Without Dispatcher Stress How To Be An Independent Driver. Where Should I Start With. Need Advice.

Oops my bad, I did my math wrong above, where is that calculator when you need it. You would have to drive about 75,000 miles at $2.00 per mile to cover costs. My bad, I'll go stand in the corner.

What costs does that cover?

Oops my bad, I did my math wrong above, where is that calculator when you need it. You would have to drive about 75,000 miles at $2.00 per mile to cover costs. My bad, I'll go stand in the corner.

What costs does that cover?

In average, it costs around $1.90 per mile to run a truck. That is the base that a lot of o/o will tell you to start from.

Oops my bad, I did my math wrong above, where is that calculator when you need it. You would have to drive about 75,000 miles at $2.00 per mile to cover costs. My bad, I'll go stand in the corner.

What costs does that cover?

In average, it costs around $1.90 per mile to run a truck. That is the base that a lot of o/o will tell you to start from.

Yes, but the question is what all does that cover? Fuel? Maintenance? Insurance? Driver?

Oops my bad, I did my math wrong above, where is that calculator when you need it. You would have to drive about 75,000 miles at $2.00 per mile to cover costs. My bad, I'll go stand in the corner.

What costs does that cover?

In average, it costs around $1.90 per mile to run a truck. That is the base that a lot of o/o will tell you to start from.

Yes, but the question is what all does that cover? Fuel? Maintenance? Insurance? Driver?

Yes. Those are just a few of the costs.

Keep in mind that freight prices and fuel fluctuate constantly. what was needed last year might not be good enough now and vice versa. and dont expect to rely on the fuel surcharge. and $2 per mile.is not easy to come by consistently.

i know of only one owner op who can make good money (gross revenue $12k to 14k per week), choose from load boards and negoiate prices, take home time a week or two at a time after 4 weeks of running....but that is teaming for a large company running under the company authority for insurance and fuel discounts. sounds great right??? the problem is that her truck is old, her payments are 25% of what a lease would be, but she shells out big bucks for repairs constantly. because she had not established credit in the LLC, and because she never owned a truck.before her interest rate was through the roof.

and the comment about fuel being $2.50 per gallon...where? cause my prime discount right now at my fuel stop makes it $2.39 with a HUGE discount, but that doesnt count the IFTA tax so add anywhere.from 20 to 77 cents per gallon to that figure depending on the state you choose to fuel in.

if you have no clue what im even talking about, then stop thinking o/o or lease. you have way too.much to.learn.

What I'm getting at is there is way more to being an OO or LO than the cost to operate the truck, and I wonder if that figure includes them. I don't see how it could.

Income tax, fuel tax, SS tax (both employee and employer portion), insurances (vehicle, liability, health, etc), state income tax, phone bills, accountant, payroll service, and on and on. Operating the truck is only part of the costs of running a successful business.

Very simply. 1) There is more to learn about owning a truck than owning most other businesses. This is why most people who start out lease/owner, as a new driver fail miserably. This is why one can't have enough experience before becoming an owner. 2) If your dispatcher is hastleing you, you're doing something wrong. The last time my dispatcher called me was to tell me to turn around and take my load to a different place. I get more company BS messages than anything.

What I'm getting at is there is way more to being an OO or LO than the cost to operate the truck, and I wonder if that figure includes them. I don't see how it could.

Income tax, fuel tax, SS tax (both employee and employer portion), insurances (vehicle, liability, health, etc), state income tax, phone bills, accountant, payroll service, and on and on. Operating the truck is only part of the costs of running a successful business.

i did a whole breakdown on another thread. i have the settlements of several friends and my boyfriend. on average, after all expenses including fuel, tolls, prepass, maintenance, accountant fees etc.... they come to between $70,000-85,000 (gross revenue usually around $250,000). BEFORE taxes and with no health insurances, 401k, life, disability etc. Two of.them paid $15,000 in taxes, one paid $20,000.

That is with most of them running teams and rarely taking home time in brand new trucks with little repairs, running under prime authority for insurance and fuel discounts,. so if they took more home time, didnt run teams, had an older truck, ran under their own authority and didnt get those fuel.discounts they would make half that im guessing.

when you figure i made $72,000.and only trained 3 mos, took lots of hometime and spa time in the terminal , have a 401k and insurances.. that puts me above them. my friends didnt like that.

2 lease op friends told me "dont do it, we make about the same and you get treated great" my boyfriend told me, "you get treated better than the lease ops" . although he still wants to buy a teuck and have me drive it as a prime employee, win win for me. and one friend from this forum who had my FM told me "its about the same money wise but now i have to break in a new FM".

so to me, its not worth the hassle. the only upside is that i would.keep the truck longer cause changing to a new truck every year is like moving apartments lol

9h and truck weight makes, freight choices, and region make a huge difference in fuel consumption. my friend has a Pete, he used to lease a FL...the costs for the fuel for the Pete is so much higher that he is going back to FL. Older trucks will use more and selecting the load makes a h7ge difference. Meat and beer loads are heavy, so more fuel. Yaking that beer across the Rockies??? cha ching cha ching you costs just went up.

there more to it than people think about. young people get starry eyed about the be your own boss thing. if they only knew! lol

Yep, what Rainy said. There is WHOLE lot more to running any business than you see from the outside. I have high level experience is a couple of small businesses and a couple of banks and I would't dream of starting my own trucking business. Part of that has to do with my fairly short time horizon but there rest is fro having been there and done that. If I thought I could make more money buying and running my own truck I would. You can't, or at least not enough more to make it worth your while. Find a company you get along with, work your but off and enjoy your home time. The information I got was from searching the Internet for "cost of running a semi" or some such thing. This was probably the average for the entire industry and your costs as an independent will be MUCH higher. I fudged the miles for breakeven by about 10,000 miles but the idea is the same - it ain't worth your time. The $1.02 per mile includes everything but the driver cost of 36 cents per mile. How old the information is I don't know, but it's what I could find quickly. As always your mileage may vary.