Comments By Texas Tim

Tim, what amenities does your truck have?

Pretty standard stuff. Comes with a fridge and a closet, sleeper controls for temperature. I bought a microwave and an electric skillet and cook to save money. Truck stops are outrageously expensive.

I'll add a few more pictures of some of the places I've seen. I've been to nearly all of the lower 48 and have mostly seen traffic and white lines but occasionally I see some of our beautiful country.

Quick update: been running as hard as possible. Wilson has been good to me. I really like my Fleet Manager. He's a solid guy that keeps me rolling. Lease op has been good. Averaging between $1700 to $2000 a week. The summer months have been down a little but still making money. Will have a year under my belt in a couple months so we'll see if any opportunities open up then. Not getting home very often, about once every 4 to 6 weeks. Have a new grandbaby tho! I got a puppy for the truck too. His name is Toby. I'll post some pictures of them.

Mountain Matt is leaving Wilson for another company driving tanker. Good luck Matt!

So since everyone here is so critical of the deep end of the pool I've jumped into, what are you suggesting I do? Go back to being a company driver and making less than I can afford to make? I've been very clear that $900-$1000/week is barely enough to pay my bills. If that's the case trucking is not worth the sacrifice. Because I only see 3 options here... company (not enough money), lease (too much risk), or owner op (don't have the credit). So instead of telling me I made a mistake how about telling me either how to succeed or to get out while I can!

I know none of you know me but I'm not stupid. I'm not some naive 25 year old that thinks $4100 a week is sustainable or that it didn't start during the previous week. It was a perfect storm. The week before I was just starting out and made a couple mistakes and only had one load on payroll. The next load started before payroll ended and spilled into the next week and really helped the next week out. Do I care? Nope! More money! As long as I start the week paying my expenses then the other loads are towards my profits. I'm running this like an owner op so I need suggestions on how to be the best one I can.

What is your maintenance cost per mile?

What is your fixed cost to operate the truck?

What is your percentage of loaded miles and deadhead miles?

How much are you setting aside for maintenance?

How much are you setting aside for quarterly taxes?

What is the fuel surcharge average since you started?

How much are you paying yourself per mile?

Are you performing any scheduled and unscheduled maintenance?

Do you have an accountant that is proficient with truckers needs?

These are all really good questions! Can you help me answer them??

And this is usually the response we get back from anyone that goes into the lease plan. I'd love to read all your numbers for all the costs and expenses compared to settlements. Some day a lease operator will post these, but after my six years on TT, it hasn't happened.

Good luck.

I think these are in the right order... this is my statement from last week.

I’ve always been curious as to what Prime gives lease ops in regards to fuel surcharge because I can almost guarantee they’re skimming.

I don't know if they are or not but they definitely have some connections with discounts and all that. Last week I ran 4315 miles and after discounts only paid $1100 for fuel. I think the only reason I even paid that much is because of where I bought fuel a couple of times. I wasn't always where I could fuel at the places Prime suggested.

We all go through a steep learning curve in trucking. You just decided you wanted yours to be even more challenging. I hope you can pull it off. If you've got a good dispatcher, who is only dispatching lease operators, they should be able to help you some. They will understand the things you need.

I understand what everybody is saying and I get that I have to pay dues and that I won't make a ton of money since I'm just starting out. I'm not arguing that. I knew I would be at the bottom of the ladder. I knew that coming in to this industry. I'm not naive or young enough to think I would make a LOT of money off the bat but I do have a minimum amount I need in order to survive and pay my bills. My calculations were a little higher than 1000 a week or so which would be close to what I was making before I lost my last job. If I can't make that it will be a lot harder to survive and not worth the sacrifice I'm making to call this a career. So far as a lease op I think I'll be able to do that. All, and I mean ALL the other drivers I know at my company are lease ops. All the trainers, all the more senior drivers I know, all of them. They didn't push me to lease but talked it up enough to convince me it would be a lot better. Did I want to take that risk so early? Of course not! But if the money is drastically different I believe it will be worth it. So far it has been better. I won't always have a week like this past one but it is encouraging.

I came here on advice on how to be successful at something that I've already committed to, not to be scared and criticized for making the decision.

Hi Tim,

My only advice to you is to be honest with yourself. Don't be saying you made 5k when you know you have fuel, truck payments, maintenance, ins etc. to pay for. Don't forget to make your estimated quarterly taxes also or you will know the real difference between leasing and company.

I guess you were right. I didn't make $5000. I made $4100 and yes, that is take home.

You can certainly do that. You can even do it as a lease operator, but if you think that just changing your category from an employee to a contractor works like a magic wand to turn on the great income, you are really missing something.

The difference between company and lease is I went from 46cpm to 70% of every load. I'm already making more money. The weird thing about that is that they're giving me more miles as a lease op than they were a company driver... they gave me a bunch of rinky dink loads that had me sitting at a customer for 6-8 hours every time and I wasn't making enough to live off of.