Is It Really That Bad?

I highly recommend against going O/O out the gate. I know your dad has drove for a long time, I get it. My father just retired last month from trucking after 46 years. But, there are several practical reasons to be a company driver first.

1) crawl-walk-run. There is a LOT to learn about this industry. Instead of throwing yourself into debt and a giant shark tank, break up your learning into more manageable bits.

2) INSURANCE. Without having 2 years of a clean commercial driving record, getting insurance will be costly at best. Nearly impossible at worst.

3) Risk. Until you get a good solid base on how this industry works; the Risk is just too high. Honestly, you have a family you need to provide for. Won't do them a bit of good risking bankruptcy right out the gate. Profit margins are slim in this industry.

4) keys to success. You have time to build up to becoming an O/O. Build a strong base first. One day I know I will end up taking the O/O plunge. My father was one for several years, but I know better than to do it unprepared. I am using my time as a company driver to help figure out good triangles of freight. Also, to get to know different shipper and receivers. Even when the time does become right to take that plunge I know I will start out leasing onto a company first way before I try running under my own authority. I guess all of that could go with crawl-walk-run, but basically set yourself up for success. Taking a run at being an O/O while being an untested rookie is just plain old financial suicide.

Taking a run at being an O/O while being an untested rookie is just plain old financial suicide.

Well said... as a new wide-eyed driver, I definitely get 'truck envy' when I see the sweet rides the O/O's are driving. So much nicer than my company truck. I think there's a glamorous perception that driving your own truck or being your own boss is preferable to working for 'the man,' but what isn't given much thought is that YOU are responsible for all 18+ wheels/tires on your truck, ALL engine, body, and interior/exterior repairs are YOURS to cover, you have no professional history, so you're pulling into EVERY weigh station that's open... getting the picture? Hold onto that dream, you're young enough that you've got plenty of time to make the jump to O/O, but first please take the advice here of seasoned drivers and in my case, of seasoned people, and experience the lifestyle firsthand, build relationships that you might exploit as an O/O, before actually becoming one.

I talked to a guy earlier today at a CB shop who I thought was an O/O... driving a sweet '97 Peterbilt, beautiful inside & out, strong engine, but the guy worked for someone else, small company, only 4 drivers, but all had nice rigs. He incidentally is home on weekends. So you can work for someone else without that someone else being a mega-carrier, if that helps.

Good luck with your decision, either way hope to see you on the road. When you blow past me doing 64, have pity on me.

I'm tired. I'll be short. Forget O/O. If you value home time and $$$, go LTL linehaul. Northern VA is a decent hiring area for most LTL companies. I'll get you started with these links for LTL.

LTL Linehaul: My Trucking Job

The Local Thread

You've had a couple responses. You're getting shared experience from different sectors of the industry. If you want max home time, max money, go LTL. You'll be home at least weekly if not daily, depending on the terminal and opportunity. Truckload and OTR is the easiest way to break into the industry, but depending on your location, you could just as easily go LTL and possibly earn $70k+ your first year.

Best of luck.

Patrick wrote this:

Taking a run at being an O/O while being an untested rookie is just plain old financial suicide.

We should use the above as the defacto response to anyone new who is considering L/O or O/O.

As a person considering a career in trucking, without the benefit of any experience, it's an unknown if you will be good at this, or if you will even like it. Strapping yourself with the burden of owning a truck, while you are trying to absorb a very steep and unforgiving learning curve most certainly is an invitation for failure. Drive someone else's truck while you are learning.

G-town! You've put your mug shot up online! Now I know a face to look for as I'm passing through Bedford when I have to take US 30 for hazmat.

I'll try to make this as brief as possible. I'm 25 years old, my father has been in the trucking business for 35+ years. For about 10 of those years he was an O/O. Ever since I was a kid, when I rode with him on summer breaks he told me to not get into trucking. (He primarily did local sand/gravel hauling for the quarrys)

I've always wanted to be a business owner or self employed. Not even a year out of high school I started a pressure washing business and have been doing it ever since...the money is alright but I have been wanting to get out. Sick of working in the summer heat, long hours then to come home and just do quotes the rest of the night. The worst part of it for me is selling, i'll admit im not that great at it. I'm one of those shy, introvert type of people. Just looking for a change to something that fits me a little better.

i've always felt trucking was a bit in my blood. The idea has came back to me several times in the past few years. What is holding me back is how my dad has talked about it from as far back as I can remember.

What's your question?

If I am not mistaken I believe his question was Is trucking really that bad? Since his dad always advised him not to ever do it.

G-town! You've put your mug shot up online! Now I know a face to look for as I'm passing through Bedford when I have to take US 30 for hazmat.

Hey thanks for noticing; it's my "Glam" shot. LOL!!!

I appreciate all the responses. The one thing that is different with me is that i'm already coming from a business background. Building my mobile cleaning business from the ground up. I've had to buy my own truck and equipment, carry insurances, buy soaps, scheduling/invoicing, stash money away for the slow time and for breakdowns etc (i've definitely learned my lesson from not having enough cash reserves). So i'm familiar with how a business has to be run, the good thing is I don't have to rush into this - I can put away some good capital and get my business plan done.

