I'm Headed To Springfield Prime Fri

Ok now if I don't mess up the formatting again I'll respond to this half.

Risks, not risk. Your example is only one risk of a multitude that L/Os expose themselves to, many of them unrelated to safe driving and maintenance. Company drivers don't have to worry about that, and they can take home almost as much.

Slip and break your leg. Who is going to be home staring down a lease payment, insurance payments, potential repo, etc while the truck is parked and algae is growing in the fuel tank? Who is going to be collecting workman's comp with no truckly worries?

Are the risks worth the marginal increase in pay?

Everyone who enters trucking must make their own risk/cost/benefit decision. Are the benefits of trucking worth the risks of being on the road. Are those benefits also worth the cost of not seeing your loved ones.

What you mentioned above is just another risk/benefit evaluation taken to the factor of worst case scenario.

You will come to your conclusion. I will come to my conclusion. Everyone else must make their own.

Just because your conclusion is different than someone else's, does not make either of you wrong.

Everyone who enters trucking must make their own risk/cost/benefit decision. Are the benefits of trucking worth the risks of being on the road. Are those benefits also worth the cost of not seeing your loved ones.

What you mentioned above is just another risk/benefit evaluation taken to the factor of worst case scenario.

You will come to your conclusion. I will come to my conclusion. Everyone else must make their own.

Just because your conclusion is different than someone else's, does not make either of you wrong.

Of course. The question is do you think people looking into this industry want to calculate the risk/cost/benefit equation with accurate numbers or glitter farts and rainbow barf?

I think our difference is what you are referring to as "hard, cold reality", I believe should be followed by or replaced with "in my/our opinion".

Austin O. stepped up and put forward his experience. What followed appeared to me like an entire defensive line dogpiling a quarterback. Everyone on this site tries to share their experiences for the benefit of others. But we don't agree with Austin's experiences so we're going to pick apart his every word and tell him why we think his experiences are wrong. Brett you took his comment of 2k on the weeks he runs and you multiplied that out to 100k a year. Austin never once claimed he maid that much. He clearly wrote to the contrary, but yet you keep bringing up that number that you created.

Whenever someone who leased or owned a truck shares a negative experience, or claims that they didn't do much better than a company driver, the angels of TT sing their praises and thank them for sharing their experience of why you shouldn't lease.

Yet when a company driver had a bad experience or doesn't do well, TT advises them to look in the mirror for their problem.

Here a guy who leases shares his positive experiences and those singing angels become charging linebackers trying to sac that quarterback.

PlanB, I've noticed you've shown some hostility and frustration toward us recently and I suspect it's because secretly you'd like to buy or lease a truck yourself and you don't like what you're hearing. Otherwise I don't know why you would act like we're wronging people or being hypocrites. The only people who get frustrated with us are the people who don't like what they're hearing because it goes against their hopes. But realize that we're going to give people the hard, cold reality at all times. That's what we do. If you'd rather have someone feed you a bunch of BS you'll have no trouble finding it, it's almost everywhere on the Web. Just not here.

Have you ever leased or run a truck at all?

He is right now.

Who's trying to share their experiences and who's spewing out the rainbow barf?

Everyone who enters trucking must make their own risk/cost/benefit decision. Are the benefits of trucking worth the risks of being on the road. Are those benefits also worth the cost of not seeing your loved ones.

What you mentioned above is just another risk/benefit evaluation taken to the factor of worst case scenario.

You will come to your conclusion. I will come to my conclusion. Everyone else must make their own.

Just because your conclusion is different than someone else's, does not make either of you wrong.

Of course. The question is do you think people looking into this industry want to calculate the risk/cost/benefit equation with accurate numbers or glitter farts and rainbow barf?

No man, we have been asking for the math. Is 2+2=4 an opinion? The claim was $2k average per week. $2k what per week? That is what needs to be clarified. Without clarification this is just smoke and mirrors and can be dissmissed as such.

And saying $2k after ALL expenses is too vague. No one serious about running a successful business will go on such a vague statement.

Anyway, let's move this to a different thread.

Sorry for tracking up your thread, Rainy.

The missus and I hope this brightens your day.

I read the same posts you did. The ONLY thing that I felt was vague was if that 2k was before or after setting aside tax money.

After I finished training I stayed on my lease trainers truck. He was no longer my trainer, now I was a co-driver. I was fresh out of training and he went home for 3 weeks and paid me 50cpm to run his leased truck while he went on vacation. I ran a lot of miles those weeks and he showed me his settlements after he got back on the truck.

He paid me the 50cpm, and I made very good checks those weeks. As I was a company driver on his lease truck he had to pay my social security benefits and he paid the company contribution towards my medical benefits. After paying all those expenses plus the trucks expenses he still made a good amount of money those 3 weeks. I've seen a lease trucks solo settlements while being run by a fresh out of school driver (Me).

That is why Austin's claims are in no way unbelievable to me. I did it.

And saying $2k after ALL expenses is too vague. No one serious about running a successful business will go on such a vague statement.

Woah. How the tide turned in this hysterical thread. I’d really like to respond but it’s just piling on at the point. I know few lease ops. I don’t get into details with them cause few of them post their year-to-date settlement figures, as I have whenever I talk numbers.

That said, a good friend just left because her lease truck was in the shop for nearly a month. How can anyone absorb a month of breakdown pay & still be profitable? There are lease ops that don’t even know they have to pay their taxes quarterly, at the very least.

What about their healthcare? All I know is this. This risk/profit quotient is skewed against the lease op/owner op. When I hear O/O’s scheming on running their reefers at 10 degrees when the bills stated much less than that cause of the fuel expense? They’re willing to risk a huge claim expense to save pennies compared to the thousands of dollars a claim could cost! I’m good as a company driver.

Not to mention how they run! Skipping showers, sit down meals, etc? It’s not just about the money. It’s about quality of life. I remember one O/O explaining that he makes money cause his truck doesn’t stop!! Yeah, I’m good as a company driver. If Austin is happy with his deal? More power to him.

Brett you took his comment of 2k on the weeks he runs and you multiplied that out to 100k a year.

Well DUH! No sh*t, Sherlock. I guess I'll have to do the math long form so you can understand the reasoning behind that.

There are 52 weeks in a year. If he takes two full weeks off each year that leaves 50 weeks. 50 x $2,000 = $100,000. That is literally 3rd grade math you seem to be having a problem with. I'm really delighted to be spending my evening arguing business models with someone who can't make sense out of 3rd grade math.

Austin never once claimed he made that much. He clearly wrote to the contrary, but yet you keep bringing up that number that you created.

Ok, this has gotten to the level of blatant stupidity at this point. His exact words were:

My average is 2,000 a week AFTER ALL expenses. That's my weekly average net.

So did I make that up PlanB? Really?

PlanB, I'm done talking to you about this, and I think it's time you go cool off for a while. You've clearly gone off the deep end. When it gets to the point that I have to quote exact statements that people made because you claim I'm making things up and I have to explain how $2k per week x 50 weeks per year adds up to about $100,000 then this conversation has officially spiraled down to a level of stupidity.

This is what happens when you try to talk logical business models with people who are making emotional decisions based on pride and vanity. Because let's face it, that's what owning or leasing a truck is all about, pride and vanity. It's about being able to brag to your buddies that you're the big boss man calling all the shots. You're not making any more than a company driver, and often times far less, with infinitely more risk and work to do. That isn't a logical business decision, that's an emotional decision.

This is why we don't talk about this stuff anymore. Owning or leasing a truck has such a strong emotional attraction for some people that they quite literally lose all touch with reality over it.