I am glad that you have backed away from getting your authority right now. You have no idea how much time it will take, especially starting out. You are going to be much better off driving someone else truck while you begin to learn about this business. It will give you an opportunity to see what it really costs to run a truck. As you get into this you may want to get a composition book to keep in the truck. Write all of your load information down including mileage, fuel expense and maintenance. Major carriers often get some discounts on fuel and tires, etc., but you can always keep track and check the retail price of what your carrier spends.

Starting out I would not concern myself too much with pay. You are there to learn. There is little decent paying freight coming out of Florida. In fact, freight is often difficult to find, especially with flats. It sounds like you have found a way to get started. After a year or two you can go about anywhere you want. I would not consider it a step back. Instead, it is a step toward obtaining your goal. Since you don't have any experience, it really isn't a step back.

 

Thanks GMAN, I really appreciate everything you and everyone else has explained, and in helping me achieve my goals. What I meant by taking a step back is in income, Our current income is just over 80k a year with wife and myself. But when I start driving my wife will then work part time on weekends,because we have 3 kids, of which 2 school and 1 stay at home. So there goes 35k, then I will only be at around 32k - 37k a year. It's going to be tough chewing 20k a year without using some of savings in which I planned on using for tractor/trailer later. I'm very excited about getting started, but nervous too.

I will definitely be eye's open and pencil to paper. thanks bro...

 

You might check with Crete. I think they are back to hiring inexperienced drivers after several years of not doing so. Their starting pay is about the top of the scale, they have a terminal in Deland, and they have a flatbed subsidiary; Hunt Transport.

Of the two you mentioned, I would definitely go with Roehl.

 

A few years back I was close to your shoes:
I had several years local work under my belt .
A brave and respectable plan.
A lot of money burning a hole in my pocket.
Already had a good income and a steady job.
A wife who needed to stay with son.
And a great vision LOL

Heres how it ended up and I will spare you details.
Bought a used truck. (truck in pic)
Spent 8k putting it in tip top shape.
Got my own authority (insurance raped me but I still did it).
Hooked up with a broker to do local can work. (my biggest and first mistake).
Dropped an injector in the motor and damaged all kinds of sht.
Found out broker was fibing to me and taking more then he said he was.
Lost a ton of money and vacation time cause I quit my job.
Sold my truck for peanuts cause I needed to cash to pay bills cause I wasn't making as much as I had planned.
Closed my company the first year an lost my shirt.

Moral of story, go bang your head against the wall a few times. LOL
Get a job as a company driver and be happy for a few years and then think about it again. Good luck, your young and have a family to feed. YOU NEED IT! I didn't have , much luck. I wish someone would of smacked me and took all my cash. I would of been happier.

Reading your posts made me re-read my old posts LOL I think I am having flash backs.

BTW I been a company driver since I sold my truck and made/make more money as a company driver then I had PLANNED (willing to settle for) to make as a owner op under my own authority. With less head ache. BUT, I work my ass off for it and maintain a clean record and with a little luck it will stay that way.

Put your head down and go to work for someone. LEARN everything and stay focused. Things will come to you and you will understand better your choices and chances vs rewards an risks.

Good luck and listen to gman like he is a how to manual. THE man knows his trucking business. I been reading his posts for awhile and he knows his stuff.


AGAIN.....GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!

 

Good luck WheelTurner!

Sorry to hear that your business didn't make it Gcal. I agree that Gman has alot of knowledge and has taken lots of time to share it here.

I'm considering buying a truck also. I'd like your opinions.

Five years ago I got my CDL with HazMat, doubles, tanker at a Sage Technical course here in North Carolina. I was able to get a pre-hire from Schneider Bulk but they wanted me to attend their training at Harrisburg, PA even though I had my CDL. Great training! However when I went to New Jersey directly from training to spend six weeks with a trainer, I quit after seeing how unsafe an operation they ran at that terminal. Plus they were complete jerks without provocation.

I called Colonial Freight Systems in Knoxville, TN. Great people! They were hiring company drivers then so I went for orientation and was assigned a lease operator to train with for eight weeks. We ran Marion, NC to So Cal and back for three weeks coming home once a week for a day and a half. Only drove a night, let me back up twice, filled out my log book, etc etc. I finally asked for another trainer, this time another company driver. The night he picked me up he had an accident caused by making a U turn and a guy on a Harley slid into his landing gear. He had another preventable the night before brushing a ploe in a restaurant parking lot and someone called it in on him. We did log legally and did not run as a team. After two weeks, I simply couldn't stand being in the truck with another person period.

I quit and called Watkins and Shepard where some of my Sage classmates went. They had me attend a shortened orientation in Hickory, NC. It was great! Tim the safety manager spent alot of time with me, taught me how to downshift with a 44K load going down Black Mountain. He had me do it three times to make sure I could. Then I ran 48 state LTL van OTR for nine months until my mother got cancer. I never had to chain up but I did plenty of mountain driving in the Pacific Northwest, busy traffic in Atlanta, tight places to backup in Mid Atlantic states. I was assigned broker loads many times when WS didn't have freight.

Recently I inherited 200K. I own my little mobile home, car and have no debts. I'm single and have no tickets or accidents in over ten years.

I love driving but I don't want to be run by a company dispatcher.

I would like to buy an older, reliable tractor and trailer, get my own authority, insurance, etc and get broker loads from Web based loadboards. I can afford to start slowly to try to minimize mistakes. I do want to make a profit but I don't want to run my butt of either. I see some trucks on Truckpaper for around 30K. 2004 - 05 Freightliner 10 speed, detroit engine, approx 500 to 600K miles. Ryder Truck leasing has alot of trucks listed.

