billybigriggr
TB Lurker
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Why you should think about doing or not doing it.
The problem was operating costs were too high. A lot of factors can make or break an IC. A large part of it was Fuel, then repairs, but dispatch, and the part of the country operated in was a big "Major" part of the expense. As an IC you ned to be able to control your own dispatch. If someone else is doing it for you, it can cause problems. Personalities can get in the way of profits. Ex: An IC a top earner, and helped dispatch out everytime he could. A load came up that dispatch wanted him to move but he could not do it. Dispatch had no one else to do it, and begged him. He could not do it he had an abscessed tooth. On his next available dispatch the dispatchers punished him. They sent him to El Paso, after he arrived there dispatch made promises each day that never materialized. They stuck him out there with no options. Usually when he got punished by dispatch for something he would have to make it back home on his own nickle. He did not deserve to be punished, he was a top earner. He could not understand why they were punishing him. When I say punishment, His punishment was of the financial sort.
Even though you may already own the truck outright. Costs could not justify doing it.
I was not able to pay my own personal bills, even though I ran the maximum mileage and maxed out my dot hours each week. I was using income tax money to pay my personal bills, and it caused a major penalty and back tax problem with the IRS. It was robbing peter to pay paul.
Everyone wanted money from that business that just was not there. I used TA and Petro truckstops for my monthly oil changes, and found that they both were faking and charging for services they did not perform. example: After years of paying for lube jobs during oil changes I found that they were not doing the job, but still charging the fees. The nonlube deal ended up a major expense, causing a breakdown and large repair bill in the end. The truck had an automatic luber that was non functional, and I thought it was disconnected. Found out that it had to be removed in order for the truck to be lubricated manually. The mechanics at these places knew it, but did not tell. Yet, charged the fee.
Even some of the scale house personnel would (create "fake" log violations) or know about standard truck model manufacturer violations that had to be repaired and paid, at a hundred or more dollars a pop it was another major expense. I never understood why some of these folks treat the drivers like complete "buffoons". Never seen such hatred from people like in some of the scale houses.
Some of the people working at the chicken coops acted like enemies fighting in a battle (guess who the enemy was). Its like they hate the drivers, they will even place false reports on a drivers DAC to try to destroy his driving ability. IC's need good legal representation to fight some of the lies they tell. OOIDA is good to be a part of. They really help IC's. I know they have seen some mess cross over their desks.
People did not understand how $160k gross turned into less than $15k net at years end, and thought it was one big lie. It goes on from here, I could continue... The one thing that I was able to do was pay off a truck, but it was not worth anything after a rod blew, and I could not recover any costs out of it. When it blew I had just spend close to $5K getting the rollers replaced.
Bottom line. there were too many things working against becoming successful in that business. I think that this is why most people fail in the business. Not to go negative about it. But, this was the experience. Companies like Swft, England, Werner, Schneider, all have some good statistics on Owner Operator failure rates. This is why many might fail at it.
The problem was operating costs were too high. A lot of factors can make or break an IC. A large part of it was Fuel, then repairs, but dispatch, and the part of the country operated in was a big "Major" part of the expense. As an IC you ned to be able to control your own dispatch. If someone else is doing it for you, it can cause problems. Personalities can get in the way of profits. Ex: An IC a top earner, and helped dispatch out everytime he could. A load came up that dispatch wanted him to move but he could not do it. Dispatch had no one else to do it, and begged him. He could not do it he had an abscessed tooth. On his next available dispatch the dispatchers punished him. They sent him to El Paso, after he arrived there dispatch made promises each day that never materialized. They stuck him out there with no options. Usually when he got punished by dispatch for something he would have to make it back home on his own nickle. He did not deserve to be punished, he was a top earner. He could not understand why they were punishing him. When I say punishment, His punishment was of the financial sort.
Even though you may already own the truck outright. Costs could not justify doing it.
I was not able to pay my own personal bills, even though I ran the maximum mileage and maxed out my dot hours each week. I was using income tax money to pay my personal bills, and it caused a major penalty and back tax problem with the IRS. It was robbing peter to pay paul.
Everyone wanted money from that business that just was not there. I used TA and Petro truckstops for my monthly oil changes, and found that they both were faking and charging for services they did not perform. example: After years of paying for lube jobs during oil changes I found that they were not doing the job, but still charging the fees. The nonlube deal ended up a major expense, causing a breakdown and large repair bill in the end. The truck had an automatic luber that was non functional, and I thought it was disconnected. Found out that it had to be removed in order for the truck to be lubricated manually. The mechanics at these places knew it, but did not tell. Yet, charged the fee.
Even some of the scale house personnel would (create "fake" log violations) or know about standard truck model manufacturer violations that had to be repaired and paid, at a hundred or more dollars a pop it was another major expense. I never understood why some of these folks treat the drivers like complete "buffoons". Never seen such hatred from people like in some of the scale houses.
Some of the people working at the chicken coops acted like enemies fighting in a battle (guess who the enemy was). Its like they hate the drivers, they will even place false reports on a drivers DAC to try to destroy his driving ability. IC's need good legal representation to fight some of the lies they tell. OOIDA is good to be a part of. They really help IC's. I know they have seen some mess cross over their desks.People did not understand how $160k gross turned into less than $15k net at years end, and thought it was one big lie. It goes on from here, I could continue... The one thing that I was able to do was pay off a truck, but it was not worth anything after a rod blew, and I could not recover any costs out of it. When it blew I had just spend close to $5K getting the rollers replaced.
Bottom line. there were too many things working against becoming successful in that business. I think that this is why most people fail in the business. Not to go negative about it. But, this was the experience. Companies like Swft, England, Werner, Schneider, all have some good statistics on Owner Operator failure rates. This is why many might fail at it.
