Husband/Wife Lease O/o?

Hey everyone!

So, I've been doing quite a bit of reading about this, and I know the general idea is that it's horrible to do. I haven't found much on doing this as a husband and wife team though, so I wasn't sure if that would make a lot of difference. I've owned my own business before (computer repair) and made profit off of it, I'm pretty business minded. I also have right under 2 years of business management in college, so I'm sure that could help. We would be giving up our lease on our apartment if we did this, as that would save us 600 a month in rent alone, not including all the additional bills that go along with renting an apartment. Lets average it at 1,000. So we save 1k a month alone from just not renting anymore and we park our personal vehicles at local families homes.

My thinking was that being husband/wife, the money earned goes to the same household. We could have our son (he's young, no passenger policy that I know of would allow him). I'm not sure if this would be a good idea or not, which is why I wanted to ask you guys. We would love to travel together, save some money in the process, and after a year or two of doing this figure out where we want to stop at. I'll have some experience under me then, which would make finding local work easier. I know I'm ahead of myself a bit, not driving yet. Just considering things.

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My thinking was that being husband/wife, the money earned goes to the same household. We could have our son (he's young, no passenger policy that I know of would allow him). ...

You lost me... what's the part about your son? Are you saying it will be you, your wife and your son in the truck full-time? How old is your son? I can't really offer any advice, in that I have no experience. I'm just curious what you are thinking.

Jered, as total rookies it would be foolish to take on all the responsibility of being in the trucking business. Are you aware of the national averages of profit on this business? The folks who have decades of experience and tons of cash resources are making around 3%! Trust me, if you want to jump in as green horns you will get eaten alive.

You can still team with your wife, but let some huge corporation absorb your losses for the first few years. You accomplish that by being company drivers. They take on all the expenses and you keep all the income. After about two years your household income will be approximately $100,000 per year as a couple driving successfully as a team. You can still drop your house lease and live together on the road. Then after two or three years if you decide you're making enough that you don't mind losing some of it - well then it's time to try the owner/operator thing.

Sorry, I completely missed the part about your son. That throws a kink in things.

The only thing you'll really have an advantage over solo lease ops is the truck payment. Everything else from fuel to insurance to maintenance will just be double the cost (or near enough) if you're doing double the miles. I team (company drivers) with my fiancé and would not recommend it when starting out. Given how much stress new drivers, and especially new teams, are already under it does not seem like a good idea to throw the added worries of leasing into the mix.

How young is your son? If he is too young to be allowed under most rider policies, teaming is almost certainly out of the question. While one of you is driving, usually the other needs to be sleeping. How will you keep your son entertained? How will he get an education? How will you obtain and store the needed supplies to prepare decent meals for three people on a regular basis? These are things you need to have a plan for before you consider bringing him on the road.

I'd also add that a standard sleeper truck is very cramped with even two people. Adding a third, while not impossible, is going to be incredibly hard on everyone involved. There are families with children that live on the road. Usually, however, they have a super sleeper, and one of the parents spends the day teaching and taking care of the kid(s). I've never known any team drivers who had a child onboard, because team driving is almost certainly going to make it impossible to properly care for the child.

Lots of replies very fast!

My son is nearly four. He's young. He wont be in school for a year or two. He has loads of entertainment as it is, and usually does a lot of self entertainment with educational things. For example, we've invested hundreds of dollars into his leap frog leap pad, and the games that come with it. As well as reading books, with that pen thing that reads the words out loud to him. We help him when he needs it, but he does really good with that. I teach him martial arts for something physical, I just started (traditional Chinese martial arts). He's still a bit on the young side to learn and think it's not just playing, but it takes some of that energy away.

I'm not saying the child part would be easy or simple. By the time it comes for him to go to school I'll have enough experience to get something a bit more local, which is the idea. Most passenger policies I've seen are 8 to 13 years old, so he's wouldn't be allowed on anything I've checked into, and I understand that. I also get the idea of that usually someone is sleeping when the other drives. I'm the super light sleeper of the two of us, who wakes up to a pen falling (unfortunately). I also average about 4 to 5 hours of sleep and function perfectly fine off of it, my body just doesn't require a ton of sleep. So caring for our son isn't something I'm worried about and i'm nearly positive it would be better then the situation we're in right now. I can't stand living with in-laws!

I've seen a couple of the really awesome looking trucks with a bathroom, shower, kitchen, and two sleeping areas. Wouldn't think make it difficult to get around with? I mean, if you carry a trailer wouldn't it make where you can deliver kind of limited? They look amazing from the pictures I've seen, but they look as if they add a lot of length to the truck. The space in a normal truck doesn't bother me too much, as the last place we lived in was a house with each of the rooms converted into living quarters. So we had to cook and everything in a 10x10 room, we made it work. If I did end p doing this I wouldn't be doing it right away. I would want a bit of experience, 6 months or so driving first, then to bring her on a ride or two to see if she can handle it. Then give it a shot if it's something that seems doable. I'm asking right now to see the options. This would be around August, so near my sons birthday, he would be about 4 when we did this (if we did).

