Getting my own authority....sick of this crap.

[Johnboy]

Ok fellow o/o I'm in need of a little advice.
Before I tell you all the bad the big question is would you leave a company where I have grossed over 200k a year to the truck for the last 3 yrs out of 5 I've been with the company.
I pull a flatbed 53ft and have considered going to mercer or landstar just to control my home time a little more I have also considered my own authority however that's down the road.

[Rawze]

(02-02-2017 )Johnboy Wrote:  Ok fellow o/o I'm in need of a little advice.
Before I tell you all the bad the big question is would you leave a company where I have grossed over 200k a year to the truck for the last 3 yrs out of 5 I've been with the company.
I pull a flatbed 53ft and have considered going to mercer or landstar just to control my home time a little more I have also considered my own authority however that's down the road.

That would depend on how much of it you have kept and was able to net per mile in a year after fuel and everything else.

[Rawze]

Here are my thoughts so that others can compare...


It is all a matter of what you haul, or plan to haul. - Short term, something may look really good, but long term, the freight only pays so much no matter what you do or what road you are on.

Here is my own trucks situation...

We are leased onto a large mega-fleet hauling dry/reefer freight all across the board. most of the time it is fairly heavy, but never over 80k gross wt. - Even so, I have not seen very many people that makes much more than we do after ALL end EVERY expense in a year that they can keep and have to claim taxes on.

We certainly do not get paid very much for what we do, but being on the mega-fleet has its advantages too, and that is why it works for us.

I am not trying to sell anyone on what we do, or that they should do things our way. This is just the highlights as it works for us, it is not for everyone ...

* Since we haul everybody elses freight such as ups, fedex, amazon, conway, estes, etc.etc.etc. - Literally everybody else's junk (and even their trailers when needed) - Is that no matter where we end up, or when we deliver somewhere, even in south BFE in the off-season, etc. there is already a dozen loads screaming to be picked by our carrier from their customers. This equated to high demand on us and non-stop drop and hook as fast as we can dish it out. it is literally, drop this trailer, and go get this one going the other way ..

- Aside from mandatory breaks, literally the truck never stops moving when we are out. In a year this adds up big time and overcomes in revenue, what other truck owners who seek higher rates and work load boards waste while sitting and looking for their next loads. - I.E. - We work harder for slightly less,.. but the fact that we don't have to sit at all, or handle freight, etc. becomes the advantage yielding a higher overall income long term than many others.

* Our fuel discount is VERY deep. This makes up for a lot of the lower rate we haul for.

* Mega-fleet literally pays for everything including fuel taxes, etc. - In fact, outside of fuel itself and about $120 or so total a week in bobtail & OA insurance, qualcomm. - Very reasonable if you ask me. We can make up the $120 in one fill-up sometimes just from our fuel discounts.

* Simple as pie. The Qualcomm beeps, you know you are going to make a predictable profit, and know exactly what it is. - All that is left is to enjoy the scenery and keep the door shut, slow and steady all the way for maximum profit every mile.

* We have no headaches, no looking for freight, no load boards, no worries. We leave all the politics to the mega-fleet and ignore everything but that next "beep" for a load. We don't even care where it goes, as we know we are going to make money on it, rinse and repeat.

* we go home when we want to and take as much time off as we want to, no penalties. sometimes we will drive from Chicago or some other far-off place back to Atlanta to go home bobtail just because we want to. Truck busts more than 15+ mpg bobtail, so we really don't care.

Here is what we did in 2015... This is straight from our tax documents, I don't have anything to hide.

Truck Gross => $168,219

Settlement expenses (all and including fuel) => $55,683

Truck NET => $112,536 (Take home pay)

Miles = 129,407. This equates to a gross income of $1.29/mile. Not very high for a team truck, but since we have little to no expense,... the NET is still pretty decent at almost 0.87c/mile. Not too many people hauling dry-van can say their net after all expenses is that good. That is what makes it work for us. - We do NOT go fast, NOR do we kill ourselves, that is obvious looking at the miles.

Days away from home for a full 24/hours = 177. This includes days we sat out on the road on resets, etc. We drove less than half the year total. This equates to a NET income of $635 per day for every day we were out on the roads. Very nice if you ask me. I don't care who you are, you can't live or run a household on $635 a day for every day you work, there is something wrong with you or your family. If your not keeping that money and saving it in the bank, then I suggest you get a BIG HONKIN' BOTTLE of super-glue and fix that hole you got in the bottom of your bucket!.

We take very good care of our truck and drive it slow and very gently because I don't want to be spending the money we make fixing on it all the damn time. We drive 55 mph almost exclusively, and keep it moving steady. The roads just beat it to death at higher speeds and it just does not pay. Even the power for the engine is set to only 450-HP. It is more than enough for us.

NOW--- Just imagine what we would have made if we had stayed out all year and drove our arses off!. You do the math.

===

This is what we did in 2015. 2014 was much better as we stayed out a lot more. 2016 will be less, because her & her son drove a lot less due to having health issues, etc. - Even so, we didn't go broke over it.

[Johnboy]

Incredibly helpful. Nice kick in the backside taken very well thanks rawze. If I can remember I will update with some of my numbers later when I have them finished. I wouldn't be surprised if I have somewhere between 60 and 100 days home and the rest out, no lie. I kinda thought there was something up when other o/o talk about being home for months and I talk about weeks.