I was an OOIDA member for a couple of years. I wanted to learn and support the organization. I would definitely renew my membership to take advantage of discounts, advice etc.

I would like to haul flatbed loads, but I would need securement training. I'm not willing to go work as a company driver for six months. Watkins and Shepard told me I had to go through school again not just a refresher. I've been through PTDI training twice already.

Part of me says put ALL of my my money in mutual funds and forget about trucking.

 

I am really sorry to hear about your mother. Cancer is a very nasty disease.

You could go out and buy a good used truck. You might be better off investing the money and continue driving a company truck. If you decide you want to pull a flat, CRST Malone used to train new recruits on how to secure. They only required a minimum of 6 months experience. They only have owner operators, so you would need to buy a tractor and trailer or lease one of their trailers. There really is nothing wrong with being a company driver. You don't need to own the truck to make a good living. You could put your money into mutual funds and drive a company truck and force yourself to save enough to buy a truck outright rather than use your inheritance. There are drivers who earn over $50/yr driving someone else truck. You could save up and buy a truck in a year or two if that is what you want to do. If I were you, I would not do anything with the money for at least a year or so. It is always tempting to spend money when you come into a good sum. It doesn't last long when you start spending.

 

1) Stop posting on public forums you have 200k LOL (just sayin. dont take offense but things like that need be kept PRIVATE)
2) It would take you 5 years MIN to put 200k aside cash and be out of debt in the trucking business. @ 30-50k a year deposit into savings. Then you need to make money to run your opertaion then you need money to live off of. So you need to be pulling in well over 130k (after fuel costs) a year running your own rig and not spend anything on anything period. ( I bet other math experts here can go in to more detail what it takes to make that much and not have it spoken for)
3) I'm not a know it all by far, but if you were to get 2 to 5 perecent return on your money a year and get a job making 50k a year, you would be well head of your own operation and still have your money safe and sound. CASH is beyond king right now. KEEP IT!
4) Ryder trucks are what we have at my work. They get the oil changed every 20k miles and enough fixed on them to make them road worthy. The rest gets ignored and then they get sold off at 300-550k miles. I would NEVER buy a ryder truck for myself (my experince comes from the portland ryder shop and me dealing with them for the last year. GARBAGE service imo).
5) I too had an inhertaince when my dad passed and I too used it for a trucking business. I bet he rolled over in his grave........

In closing, I couldn't help not respond to your post. I can relate and feel the need to pass on my expnsive education so maybe you can save a buck or 200k of them.

 

Hey Contractor, I think you should do it only if you have work lined up first, and or leased on with someone. With CRST and Landstar you would take 73-75% of gross line haul. And know for a fact they have the loads available with VAN, I talked to a number of people including LS brokers,drivers, and corp.
At the time I talked to them they had 12k loads available, and of that 12k there were 9500 van loads available. Which is about 75% of total loads. They also told me that they didn't have enough lease operators to pull the loads they have now, much less in month or two when season picks back up. Another thing you have going for you is your carolina, which should give you good home time. Never let the brokers know where you live, as you can still bargain on routes that take you home or close to home. Dry Van at LS is averaging about 1.10-1.40 cpm and step/flat avg. 1.85-2.25 cpm.

I recommend you saving as much of your money as possible and only coming out of pocket with the least amount possible for down payment on tractor using financing on rest. As you will need to establish positive business credit in order to have successful business. Buy a dry van for 5-7k or finance as well. By using credit, you would also have a safety net on your new found money. If you get out there and it's not what you thought or money isn't there, or truck maint. is killing you or whatever it may be, at least you didn't blow a chunk of money buying 30-70k truck and trailer. You could just walk away with negative credit and 185k. As it should only cost you about 15k with down payments, insurance, and base plate. You could also pay off truck on 13th month instead of paying whole term if your doing good. You should do it bro, don't let anyone tell you that you can't do it. Everyone has different story, and situation that you may not have.

I think that you should be looking in the 400 to 500k mile trucks for around 30 to 40k price range, there out there. I've recently been looking at repo's for fraction of cost of retail. Might be worth looking in to, of course you would need to have your mechanic or a mechanic take a look for you before closing a deal. But you may not be able to finance.

I wouldn't start with my own authority unless I already had contract from distributor lined up or something on those lines. Start leased on, its safer and more secure. And you could market yourself while doing it, you never know what could pop up. Brokers are so shady and could rip u off. A lot of those load boards out there are crap anyways. Let someone hold your hand starting out, from what I'm hearing the best started out that way too. That's what I'm aiming for too.

If your looking for a company to train you with flat, try boyd bros trans, and maverick trans. They both train students and company drivers with flat/step and there both hiring in your area. Do six months with them, then apply with CRST as lease operator pulling flat. As there requirements are 6 months otr within past year and 6 month withing last 3 years pulling trailer applying to pull. Double check but I think I'm right.

 

You need to be careful when you buy any fleet truck. Some will extend oil changes to as much as 50,000 miles. That can lead to early engine or component failure. Just because someone says that a truck has been fleet maintained doesn't necessarily mean that they were well maintained. No matter what type of truck you buy, you should make sure and check it out thoroughly. There is no need to spend a lot of money on your first truck. You will begin losing money on it from day one with depreciation. I would still try to find something around $20,000. I would not go over $25-30,000. If you do decide to buy a truck, I would not mention about how much money you have in hand. You could just tell them that you have your own financing. If a dealer knows that you have a lot of money they will try to get as much of it as possible.