Profile For George P.

One thing to consider... most of the states require one year of driving in the U.S. with a regular driver's license before you can even apply for a Commercial Driver's License.

I didn't know that. Definitely worth considering indeed. Do you know if that applies only to company training programs or to the license test itself?

Grumpy Old man,

I think most of the cars are privately owned (POV) or belong to some dealership. New cars are a very small minority. I don't how "volatile" that segment of the market is, but definitely something to consider.

Old school,

That's also the direction my thinking has been going: at least be a company driver for some years before anything else. Almost seems like common sense. One thing to consider in my case though as I never lived in the US is how easy it will be to secure a job with a company; I never had a car accident or had any kind of police problem but there will be no way for me to prove that to them as all that data is in Europe. Months might be wasted in a fruitless job search, whereas with the Hot Shot option, I can get straight to work.

Errol,

I have read Brett's book, that's how I ended up here. Very useful read indeed. In the book he comes out strongly against becoming an O\O but makes one small exception in case you have a family member to coach you through, which applies to this situation. Reading his comments on the forum since, he seems to have hardened his stance though.

Bobcat,

And that was for November, he says he made 7000$ in December. His father in law, who's also doing the same business (they're tightly knit group of Asian immigrants) says he turned in 70'000$ this year. To me it seems like they're forgetting to include some expenses in their accounting, or they were very lucky lately with no major breakdowns. But as an outsider how can I tell for sure.

Steve,

I guess that's what it all boils down to: why take all the risk and extra stress of being an O/O when you can earn similar money working for a company. The problem here is that they claim to make somewhat more than the average company driver. I know that Old school and Bobcat make similar or more money but both are outliers; average salaries for beginner or even veteran drivers are significantly below theirs. And while I certainly intend to do my best and use all the advice laid out in this website to be a good driver, at a planning stage, I prefer to be conservative and use averages to project potential earnings. The crux is I suspect there must be at least some "O/O math" involved in their figures, but I can't prove it. Part of the reason I started this thread was to get some solid counter arguments to present my wife who is falling for the ''why work for a company and get 30'000$ your first year when you could earn double that if only you bet on yourself" line...

Brian,

From what I understand you can get coverage (many of these guys had to start somehow) but it probably will be very high the first year.

Hello, and happy new year.

I have a question regarding being an O/O in trucking vs hotshoting.

I'll give you a little background so you can better see where I'm coming from.

My brother in law is an O/O car hauler (now on a hotshot rig) and has been trying to convince me to get into it too, supposedly the money is so good, nothing under 5000$ (more even) a months after expenses have been deducted. I was always a bit wary and surprised at his supposed income as even where I live (Norway, I'm a dual citizen) that is good money. But my wife insists it must be true and I was getting tired of my old job. He of course offers to tutor me through it and all, even buy back my truck if I don't like it. So I was an inch away from buying a used (80'000 miles) dodge ram and a one year old 5 car Kaufman trailer (for about 45'000$), buying a ticket to his place and start getting my CDL.

Before that however, I read Brett's book, came to the forum and saw the his and Old school's posts/articles on becoming an O/O. That of course got me thinking. They were parallels between what they were describing about O/Os usual talk: obsession about how much money they gross over a short time frame (week), vagueness about overall costs over the a year or two etc... and my brother in law. In his case things were made harder to assess accurately because of his situation though:

He had first started driving 5 years ago for a friend getting maybe 2000-3000$ a months, then a couple years ago he bought a tractor (with 1000'000 miles) and a used trailer. He put 500'000 more miles on it and made money with all the runs but even he admits he didn't make much profit overall because of the big repair bills he incurred. So recently he bought a brand new Ram 5500 and 5 car hauler and says that on his first month he made 5000$ profit while only driving three weeks. He assumes things will continue this way.

His argument for why I should follow his model rather than being a company driver is that if I become a company driver I won't make so much money the first years (I plan to drive 3 years OTR, then take a break, stay with my with my family and maybe come back to trucking later). Whereas if I have my own rig and work hard I could make nearly double the money each months. He adds that getting your CDL will be easier and shorter and it will be a lot easier to maneuver my 5 car hauler than a full length trailer.

So my question is as follows: Do all the well laid arguments made on this website against becoming an O/O apply equally in the context of a smaller hotshot rig? Or is the situation different because it's some kind of a niche market that mega companies with all the advantages they usually hold over independent owners don't touch. My feeling is always if it's such good money, why isn't everybody doing it? but maybe I'm missing something.

Any input is appreciated.