As far as food goes, I was considering that a bit. Last time when we went on a lop trip in our RV we had meals delivered from a 3rd party service, three meals a day. I didn't add up to being that much more then you would pay for them to make them on your own. They're made more or so fresh, and they're really healthy (they taste pretty good too). We were picking up a week or two of food at a time, but one week of food at a time wouldn't be bad, and they have a large variety of food to pick your meals out of. It's an idea anyway. This, with cooking every now and again using a hotplate mainly. Years ago, when I first came to Oregon, I met a trucker. I forget his name, I think it was Aj, BJ, or jb. Something like that. I remember back them he was talking about being on the road and having a hotplate in your truck and cooking, and how important it was to be healthy. The main reason for doing this is to stay close as a family, and to save some money up while do so. Though it seems like a pretty horrible idea so far, and I really don't want to go into more debt going through this.

So caring for our son isn't something I'm worried about and i'm nearly positive it would be better then the situation we're in right now. I can't stand living with in-laws!

I think you are underestimating how difficult and strenuous this lifestyle is. It is easy to romanticize the industry, but I think most experienced drivers would agree with me that the road is no place for a preschooler. For a week long trip? Sure, why not. But to live out here for months or years? I think there's a good chance it would be harmful to your son, your relationship with your wife, and your sanity.

I'm the super light sleeper of the two of us, who wakes up to a pen falling (unfortunately).

You're in for a bit of a shock, then. Sleeping while the truck is moving is hard to acclimate to for most people. It's nothing like sleeping in a car. Best buy stock in sleeping pills and ear plugs. As for only needing five hours of sleep, you're lucky in that regard because that's probably what you'll average the first few weeks out. I'm like you, though I do better with six hours. I can function on as little as two or three, but my fiancé needs at least eight or he's a bear.

I've seen a couple of the really awesome looking trucks with a bathroom, shower, kitchen, and two sleeping areas. Wouldn't think make it difficult to get around with? I mean, if you carry a trailer wouldn't it make where you can deliver kind of limited?

Yes, and they certainly make backing a chore as well because of the ridiculous wheelbase. You won't need to worry about it unless you plan on buying one, as I know of no companies that issue them to drivers. They are solely owner operators.

I am not going to lecture you anymore, because I think you get the essence of my thoughts on this matter. However, if you are still considering this I'd ask you to do something, I guess you could call it homework. Starting tomorrow (or whenever you will have the ability to observe him uninterrupted for an entire day) as soon as your son wakes up, record everything he does. I mean everything, from "ate half a banana"'to " spun around in circles for twenty seconds" to "used the bathroom", etc. Take notes, record times, and write everything down. At the end of the day when he's in bed, go over your notes and imagine him doing everything he did on a moving truck. Make check marks next to things that could still be done with no changes, make circles next to things that would have to be altered or would be much harder, and make crosses next to things that simply couldn't be realistically done. I think you will be surprised by the results.

Keep in mind your costs. Most tractors are getting 6.5 to 8 mpg. If you have one of those super rv type sleepers your going to need more power and lower gears to pull the weight of your tractor plus the freight. Either your mpg will go down terribly or you will only be running 55-60 and not pulling grades at speed. I may be wrong about this.

Pretty much agree with all the previous responses.

You won't find anyone here, that would support the plan to "lease right out of the gate". You're going to want to learn the ropes of moving 80K of truck & load from place to place without hitting anything, before you add the stress running a business with a very high overhead and low ROI.

As far as these cool trucks you see with kitchens and bathrooms, etc. Yes - they are cool. 99% of them are involved in the heavy-haul (oversize) industry, or expedited freight (and these are usually straight trucks for expedited). They are also uber-expensive. You will not find a company that takes on newbies, that also has RV-Style tractors they are going to lease to said newbies. That and the wheelbase (as CS mentioned), plus the added weight makes them ineligible for "leasing on" to most companies (if you owned one). Another reason why they are mostly used in over-sized, since weight and wheelbase of the tractor is of little concern.

If you have a 4 year old - living full time in a rolling walk-in-closet, that's constantly rolling, is going to be a way less than optimal situation for raising a child. Someone's going to have to stay home for the kid.

So - in all honesty - what you're considering, is probably quite unrealistic at this point. If you didn't have a young child (not saying to get rid of them or anything) - you would have a lot more options to consider.

Rick

Keep in mind your costs. Most tractors are getting 6.5 to 8 mpg. If you have one of those super rv type sleepers your going to need more power and lower gears to pull the weight of your tractor plus the freight. Either your mpg will go down terribly or you will only be running 55-60 and not pulling grades at speed. I may be wrong about this.

You also reduce your payload carrying capability due to the additional weight of the tractor & condo.