5 Year CDL Driver Striking Out As O/O

Picked up my CDL 5 years ago working for a big fertilizer company. Held D/T, tanker, hazmat endorsements. Ran tanker and dry van , did a little bit of everything on the side for other local guys. Left at the start of Covid to work for my family running a 32 ton mobile crane. Picked up my crane certs, let the hazmat go. Been craning like crazy ever since. I am fairly handy on a lot of construction equipment, now have a few thousand hours under my belt in a crane cab, and of course my tractor/trailer mileage from my first 2 years.

Construction is getting pretty slow here (CO), and family dynamic has shifted. Looking to move back into a more rural area and truck for a living as an owner operator. I am fortunate to have the means and timeframe to get my authority, purchase a truck, get insured, etc. I am really struggling on figuring out how worn out of a truck is "safe" to buy and what type of trucking I'll need to do to make ends meet. Thinking of starting with a day cab with a wet kit. Have 4 young ones at home, hate to be OTR more than every so often. Would be highly motivated to get out and haul whatever I needed, even if I have to load the trailer by hand.

Any insight into warning on trucks or pitfalls new folks fall into would be most appreciated. Thank you.

Not the best place to get advice for starting a logistics empire since the board is focused on helping new drivers. I'll give it a stab anyway.

As a new O/O your best source of resources and advice is going to be the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association (OOIDA). They can help you with insurance, fuel discounts and everything you could possibly want to know about starting your own enterprise.

You couldn't have picked a worse time to start out. All the economic signals are pointing to a recession this year. Linehaul has been hit the hardest. Fedex furloughed drivers IN DECEMBER! With a large fleet of trucks chasing after shrinking freight volumes that means rates will be dipping too. Many drivers got the itch to start a trucking company during the pandemic and paid too much for their equipment. They will be driving hard to avoid the repo man.

While prices for equipment have been coming down you should be able to have your pick of the litter for equipment once the repo men start thinning the herd. You may have a hard time finding a good truck for a fair price before then. Strike one.

As a driver with a NEW authority many brokers won't even talk to you. They want a company that's been around at least a year. Any thoughts on where you're going to be getting your loads? Strike two.

I'd say roughly 80% of the freight that moves by truck fits in a square between Atlanta, Dallas, Omaha and New York. Another 10% goes up and down I-5 and maybe 10% that either goes between the square and I-5 or somewhere else off the beaten path. If you want to drive in Colorado in a day cab you'll be limiting yourself to 10% of the freight, with brokers willing to work with a new authority in a shrinking freight market with sinking rates. I have an MBA, but you don't need one to see that the plan isn't a very good one. I'd wait at least 8 months, do some research and wait for the FLOOD of used trucks and trailers coming soon to an auction yard near you.

Welcome Cade, my hat is off to you working cranes. I have and do work with that industry fairly often. Good operators are very talented.

Alot of info is needed on the area you plan/want to operate in before much can be advised on. First what are you looking to haul. All trucks, including day cabs are not built equally. Prices are starting to come down a little, but still pretty upside down.

If I were you I would find some likely customers needing somewhat local delivery capacity. Once you have a couple customers you will know more of what you need to service them and go from there.

If your looking to use general brokers you will go broke pretty quick. The rates are really low for the most part right now and the forecast doesn’t look good through this year.

Well I have never been one to favor getting a sugar coated story over the truth. That info there is pretty cut and dry, so I would assume it's accurate!

Apologies if I threw this in the wrong spot, but I think I got great info from you two already. That's a pretty fine kettle of fishes, eh?

The slow down is going to get us all I reckon. Probably better to be an hourly operator and scrape the budget for a year then haul off on a truck. I have been unpleasantly surprised by "values" of used trucks while I've been shopping on Truck Paper and local adverstisements.

The only caveat I could offer to this is I come from a ranching background and have hauled cattle/livestock on my own in a pickup rig, and helped/rode with a couple pros in the real pots. I have an "in" to hauling livestock back and forth along essentially I-25 from Montana to NM/TX, and I wonder if I shouldn't get a bit more serious about talking to that gentleman about how he's paying. He's all O/O, then provides trailers. Maybe he has an idle truck and I can get a year in that way. Sounds like I need the experience under other auspices before I'll be trusted.

Was the same deal with the crane. I've made a decent hand I think, but even 3 years in, I often get the side eye being a young buck.

Thank you for the honesty. Rather make a slow decision than a catastrophic one. Appreciate the time you took to tell me.

