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dhirocz

Agreed.

As time goes on, we have more offshore china shi#t, stuff engineered to fail, and more taxes and whatnot. People don't realize the financial engineering going on around them. Look at paccar. All the newest trucks are made by design to be a constant source of income to the dealer. Corporate doesn't want you being able to do anything yourself.

Similar to lots of other things nowadays.

My city told me that I could get a permit and frame in another bedroom myself, but I would have to hire a carpenter to supervise. Not to check it, but actually watch me. Are you fucking kidding me???

Instead of being a person will a well rounded skillset, society really wants you to excel at one thing...Your job...And pay a specialist to do everything else for you. I don't agree with this. While it may help stimulate your local economy, it also sucks financially for you, to pay someone to do something you can easily do yourself. For me, fixing my truck myself has been a key part of my business model and the only reason I was even remotely profitable last year.

I'm afraid as time goes on, technology will intentionally make it harder to work on and service things without controlled access to computers, schematics and equipment. I hate it.

donaldray

(04-28-2017 )dhirocz Wrote: Agreed.

As time goes on, we have more offshore china shi#t, stuff engineered to fail, and more taxes and whatnot. People don't realize the financial engineering going on around them. Look at paccar. All the newest trucks are made by design to be a constant source of income to the dealer. Corporate doesn't want you being able to do anything yourself.

Similar to lots of other things nowadays.

My city told me that I could get a permit and frame in another bedroom myself, but I would have to hire a carpenter to supervise. Not to check it, but actually watch me. Are you fucking kidding me???

Instead of being a person will a well rounded skillset, society really wants you to excel at one thing...Your job...And pay a specialist to do everything else for you. I don't agree with this. While it may help stimulate your local economy, it also sucks financially for you, to pay someone to do something you can easily do yourself. For me, fixing my truck myself has been a key part of my business model and the only reason I was even remotely profitable last year.

I'm afraid as time goes on, technology will intentionally make it harder to work on and service things without controlled access to computers, schematics and equipment. I hate it.

The biggest problem I see beside all that is written on this thread is one no one usually addresses. These mechanics shops charge us owner operators so much because they can be sue by insurance companies if we are charge different prices. I notice this started happening back in the nineties. Owner operators use to get a huge discount if paying cash. No more.
As far as the Chinese crisis continue for us: We have no one to blame but our own government which is no longer control by the people. Even our votes are manipulated to vote for one of the two party system. If a group opposes, then with all these new patriot laws they are easily destroyed. Not anything we do is not seen or recorded by one agency or another. Yes, they will be our heroes again after a war and grand speech . Just pray that the opponent is not china. Visit space war dot com and see how mighty our government has made them. it's incredible. But no matter TRUCK-ON

Sledge

(04-04-2017 )Rawze Wrote: My own story is a very strong case towards being successful by slowing down to roughly 60 mph on your own, saving as much fuel and operating costs as possible, and maximizing your profit margin above all else.

It is, thanks for the background. It's a good reminder not to plan like an optimist.

Sledge

(04-13-2017 )JMBT Wrote: Sledge said above, "But at least with trucking I can be more valuable by owning my own equipment."

YES, YES, and double YES!!! You can be a company driver and have next to no responsibilities pertaining to truck maintenance, load booking, business finance,..etc. Or you can step up to the plate, become an O/O and do the same job,(burn hours of your life moving shi#t down the road) but do it for 3, 5,................... times the money in your pocket! Just my 2....take it with a grain of salt!

I appreciate your detailed response.
However, this thing that I've heard from people, that owner operators make ___loads of money doesn't add up to me.

If that was true nobody who tries to become an owner operator would fail.

I don't think the author of this forum and many others here would be so adamant about doing much of your own maintenance yourself and keeping costs down, if there was so much money sloshing around that your personal driving habits and maintenance practices were irrelevant.

Also, I transport automotive parts in Ontario. If you know both automotive runs or the province of Ontario then you know what that means.

Sledge

(04-13-2017 )JMBT Wrote: Also I believe the term "fleet maintained" is an oxy moron, right???

It is, but I wonder about fleet trucks that are traded in, just to refresh the fleet, vs truck breaking down all the time. For example, my understanding is a lot of fleets did an early refresh to truck equipped with crash mitigation tech.

(04-27-2017 )dhirocz Wrote: You can say that again. Got my first truck, a 2010 T2, at 605k. Spent alot of time fixing problems with it in my spare time, maintaining it, etc... Religious oil changes and preventative maintenance. Ate a cam at 685k. Waiting on an inframe now.

This is the heart of what I'm getting at. In your situation, you took care of the truck, but because of previous owners, you are holding an in-frame bill.

It seems to me the smart money would be to just buy a truck with a very used engine, maybe even barely functional, then buy an rebuilt engine from Mr. Hag. Might help 'ya sleep at night knowing exactly what it is you have under the hood.

JMBT

Sledge, the reason many, not all, but many owner operators fail isn't because they aren't making enough money. It is because, much like our government, they misappropriate the money they have coming in. In the governments case they bring in more then enough tax dollars to build roads, bridges, schools,...etc., but they spend it on things like funding a commitee to decide what the national frog should be, and nothing gets fixed. The people complain, and they respond with, "we don't have the money we need to raise taxes". In the case of owner operators, they have a few "knock m' down" months in a row and they think freight will stay strong forever, so they go out an buy boats and cars and houses. Then freight dries up, because it is cyclical, and something breaks on their truck, they go to the checkbook and find after all the toys were paid for there is nothing left.
It isn't that there is money "sloshing around" out here and trust me when I say it gets harder to make it every year. But a good owner operator over the course of his or her trucking career will still, even in today's market, make multitudes more then their company driver counterparts!

I think the reason everyone on the forum is so keen on DIY and saving money, isn't because they are struggling, it is because every dollar you can save is one less that you have to make!! It also makes it easier to absorb an unforeseen repair when it comes at you head on! In short, good business practice says saving money is always relevant, whether you make a little or a lot!

Ontario and auto parts....yes I am very familiar. I was leased to a tiny carrier based in Ohio in the early 2000's. Auto parts were our main haul and we were in Canada, often Ontario, nearly every week. We were having "knock m' down" months every month! My truck was earning between $3-$4/mile TTT, pulling a dry van! What happened you ask? Well in 2003, FedEx, with all their, "fleet maintained", company trucks came in and cut the rate to $1.25 for the hauls we were doing, and the rest is history. We leased our truck to a different carrier and got out of auto parts.

arch_stanton

I look at it this way.I can't afford to pay a shop 125$ hr while I lose 100 an hour to do a 4 hour repair, and whats worse is the 2 day's of down time waiting for them to have time to make the repair.So in my hypothetical repair I will lose 3 days or 2250$ in revenue and that is what I average long term and then I pay them 500 $ and you lean nothing and the next time you need the same repair you still don't know how to do it.
I make more repairing my trucks than driving them.

Rawze

(05-07-2017 )arch_stanton Wrote: I look at it this way.I can't afford to pay a shop 125$ hr while I lose 100 an hour to do a 4 hour repair, and whats worse is the 2 day's of down time waiting for them to have time to make the repair.So in my hypothetical repair I will lose 3 days or 2250$ in revenue and that is what I average long term and then I pay them 500 $ and you lean nothing and the next time you need the same repair you still don't know how to do it.
I make more repairing my trucks than driving them.

I tell people who want to own a truck that the "driving it part" is the nice reward you get after you have done all the other things you have to do to keep it on the road and operating. It is clearly not the other way around if you want to make money you can keep.