I'll try to make this as brief as possible. I'm 25 years old, my father has been in the trucking business for 35+ years. For about 10 of those years he was an O/O. Ever since I was a kid, when I rode with him on summer breaks he told me to not get into trucking. (He primarily did local sand/gravel hauling for the quarrys)

I've always wanted to be a business owner or self employed. Not even a year out of high school I started a pressure washing business and have been doing it ever since...the money is alright but I have been wanting to get out. Sick of working in the summer heat, long hours then to come home and just do quotes the rest of the night. The worst part of it for me is selling, i'll admit im not that great at it. I'm one of those shy, introvert type of people. Just looking for a change to something that fits me a little better.

i've always felt trucking was a bit in my blood. The idea has came back to me several times in the past few years. What is holding me back is how my dad has talked about it from as far back as I can remember.

What's your question?

If I am not mistaken I believe his question was Is trucking really that bad? Since his dad always advised him not to ever do it.

That's pretty much it. He's really "old-school". I'm not saying he did it wrong but I feel like there were things that could have been done differently

I guess the simple answer is: depends. For some people this lifestyle suits them. For others it don't. This isn't a job. It is a lifestyle. For some this life brings great adventure and freedom. For others it will bring hardship and misery. The only thing that differs is one's personality and perspective. The only guarantee is that you will either love it or hate it.

If for no other reason get your first year in as a company driver. Find out if you will love it or hate it. Build relationships, build up your reserve capital. Do all those things that will set yourself up for success. That way when you decide to go O/O you have a strong foundation and have set yourself up to succeed.

I appreciate all the responses. The one thing that is different with me is that i'm already coming from a business background.

Trey, I purposely stayed out of this discussion because sometimes I feel like I'm hogging the microphone on certain subjects. Lately I enjoy sitting back and seeing what some of the others in here have to say, and I must say that, as usual, there is an awesome bunch of folks in here who are willing to give out helpful advice. You got some great advice from your father, and some very experienced drivers in this forum, which you've shunned. You are so much like most of the owner operators out there. You think that there is something special about you that will help you make a successful run at this.

You hooked me into the conversation with your comment above.

I am a life long entrepreneur. After I retired from thirty years as a business owner, I decided to start driving a truck. So, you see, I came from a business background also. Thirty years of managing as many as ten employees, seven digit sales, and a fleet of six big rigs. I too wanted to start out as an Owner/Operator. I worked hard on putting together a business plan. Now, I have a lot of experience at laying out projections of costs, sales, and profits. I literally went through my plans frontwards, backward, and sideways. Guess what? The best scenario that I could come up with was that I was going to make about $40,000 a year, and that was if I could consistently haul freight at 1.75/mile. I might be able to make a little bit more than that, but basically I was breaking even at 1.75/mile and paying myself a $40,000 salary - there really was no profits left after that. Now when I projected that out to somewhere in the five or six year distance and I would be needing to either do some major over hauls to my truck, or try to buy a new one, guess where that money would have to come from? Out of my annual salary that I had been making of $40,000 for the past year!

Now, if you think that sounds good, then I'm all for you to go out there and break your neck doing it. Here's the real problem with this whole thing of being an Owner/Operator, it ends up being an emotional decision rather than a logical one that looks realistically at the possibilities for profits or losses. About half of the O/O's I've spoken with regret their decision, and realized a little too late what they've gotten themselves into. The other half are just outright obliviously stubborn, and are going to grind it out until the bitter end finally rises up and slaps them down completely. If you are the type that just thinks it's "cool" to have a nice rig, and likes to be seen as "cool" by your peers, then you may enjoy being an owner operator for a little while, but it will be short lived. You will soon discover that there is nothing "cool" about chasing down a broker who owes you money, when you could be spending your precious time in a much better way.

One thing that newbies jumping into this business don't think about is just how cut throat the competition is. Owner Operators have got to find niche markets to get into if they even have a prayer at success. Guess what? Everyone is eyeing those niche markets now days. J.B. Hunt has specialized in that kind of thing for years. So now all the little guys are having to try to compete with the big players like Schneider, Swift, Prime,etc... If you don't think that someone else will jump in and cut your bids for freight just to run a few more loads on their trucks you are willfully blind. When I came up with my own scenarios for running loads, and knew that I needed to charge at least 1.75 per mile, I then started researching what loads were going for around the country. Well, that was a shocking revelation! Some of these big time carriers were doing them for sometimes as low a 1.10 - 1.25 per mile! Not only that, they were getting huge discounts on fuel, tires, and maintenance that I had zero leverage to negotiate for. It is a commodities business - in a nutshell that means that the cheapest price gets the bid. It literally is a game of making pennies out here in the very vicious world of trucking. Now, if you choose to think I am a nut and don't have a clue about what I am talking about, you should look up some of these very large trucking companies and do a little research into what their operating ratios are. These are publicly traded companies, and you can find this information easily, because investors need to know these types of things before they will part with their money. Many of them have an Operating Ratio of 97%. In layman'v terms that means that for every dollar they take in they get to keep three pennies of it. These are some of the best managed trucking companies in the world, and that is why they have people willing to invest in them. They have got the best and the brightest people doing every thing they can to make sure that they can at least keep three out of every 100 pennies they generate in revenues.

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