Authority Pros & Cons

[Rawze]

I prefer the "Owner-Op on training Wheels" myself. It is not for everyone though.

My qualcomm beeps, and I drive, doing what it says. I earn a bit less per mile but have no headaches, hassles, or problems getting paid in return. I also know exactly how much I am getting paid, and get paid for for every mile the truck goes loaded, empty, bobtail, or otherwise.

We take home net (money you can keep) a decent pay for what we do and it is comparable to any one else's take home pay in the dry-van/reefer market after facting and all the other headaches. The advantage is that for us, it simply becomes a matter of how much we feel like driving it vs want to stay home.

This "No-Brainier" style of truck ownership works best for us, as we don't care to hassle with anything more than driving and maintaining our truck to the best of its ability. Could I earn more if I went all out and got my own authority? -- Sure thing I could,.. but at what gains vs headache?. -- For us, all the extra effort and headaches would not be worth that bit of gain, we earn a decent living off what we got already.

- Lastly, being part of a mega-fleet as an O/O, there is no such thing as sitting still or waiting for a load. There is always high demand everywhere we go and the truck literally never stops moving when we are out unless we are out of driving hours. To me, this pre-managed mega-fleet sort of "maximum driving efficiency" earns us money where others have to sit for that day or 2 looking for that back-haul or that next trip that pays well out of a dead zone. For us, there is no such thing, as there is always UPS, fedex, conway, or some other mega-carrier's stuff we can grab and go back out with, keeping us moving and the pay coming in steady.

-- There is also the "support" factor in what we do. Being leased onto a mega-fleet with more than 2,000 trucks and 4,000 trailers ... Hit a deer in Montanna, blow out a tire, something breaks, someone runs into you in a parking lot, or simply break down in the middle of no-where, get sick with the flu, etc... A phone call later and there is another truck there to take your load to its delivery within a few hours, no questions asked. There is a "break-down" department that has already figured out what shop or road service in that area is the cheapest to get you going again, and someone on the other end to support that odd situation.

-- Personally, if someone is starting out in trucking, I think they should do the O/O on training wheels for about 3 years or so, learning how to maximize every dime out of owning and maintaining a truck before even considering their own authority. WHY? -- Because truck ownership is a learning curve that takes years to get good at. It takes years of experience to become very efficient at solving your own problems, keeping your equipment in decent shape yourself, and all the things that count the most towards keeping your money in your pocket these days. -- Add into that the fact it takes a few years to get good at having your own authority,.. and those first few years experience of running a truck efficiently before hand will compliment it instead of making it more complex and more difficult.

that is my take on it, no one has to agree.