Growing Anxious

I am at my 6 month mark. I love the driving, I don't mind dealing with the shippers/receives or even the occasional breakdown. This week has been one of those weeks... I was dispatched to pickup a load on Sunday and the shipper told me I had to come back wednesday to pick up the load. So I had to sit, in the mean time my dispatcher made arrangements so i could start rolling again yesterday.

Yesterday, I ended up in the shop due to my air horn malfunctioning.

Today I went into the shop because I heard air leaking from the trailer tandems. I pulled into the loves and the mechanic was a real "winner". He was rude, and the night dispatcher manager called me and had a talk with me and basically told me that if the tires are running low the trailer has a system in place to air them up so just drive. I refuse to drive unsafe equipment and if the system is running to air up the tires that means that there is something WRONG with the tires! Anyway, After only driving 272 miles today I had it, I shutdown at the loves and I am relaxing. This entire week I kept telling myself 6 months to go, 6 months to go and I can find something else.

I have been in business before in the past and I am not too shy of going to owner operator route, I just want to learn more about the business before I obtain my own authority. I heard about wives at home dispatching their husbands on the road. I think I would much rather do that than have to deal with the red tape of a corporation. I am not liking this whole, "answering to a boss" thing. I had a hard time working at STA for the same reason, I had to answer to 3 different supervisors. I am dealing with almost the same thing here. Bottom line, I just want to roll and make money! If the weekend dispatchers were as awesome my current dispatcher I wouldn't have an issue.

Yes, I have to admit I am in the shop more than I am on the road it seems but that's because I am ANAL RETENTIVE when it comes to my pretrip! I want it all working 100% and I refuse to move on unless it's to a shop if there is a single item out of spec.

R0adRa93, I hear you bro, I have the same wish with weekend dispatch they could be a little more proactive, hang in there man good things come to those who endure the hard part of this biss or so I hear I'm going on month 4 myself I just want my year so I can try something local and see how I like it, so why O/O and not another company?..out

I am at my 6 month mark. I love the driving, I don't mind dealing with the shippers/receives or even the occasional breakdown. This week has been one of those weeks... I was dispatched to pickup a load on Sunday and the shipper told me I had to come back wednesday to pick up the load. So I had to sit, in the mean time my dispatcher made arrangements so i could start rolling again yesterday.

Yesterday, I ended up in the shop due to my air horn malfunctioning.

Today I went into the shop because I heard air leaking from the trailer tandems. I pulled into the loves and the mechanic was a real "winner". He was rude, and the night dispatcher manager called me and had a talk with me and basically told me that if the tires are running low the trailer has a system in place to air them up so just drive. I refuse to drive unsafe equipment and if the system is running to air up the tires that means that there is something WRONG with the tires! Anyway, After only driving 272 miles today I had it, I shutdown at the loves and I am relaxing. This entire week I kept telling myself 6 months to go, 6 months to go and I can find something else.

I have been in business before in the past and I am not too shy of going to owner operator route, I just want to learn more about the business before I obtain my own authority. I heard about wives at home dispatching their husbands on the road. I think I would much rather do that than have to deal with the red tape of a corporation. I am not liking this whole, "answering to a boss" thing. I had a hard time working at STA for the same reason, I had to answer to 3 different supervisors. I am dealing with almost the same thing here. Bottom line, I just want to roll and make money! If the weekend dispatchers were as awesome my current dispatcher I wouldn't have an issue.

Yes, I have to admit I am in the shop more than I am on the road it seems but that's because I am ANAL RETENTIVE when it comes to my pretrip! I want it all working 100% and I refuse to move on unless it's to a shop if there is a single item out of spec.

I am ANAL RETENTIVE when it comes to my pretrip! I want it all working 100% and I refuse to move on unless it's to a shop if there is a single item out of spec.

Go ahead and buy yourself a truck and you won't be saying that. When you see that monthly payment, the insurance, the accountant's fees, the attorney's fees, all of the various fees involved with having your own authority, the piles of cash having to be set aside in various escrow accounts, and the bills coming in at home you'll realize every time you stop you're losing a whole lot of money. You won't have the luxury of stopping and being picky about everything the way you do now.

I am not liking this whole, "answering to a boss" thing

So when you own your own truck, who are you gonna be the boss of? No one. You're going to answer to the bank, the insurance company, the State, the Feds, the brokers, the DOT , and the customers you're hauling for. Sure, you can decide which loads you take and when you run or don't run. But again, how much of a choice do you really think you're going to have? You've gotta know there isn't a pile of $2.00 per mile freight out there going from one glorious place to another. You're going to have to go wherever the freight pays the best and you're going to have to keep on trucking whether you like to or not.

I would much rather be a business owner than an employee if I owned a business where I could differentiate myself, one with great economics and fat profit margins. I would much rather be an employee in a business with poor economics, slim profit margins, high litigation potential, high capital costs, and no way to differentiate myself from the competition.

This entire week I kept telling myself 6 months to go, 6 months to go and I can find something else.

You never said why you wanted to find something else. You said you're in the shop all the time because you're exercising the luxury of being picky as a company driver. But you never said why you want to leave the company you're with.

Brett and I heartily agree here. You can't solve one set of problems by just replacing it with another set of more problems - that is literally what your plan sounds like. Does that really sound like a solid strategy to you?

In another one of your posts you mentioned several business ventures of yours and indicated that you had accumulated a lot of debt, which you then said was the reason for getting into trucking. Does that sound like a good plan to you to now accumulate more debt so you don't have to deal with someone having authority over you?

You stated you just want to drive and make money, but an owner operator spends a lot of his time chasing down brokers for his money. I personally think you have got the perfect scenario for your temperament. Hang in there as a company driver as long as they can put up with your anal retentiveness, and when they get tired of it you may find what it was like for them to have you as an employee when you are your own "boss" answering to yourself.

You even stated in another post that you knew you were your worst problem! Maybe, just maybe, having to answer to someone else might help you figure out the path to success in this career.

I want you to be wildly successful at this, but you are going to have to put a "hard brake" onto some of your own ruminations - they are steering you down into a "no truck" route faster than you realize.

I'd do the year - and switch to a better company (keeping in mind, the grass is not always greener).

If you want to get a "taste" of the business end of O/O - try leasing for a bit.

I did all the "due diligence" a few years back, and there's way more to it than meets the eye (especially on the regulatory side). And there's even more if you are thinking about running your own authority.

Not to say that 100% of the folks that try FAIL - but it's not the "la la land buy my own shiny rig and drive off into the sunset" fairy tale that we all start out thinking it's going to be.

Just keep your head down, keep rolling, finish your year - and examine your options from there.

Rick