Getting you own authority wasn't that hard. I did most of it and detailed it here:

http://www.classadrivers.com/phpBB2/...hlight=#275554

Getting the truck and trailer was easy too. To get it all set up and out there is fairly quick. The hard part of learning the freight rates and the lanes and FINDING GOOD PAYING LOADS, well that's where the hard part comes in and I personally don't see how you learn that with a company unless they take you into the office and start explaining things to you.

Me personally I don't see how in this day and age anyone could last 2 years with a company. A grown man can't live off a few hundred dollars a week. And even if you have money, I mean I remember being detained and sending in the messages and they would write back that I would get $10 a hour detention. I mean if I wanted $10 an hour I would cut grass.

 

Well, it's depends! Some "company drivers" make a lot more, than some o/o.
And if they are not satisfied with the pay, or conditions, it's fairly easy to make a change. O/O stick with his choice.
As of to detention, $10 is better than nothing...
All in all it's very variable! :roll:

 

I agree whole-heartedly. I went to the new driver forum and gave some tried and true advice and those newbs roasted me, then one said he drove someone elses truck because he studied the situation and that was best for him. He studied WRONG!! The man with authority has authority. I cant see running a truck for someone that has no idea what you have to do in a day to earn them their paycheck. They dont know the red button from the yellow button, but they control your destiny. I had a VP once fill in as a load planner and deadheaded a truck 300 miles to pickup a 200 mile load. All profit out the window, I just shook my head. :wink:

 

It's not all about how to get good rates,it's about learning the ins and outs of trucking in general,about what routes to run and more importantly which ones not to.

About learning good habits like when to keep the left door shut and when to get your rest and avoid wasting time in unneccessary spots.Almost all of the things learned from being a company driver will be used on a daily basis when you own your own truck.

I was a driver for a couple of O/O's that ran for Jones Motor and we had to do alot of the things that an O/O would have to do like calling different agents and finding loads and learning which areas to go and which ones to avoid.

I do think that it is easier today to go into O/O nowadays than it was 10 years ago,information is much easier to come by and help(like this board)is much easier to find.Load boards didn't exsist and we had to use pay phones to call every agent to find loads,where now you can get everything done while enroute to your next delivery without ever stopping.

 

May be that's a problem with trucking today! Everybody, and their cousins, are the "motor carriers"! :roll: :lol:

 

I better clarify this before I get myself into trouble as I certainly right now am making less then probably a lot of company drivers.

I don't know how a NEW driver making $.28 a mile can last with a company for 2 years.

Also LoadIt, I would leave those alone who are happy working in a company environment. If you englightened everyone who would you get to drive your trucks :wink:

mike3, you know I actually was thinking that you who grew up in trucking still went with a company for I believe you said 8 years to learn the ropes. Maybe as you said things are now more easy. Maybe you were just extremely cautious.

Honestly as for time management etc all of this hasn't seemed to hard to me so far. Granted I'm not running a highly profitable business yet but the basics I feel are pretty common sense. But definitely like you said things are easier now. I mean if there were no such things as load boards and you had no contacts up front, well I think people must have went hungry pretty fast.

 

In all seriousness I think this is very true statement.

Ok this next statement is not meant as a dircet slam on our 2 buddies,but if Steve and merrick are willing to haul $1.40 a mile freight and they are just 2 examples in our small little world here,how do we expect rates to ever rise?

There must be thousands of guys out there right now,just wishing they could find $1.40 a mile and they will haul the first thing that comes their way at $1 a mile because they are in far more dire straights than the guys I mentioned because they are not as well set up as those here are.


If the guys who are set up with a low overhead and don't neccessarily have to run night and day to just make that next payment don't make a stand and run for higher rates then the market will never correct its self,sooner or later the poor guy running for under his operating cost will go under and if those who have the finacial backing aren't willing to wait out better rates what will be left?

 

It may be easier to become an owner operator today, but I am not sure that it is easier to become successful. I think with all the information being so readily available it can give new people a false sense of security. It looks easy to go buy a truck and start running a business. I think that unless people spend time as a driver they under estimate the demands of this business. This business can take it's toll financially as well as personally, unless you are prepared. You can make a good living, but like anything else, there will be sacrifices to be made.

 

You know a lot of advice is dispensed here but til it affects you it's just words. I've read this 100 times on this board but that part about sacrifices didn't matter until the wife starts (which she is now doing) telling you that she doesn't want you to go back out. That they don't care about money that they just want you home.

I'll say one thing GMAN is persistant . Over 8,000 posts telling people about the realities of this thing and yet one by one we all do it anyway. (of course it must be said that once we are forced to listen by the reality of trucking then we remember his words.)

Anyway just thought of that when he mentioned sacrifices.

And yes Mike3 is right. I mean when someone like me who knows NOTHING about trucking can go buy a truck and set up shop then I'm quite sure that isn't healthy overall for the industry. But people like me need to learn quick or go out of business.

And quite honestly I'll repeat what I've said before, I don't see how someone gets into this with no money. Sure the truck and authority is easy enough, but it takes a lot of money to keep this truck going. And until the checks start coming in....

One other thing. Just a thought but I wonder which is worse for the industry, those that don't know what they are doing and run for cheap which is only so many, or these mega companies who get people to pay for the truck and run for free through the lease programs? Anything is possible with large amounts of capital and slave labor.

 

I don't think one has to be worse than the other,they are both bad and both effect our industry in a negative way.Both ways the uneducated are left with no truck and nothing to show for their hard work.