsure how that would work with wanting to lease on with them, but I can try to find out more in the next couple weeks if you wanted to follow up.  

@Woodchuck1 thanks for the information.  That might be good to try, I don’t have a truck yet.  I’m still putting my numbers together and hope to buy by the end of summer.  

So it’ll be a minute before I’m up and running.  

I’m also looking at signing on with Bennett out of Georgia.  I hear they’re pretty flexible with their schedule and I can get started by doing drive away deliveries.  

Why don't you just get a job trucking and then learn everything You can for a couple years?

By the way you don't have to be out on the road for weeks to make good money in your own rig.

That's been the recurring theme with the few O/Os I've known. The money looks good on the surface but the truck gets fed first, leftovers go to the driver, most are one catastrophic breakdown from bankruptcy. As a company driver my net income works out at least as good as an O/O (if not better) with none of the headaches or risks.


Good advice, trucking isn't for everyone, many try it and find out it's not a life for them. Being an O/O is being a small business owner, going in cold with no experience at all in the industry has a very low probability at being successful.

Yeah this right there!

How are you gonna buy this truck?

First let me reiterate, I’M RETIRED.  With a healthy pension and health care for me and my family so I don’t have have to pay myself until I’m on solid ground.  

Second I’m looking at used trucks.  $40k to $60k.  Kenworth T680s and Mack Anthems with around 500k to 600k miles.  Being sold from dealers with DPF filters being overhauled.  I cut my teeth on Mack granites both with the fire department (3k gallon tankers) and the tri axle dump truck I drove.  

So I think I have a couple of leg ups from the typical driver who goes right from newbie to O/O.  Then again maybe I’m totally wrong.  

I have about 20k saved up for this endeavor to start with.  I’m in the process of getting another 10k from an investor too.

I have had as many as 35 owner operators working for me hauling industrial machinery plus anything that paid good.I was an O/O for many years.
 A] Take a job driving  for a trucking co. that hauls the same kind of freight that you plan on hauling.
  B] Next, take a job driving for an O/O that hauls the same type of freight.
 C] A tractor that has 500k+ on it is worn out. There is no way that the revenue in today's loads will pencil out.
 In the early 80's, I needed $2.00 a mile to make money. A dollar to run the truck and a dollar for me.Fuel was $1.20 to 1.50 and a new fancy tractor was $80,000.
  I am not up on rates but you would need appx. $4.00 per mile:every mile.
   In 79, I bought a custom Freightliner for 79,000; I had a dropdeck and double drop.In the first 3 years, I put 534,000 miles on it. I had plenty of cash so I put a new crate motor in it.Breakdowns cost more that $; you lose customers also.
The trucking is over regulated now by 1000%.
   Good luck.

Sir.
Get a job and save yourself the hassle.

I’d recommend against it, one of the first tasks I have our trainers teach new guys isn’t about trucking but how to live on the road.  Also, rates for anything outside of flatbed and specialty are dog shit.

Yeah this. OTR is just a flat out young folks game.

A lotta shitheads on the road now, no common courtesy, everyone you feel is out to rip you off. Lotsa mechanics who don't know what the hell they're doing. Labor rates high as hell, which also include smoke/coke/BSing.

Trucks that look tough but are incredibly fragile, with parts that seem to go up in price just sitting on the shelves, or are on double secret probationary backorder.

Shippers/receivers that don't GAF about your time, which is ticking away by the second. Brokers who always make bank, sometimes making more than you. Same for lumper services, damn $400 for 15 minutes of unloading?

Over regulated by 100,000% but unfortunately needed with some of the dummies out here today.

This right here cannot be emphasized enough.  


All of the points @MattyMattel made are valid, but this is the one to most seriously take to heart.  

If you don’t have a reliable, good mechanical guy behind you, especially thinking about a truck with the kind of miles you’re talking about?   You’re starting out with multiple serious handicaps.  



Frankly, @jollyg83, I was in your corner to start out.   You totally lost me with the mention of an ‘investor’, as well as the trucks you’re looking at.  


I’ll join the queue and say you need to get some experience under your belt as a company driver, as I truly don’t think you have a realistic idea with what you’re proposing.  


Having said that - I don’t know any happy company drivers.   The people that are happy in this business, are the owner-operators, but I think six months or a year working for a starter flat-bed outfit will either set you up for success as an owner operator, or convince you that it’s a bad idea and scratch the itch to drive without making some seriously bad financial decisions.  



Jones Brothers, Melton, Prime, and I think even TMC will hire with no verifiable experience and train on flats.  I’m sure some will criticize those suggestions - those are the companies off the top of my head, I’m sure there are other/better options.  

But I'll be the first to admit my situation is far from normal, I'm very specialized and not a freight hauler, I pretty much get to do my own thing once I'm dispatched on a job (and I've been on this job for a few months). Until this morning I haven't talked to my dispatcher in over 3 weeks and it was mainly just a courtesy call to let him know I'm still alive.

Tell me more--on a job for months doing your own thing?

I know what it's like to take a trip and be left alone to get it done, but that's like a week on my own before we're lining up the next trip.

@CMiller


I'm in a weird spot, I'm the only heavy haul guy (that also can run cranes) in my terminal. We have a Goldhofer self propelled platform trailer and a Faymonville HighwayMAX II trailer that I'm the only one that can run or work on. I have another guy trained up on the basics but I wouldn't trust him to head out on his own. I also run 13 axles, blade trailers and other specialty trailers.

Normally I get sent out on a job or trip for a few days or a week or so, once dispatched I'm pretty much on my own, doing my thing.

However...

I've been working on a job at a Microsoft Data Center that doing a huge expansion since January. Prefabbed building modules and back up generators are shipped out of Alberta to Wyoming where we have to trans-load them onto my more maneuverable trailers to move them through the job site to the crane that sets them in place. We're probably not going to get done with the job until October or maybe November the way this have been going (we're setting around 100 modules). Our cranes are out of a Colorado terminal and I'm the only one there from our Wyoming branch (Our Company runs each branch almost like independent companies) so I work with the crane crews but don't work for them. My dispatcher for my division handles all of our Wind Division cranes and trucking so as long as I'm doing my job I never talk to him unless I have a problem.

My Goldhofer SPMT: (Company equipment but "mine" as I'm the only operator in the company)



My Highway Max II

Ah, very cool stuff.  I've seen you post in a heavy haul group on FB about that job.  I'm jealous of guys like you who work for companies that have good equipment and do things right.  I'm at the opposite end of that spectrum right now and I hate it.