Cade, you are going into this under the assumption that being an owner/operator is more lucrative than working for a good trucking company. It's not necessarily so. What brings top dollar in this business is being productive, safe, and easy to work with.

I often get the side eye being a young buck.

That's OK. Embrace your youth and develop yourself into a professional. Results speak volumes in trucking. That's how you earn the top dollars. It has nothing to do with your age or who owns the truck. Your reputation will be on the line everyday out here. Take the time to build a solid work history. The money will be discovered on that trail.

You're gonna have to get familiar with load boards, I recommend DAT. And also factoring companies so you get paid quickly.

There's tons of YouTube videos for this stuff. I like MakeCents and JustTruckin. Sammy and Justin are O/O and Justin is currently parked and driving Uber with rates being down.

But really rates are in the toilet right now, but there are a LOT of repo trucks available to buy. That's a caveat right there, and honestly I don't know that used is the way to go.

Good luck on this adventure!

I'm not exactly sure what Bigfoot is trying to tell you, but were someone to say these things to me...

You're gonna have to get familiar with... factoring companies so you get paid quickly.

Sammy and Justin are O/O and Justin is currently parked and driving Uber with rates being down.

rates are in the toilet right now, but there are a LOT of repo trucks available to buy.

Let's see... I'd interpret that as "run as far in the other direction as possible."

This is a commodities business. That means the cheapest rates get to do the work. Trucking has a typical operating ratio near 97%. That means you make 3 to 5 cents on the dollar. Now you throw in the factoring company's ridiculous percentage rate and you are strictly working for nothing but cash flow. That's a totally unsustainable business model.

When there are a lot of repos available that means almost each one of them represents an independent O/O who lost his shirt and his truck. This is one rough and cyclical business. If you have the resources to navigate the ups and downs you probably don't really need a job anyway.

Never to step on someone's dream, I just wanted him to know that owner op is a huge leap.

There is in fact a reason so many repo trucks are out there. People stepped out without a plan and without the working knowledge of moving freight, when rates were high. Then when rates came down and fuel stayed high, they were forced out.

I would stay in the field I'm in and make/save as much as humanly possible then learn EVERYTHING about freight lanes, and what moves in your area or the area you want to be in. If you still have the dream and the knowledge, and are willing to gamble on yourself then by all means do it.

Right now the market isn't good. It's as bad as I've ever seen and not improving at least not as fast as any of us would like.

Thank you also Bigfoot anf Old School.

I believe that is indeed the consensus on freight rates. We in the crane deal are of course also pinched by the fuel/tires/everything and the substantial slow down in work. Of course, working as as operator sort of protects you from that, so long as you're moving enough to keep the company liquid.

I had a couple productive talks with livestock outfits today. Seems to be plenty of critters moving and some opportunity if you're ready to get in there and rock and roll, which I hope I am. Haven't met a challenge I couldn't find a way to meet thus far.

But I do think rolling around and building a reputation without being on the hook to pay for the truck, breakdowns, insurance, and etc might be the right way to get started. At least from the standpoint of financial stress on the family. Plus puts me back around cattle/livestock every day, which is ultimately where I'd like to be. Suppose if I stick with what I love and am willing to work, the chance to buil the business will grow from doing a good job and enjoying it. People pick up on that pretty quick.

Thank you all for the warnings and advisement. Very helpful to the decision making process.

Thank you also Bigfoot anf Old School.

I believe that is indeed the consensus on freight rates. We in the crane deal are of course also pinched by the fuel/tires/everything and the substantial slow down in work. Of course, working as as operator sort of protects you from that, so long as you're moving enough to keep the company liquid.

I had a couple productive talks with livestock outfits today. Seems to be plenty of critters moving and some opportunity if you're ready to get in there and rock and roll, which I hope I am. Haven't met a challenge I couldn't find a way to meet thus far.

But I do think rolling around and building a reputation without being on the hook to pay for the truck, breakdowns, insurance, and etc might be the right way to get started. At least from the standpoint of financial stress on the family. Plus puts me back around cattle/livestock every day, which is ultimately where I'd like to be. Suppose if I stick with what I love and am willing to work, the chance to buil the business will grow from doing a good job and enjoying it. People pick up on that pretty quick.

Thank you all for the warnings and advisement. Very helpful to the decision making process.

If you want to get experience hauling livestock and don't want to risk O/O just yet, a company called JBS hires drivers with 1 year of experience to haul livestock. They hire drivers to run regional. Tyson also hires livestock haulers. Both companies are very financially stable and haul their own freight. Either one could be a good option for getting that livestock hauling experience.