Lease Vs Own

Topic 28989 | Page 1

Page 1 of 1
Anthony K.'s Comment
member avatar

Hello my fellow truckers. I've been a company man for 7 years and I am ready to cross over to Owner Operator. I wanted to know yall's opinion on leasing vs financing. what do you think is a better option. Thanx in advance

Owner Operator:

An owner-operator is a driver who either owns or leases the truck they are driving. A self-employed driver.

PackRat's Comment
member avatar

Never!

Why go O/O?

G-Town's Comment
member avatar

Please read this Blog article (link) written by one of our moderators; Old School:

Natural Progression of a Trucking Career

There are additional articles featured in the Trucking Truth Blog section addressing leasing and O/O. I highly recommend reading all of them before making a decision.

PJ's Comment
member avatar

Anthony many people have the same question. Everybody’s situation is different. There is not a firm right and wrong answer in my opinion.

That said if you do go that route here are things to think hard about.

Leasing a truck is just renting it and paying for the upkeep for someone else’s assest. You are locked into a situation. If it doesn’t work you loose what you put into it. You have very limited choices from what make/model truck and in many cases what equipment you can outfit it with.

Purchasing is acquistion of an assest. Your not locked into a specific carrier. If the situation doesn’t work you take your assest somewhere else. You have choice over specing the right truck for you.

Maintance is ongoing with this equipment and can be very expensive. You need a bare minimum of 10k in reserve to just start out. This year I had a very unexpected major breakdown. It ended up by the end costing me close to 20k for the repair and 2 weeks worth of lost revenue. Is that something you are fully prepared to handle??

Revenue is always a roller coaster ride. Some weeks are very good and some aren’t. If you have to rely on a specific amount of weekly income to make it, then ownership is not right. I do well, at least in my mind. I make what I want to, more is always good, but we can’t always have everything. I have had weeks I made less than 100.00. and others where I made a very big check. I always look at the monthly bottom line average.

The bills never stop with ownership. You take a day off or a vacation your still paying bills and no revenue. Are you prepared for that??

I work far harder now than I ever did as a company driver.

These are just starter general things you have to answer in your mind before you consider anything else in my opinion.

OOS:

When a violation by either a driver or company is confirmed, an out-of-service order removes either the driver or the vehicle from the roadway until the violation is corrected.

Delco Dave's Comment
member avatar

To add a few things to PJ’s points, I am a former small business owner which equates to being an owner op. Running a business is stressful and consumes a lot of your life. When your not “Working” you need to keep up on your paper/computer work and accounting, find the work, bill the work, collect payments and pay your bills. You also need to pay your own taxes(quarterly state and fed), insure yourself both business and health.

Being your own boss looks great from the outside but its a whole different reality once your in it! Even when you take a day off the business is lurking in the back of your mind making it hard to truly relax

Robert B. (The Dragon) ye's Comment
member avatar

Just to ride the coattails of what’s already been mentioned and something which rarely comes into the conversation is this. The folks you meet who are “making good money” have been at this game for a long time. They’ve established relationships with brokers and direct customers so they’re rarely just “looking for a load”. Building those relationships takes time and most nowadays are in too deep to take that time and added stress which leads to a quick and painful financial disaster. I work for a small company that specializes in heavy haul. We only haul broker freight but we only work with a small handful of brokers and are top carriers with them. Because of the power units and trailers we run, we can haul freight to places that nobody else can without significant permits and extra axles. The load I’m currently on which I just posted pics of is one of those loads. The broker insisted we couldn’t run it on 7 axles because their own trucks require 8. Well, the scale ticket proved him wrong and made him very happy. Situations like that don’t just fall in your lap, and the majority aren’t prepared for breakdowns, loss in revenue and different things it takes to be successful. There’s no way in the world I’d buy my own truck and I guarantee you that I can match or better the revenue of most owner operators as many of the veteran drivers on here can as well.

Owner Operator:

An owner-operator is a driver who either owns or leases the truck they are driving. A self-employed driver.

HOS:

Hours Of Service

HOS refers to the logbook hours of service regulations.
Page 1 of 1

New Reply:

New! Check out our help videos for a better understanding of our forum features

Bold
Italic
Underline
Quote
Photo
Link
Smiley
Links On TruckingTruth


example: TruckingTruth Homepage



example: https://www.truckingtruth.com
Submit
Cancel
Upload New Photo
Please enter a caption of one sentence or less:

Click on any of the buttons below to insert a link to that section of TruckingTruth:

Getting Started In Trucking High Road Training Program Company-Sponsored Training Programs Apply For Company-Sponsored Training Truck Driver's Career Guide Choosing A School Choosing A Company Truck Driving Schools Truck Driving Jobs Apply For Truck Driving Jobs DOT Physical Drug Testing Items To Pack Pre-Hire Letters CDL Practice Tests Trucking Company Reviews Brett's Book Leasing A Truck Pre-Trip Inspection Learn The Logbook Rules Sleep Apnea
Done
Done

0 characters so far - 5,500 maximum allowed.
Submit Preview

Preview:

Submit
Cancel

Why Join Trucking Truth?

We have an awesome set of tools that will help you understand the trucking industry and prepare for a great start to your trucking career. Not only that, but everything we offer here at TruckingTruth is 100% free - no strings attached! Sign up now and get instant access to our member's section:
High Road Training Program Logo
  • The High Road Training Program
  • The High Road Article Series
  • The Friendliest Trucker's Forum Ever!
  • Email Updates When New Articles Are Posted

Apply For Paid CDL Training Through TruckingTruth

Did you know you can fill out one quick form here on TruckingTruth and apply to several companies at once for paid CDL training? Seriously! The application only takes one minute. You will speak with recruiters today. There is no obligation whatsoever. Learn more and apply here:

Apply For Paid CDL Training