Are there any current or former owner operator truck drivers here?

Layoffs are imminent at my current employer and I've been kicking around different career ideas. One of the possibilities is driving a truck. As a former diesel grease monkey I have a deep rooted love of the sounds, sights and smells of big diesels. While turning wrenches the green grass on the other side of the fence always had me wondering if life would be better behind the wheel of a truck rather than under one.

Last night at work while my body was occupied but my mind was not I crunched some numbers, made a few assumptions and now I have a scenario that raises a few questions.

Let's say I'm an owner operator and I obey the DOT law of driving for no longer than 8 hours. Assuming an average speed of 50 mph that's 400 miles per day. Assuming a 5 day work week that's 2,000 miles per week. Assuming 2 weeks off per year that's 100,000 miles per year.

100,000 miles at an assumed 6 mpg is 16,667 (rounded) gallons of fuel.

(That's not including idle time...yikes!)

16,667 gallons at an assumed $3.90 per gallon is $65,001.30.

On top of that, an oil change interval of 15,000 miles and a capacity of 10 gallons, requiring 2 filters per change means 7 changes per year at $200 a pop. So $1400 per year.

Then there's a truck payment, insurance, tires and this and that and hopefully nothing breaks!

Is there a reimbursement for fuel?

Are there a ton of tax write offs?

How in the hell do you make ends meet?

It's definitely pricey. Some of this insure you know but for example for my fathers car hauler:

-$12k each year for insurance (liability and cargo) -Then there is the quarterly road use taxes (each state takes a cut) - maintenance: not just oil changes, but brakes, wheel bearings, tires($1200 for good set of steers), etc. - repairs: car haulers develop stress cracks that need welding, hydraulic lines, and more.

The tax write-offs just avoid being taxed for money you spend on the business, not really a big source of savings.

He books and bills his own loads, so the fuel cost comes right out of the profit. The more efficiently he drives the more he can make.

If hauling for someone else it is typically its built into the mileage rate with potential for a surcharge to offset some of the fluctuation in price until the rates carb up.

There is money to be made, and schedules aren't as aggressive as freight hauling. The key is avoiding damage claims and not taking cars that pay to little to make any money. Also, the fuel economy for a truck isn't going to vary much between 3 or 10 cars, so having a full load is key to making a trip profitable.

Probably best to drive for someone else, in their equipment, to see if you like life on the road before jumping in with both feet.

Most owner-operators I know are in the "former" camp. I know one who has managed to make it work. The big difference between them seems to be the one still making it work owns his truck outright. The others were making truck payments while driving. That didn't work out so well for them.

Some advice: Don't go doing this yourself if you've never driven for someone else before. You will likely fail. As an experienced owner operator, you will then still likely not make ends meet, it really is that bad of an industry. You will make far, far more money as a technician than as an average owner operator. Freight rates are just too low.

TheTruckersReport is a good website forum. You will learn lots there (by the way, in the US, you can roll for 11 hours a day, not 8 and have 14 hours a day to do the 11 in. To be profitable, you need to do 600 paid miles a day pretty much every day of the week). If you have to finance your start up, you will fail. If you have family, you will not see them.

I can't say enough bad things to scare you off of the idea. That being said, I love the road and wish I could do it in a profitable manner.

I appreciate the info.

I've only co-driven on a few runs and I REALLY enjoyed it but, I realize, heading out once in a blue moon isn't the same as being a full time driver. I was only brainstorming (a mild drizzle, honestly) about different occupations I could pursue. That's a bummer, RodRammage, but I appreciate you being so forthcoming.

Once again, thanks for the info.

Don't underestimate the whole "never home" thing.
Do you have kids? Would you like to?
Even the "practicing to have kid" activities will cease to exist.

I was an owner operator for 8 years. I actually really enjoyed it. I even made enough money to pay off my first house in 10 years. Ironically now that I make 3 times the money I will have a mortgage until I die, but I digress. My first suggestion would be not to do it unless you are single. Even if you do short haul, the hours are huge, and your family life will suffer. Or die completely. I always told myself that when I got married I would quit, which I did.

I always except once bought good used trucks with small payments, and did most of my own repairs. Even 15 years ago it cost $1500.00 per month to keep the truck running. But because I had small payments, I could juggle things easier. If you have a new truck with a $3000.00 payment per month, one bad month can sink you. I treated trucking as a business, and I did not take loads that did not pay enough. If you have cash issues its a death spiral of taking ever cheaper loads until the whole thing implodes. If I felt I was being treated unfairly I was always prepared to walk, which I had to do more than once. You can do that if you pay your bills on time and do not EVER get into debt to the company you lease to,.

Truckers are often not treated very well by the rest of the population. You are seen as a lower life form and that can be really hard to take. Especially when the perpetrator is some waste of skin who couldn't drive a sharp stick up a ducks ass and is trying to prove he is not on the very bottom of the pile of life. Warehouse workers and DOT officials come to mind for some reason.....

I used to carry my bicycle on the back of my truck and I would go for long rides to stay in shape. I avoided truck stops, truck stop food and other truckers like the plague. I think I am rambling, but maybe you get the picture. Trucking is like any other business. It is what you make of it, and if you neglect the business aspect you will fail quickly. If you treat it like any other low margin high volume business you can carve out a really nice life for yourself.

The long term outlook for a career as a driver must be pretty poor. Google's autonomous car is near production ready (if Google is to be believed, and I've seen the cars on the road a few times so I'm inclined to believe them). Given how much it costs to keep a human behind the wheel of any vehicle compared to the cost of the computers that can drive 24 hours each day; I don't think it will take long for most companies that use drivers to replace them with computers. At that point, human drivers simply won't be able to compete on price, so owner operators will disappear rapidly.

i can tell you after 10 years of fighting it, i gaurantee you will make more money with less stress driving a company truck, trucking companies that use owner operators make money off the operation of your truck plus off the freight you haul........you as a owner operator will make much less than minimum wage. When i jumped into it no one could talk me out of it, no way no how....but after you spend about 60 hours driving in 4 days then blow one tire and loose all that money you just earned.......or you are sitting on the side of the road waiting for your wife to bring you the wrong part to fix your truck and you are watching all the shiney company trucks roll by and those drivers are rested and showered and knowing how much money they are going to make that week, that month and that year, i could go on and on for days, bottom line if you want to do it you are going to do it, but remember you are doing because you want to not because you need to make money and feed your family. if you are a single young man it is great way to see the country and have adventures but if you want to male a living and all you can do is drive a truck it better be a company truck. and since i said that i will also say if you can get any other kind of job and i mean any, get it because it is tough out there on that big road, and iam back out!

FORGET IT, YOU WILL BE TREATED AS THE LOWEST LIFE FORM ON THE PLANET EARTH!!! AND YOU WILL FILL LIKE IT......DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING ELSE, PLEASE BENEFIT FROM MY EXPERIENCE, I BEG YOU.

How interesting.......

After 11 years of watching a loading dock with 20 trucks a day going through it, when someone says "I think I am interested in long haul trucking" I hear "Hey guys I just had a great idea of how to put on that extra 150 pounds I have been so worried about"

coolusername wrote: FORGET IT, YOU WILL BE TREATED AS THE LOWEST LIFE FORM ON THE PLANET EARTH!!! AND YOU WILL FILL LIKE IT......DO ANYTHING, ANYTHING ELSE, PLEASE BENEFIT FROM MY EXPERIENCE, I BEG YOU.

But how do you really feel?