Question:
I am another fresh green behind the ear wannabe with dreams of shiny chrome and enough chicken lights to make the strip in Las Vegas look dark
Ok back to reality......
I have about 6 months experience so far. I know this is not enough yet. My eventual goal is to be an O/O. I am not going to jump into anything blindly. I have been working on a buisness plan and continue to refine it. I do have a few advantages at my disposal though. The first being these forums. Another is some of the friendships I have made. Hoss can attest that almost every time I talk to him, I am asking quetions regarding O/O. My father has about 30 years of driving experience including O/O. Some of the best advise he has given me is that you can not eat a chrome bumper and chicken lights do not pay a house payment.
I have a timeline and a checklist that I want to have complete before I even make the jump. I want to have bare minimum 1 year, but 2 to 3 years would greatly increase my chance of success. I would just like to be able to do it at 1 year if something happened to fall into place. I do have a question though, does the "carer helper" software have a way to track all operating costs? i.e. maintaince, fuel, plates, permits, etc? Hopefully it will cover EVERYTHING. I realize that Mr. Murphy has a way of popping up, and even the best laid plans get thrown out in the heat of battle. I have a spread sheet set up and have been keeping track of my trip information just so I can make sure there is no discrepencies with my pay at Roehl. I could easily add to it to include the other things, fuel, maintainance etc. It would just be a little easier if there is an off the shelf software available to do what I want. I am wanting to keep track of the operating costs in the company car to get a better idea of what it will be like if I had to pay for it myself. I am taking the advise that has been given to me by Hoss and other's on these forums to people in my situation. I am going to use the time as a company driver as free education using their equipment.
As far as my plan on my first tractor. I am trying to be realistic about this. I have ran the numbers, and I can not see how it is of any benefit being an O/O with a $1500-$2000 month car payment. You actually end up doing more work, and not getting anymore pay. You get all of the headaches, liabilty, and consequenses when something breaks or bad happens, and IT WILL HAPPEN. For this reason, I am narrowing down my options for a first tractor to something in the $20k or less range. I realize that going with a unit this old has a greater chance of mechanical issues as I am operating it. So the next item on the checklist applies. I will not do this until all credit cards and other debt is gone. I will still have my home equity payment. At the present time I have my house rented out, so it is paying for itself. I still need to come up with that magical number for the ammount that I want in the bank for the O SH@T fund. I want to be able to cover a MAJOR mechanical failure, i.e engine goes BOOM! And still have enough to cover all of my outgoing expenses for 3 months. My thoughts are if I can find a good car in the price range and pay cash for it, or only finance a small ammount through my credit union in the form of a personal loan, then I can put that $1500-$2000 in the bank and start saving for the next car. If I can get lucky, and not have a major issue in 1-2 years, then I would be in a position to pay cash for a newer unit and still have no payments. At that time I can start looking for bell's and whistles (chrome and chicken lights). Not to mention that I will hopefully be able to recoup at least %50 of the cost of the 2nd unit after a year or 2 of operating it.
I realize that there are alot of "IF'S" and speculation in my initial plan. At this time I am looking for additional information or advise on helping me keep track of the costs while I am a company driver. Any advise regarding taxes etc. For example, if you pay qtr estimated taxes, do you pay that on your gross or do you figure in the operating costs and deduct that from the gross to pay the taxes. I realize that I need to find a good accountant that has worked with O/O, as well as a lawyer in regards to any contracts when that time comes.
My personal back ground right now. I am single and I have no children. I enjoy driving. In a year or 2 I might not, so this is not set in stone. I realize that when I do make the leap, that my level of commitment will be alot greater. Before anyone asks, I can not really say why I want to be an O/O. As generic as this may seem, I think it is just in my nature. I enjoy a challange. I am a Sado-Masacist?? I was a Jarhead so that might be it. Hopefully if I can keep payments to a minimum or none at all, I can enjoy more "freedom". I dont want to be the guy that kills him self running too hard just to make the note.
Something else that I realize, that if I go with an older unit to start with, this will limit the places I can lease to. Alot of companies that I see have age requirements on the equipment. I have not limited myself to what I will haul. I am currently pulling flatbeds, and would like to continue to. I am still not sure which is the best way to go as far as pay, milage or percentage. I know of some of the pro's and con's of both.
Well, going to cut this off for now. Feel free to tell me I am stupid and what not. But I do plan on continuing to make some posts here in the O/O section. Hopefully in a year or 2 I will be in the position to actually be an O/O.
DRIVER BY CHOICE
Buzzdog

Answer:

BUZZDOG sounds like you have things in order. I started out much the same last year at this time , picked up a MINT 2000 Mack CH for less than a decent downpayment from an estate sale. Had my maint $ in the bank and went caring.
Landed a nice dedicated container run for a private company doing 2100 - 2800 miles a week.
This month I bought my 2nd car a Volvo 660 and put a driver on it and it is on the same run I have.
Have not gone wild with the DRESSUP stuff yet but HEY I have a MACK and a VOLVO not KW or PETE so not much available.

Answer:

don't let all the freightliner naysayers poison you against freightliners. They still do the job and are CHEAP, just ask the naysayers. yeah the Paccar products are nice and do have a better resale, BUT when you buy used, buy cheap. Have a GOOD mechanic not affiliated with the dealer check the car over. Opt for a Detroit, they get good fuel mileage, while retaining a respectable pulling capability. They rebuild cheap, too! I sold a friend a 98 Century with a 430/470 Detroit, Super 10 top 2, 3.90 gears in June. It now has over 900,000 miles on it and is getting great oil samples and dyno reports. This car was an old Werner car I bought as a repo. Got it for around $ 17,000 and sold it 2 yrs later for the same amount. My friend wanted to do just like you are talking about, get into a cheap car and make decent money. The other cars he looked at in the same price range were pure junk. Good luck.

Answer:

I had one of their cabovers for a first car, Paid cash for it, and not having that car payment made it easy to build a HUGE savings account! Good running cars that have been driven ONLY by experienced drivers that won't abuse them. Nothing fancy, but the idea is to make money, right???
Wal-Mart will be taking the first batch of International 9200 conventionals out of service and selling them soon.
I'm not big on Freightliners (especially the Seleccars program), as these cars show their age sooner than anything else out there (electrical problems, rainwater leaking into the cab, rattles, loose panels, the list goes on!). Read some of the posts about the Seleccars program, and learn what you can. When I worked in the shop, we had some customers who had Freightliners, and were not happy with them. When it came trade-in time, some bought new Internationals, and others went for used CFI Kenworth T-600s with in-framed engines and warranties.
I'm not too big on Peterbilts, due to limited room in them, but will say they ARE a very well-built car. They are expensive to buy. KWs are kinda the same way, but that W-900 Studio Sleeper is nice! Just don't want to have a huge payment!
Realistically speaking, if you have a personal debt of less than $5,000 (other than a house payment that's not too far out of sight), make a sizable down payment on the car, and keep your payments on it to less than $900/month, then you should be able to make money and build more from what you should start with in the "OH, SH-T" fund.
Skid Row Joe is a good source of info about this. If he posts in here, read what he says closely!
"Creatin' Chaos- Coast to Coast!", but doin' it safely!
ASE Certified Diesel Technician who found a love for the road!

Answer:

Buzzdog, I like the way you are looking at this. I kept track of my revenue on every load, what the company car spent for fuel, repairs etc. and plugged what I would have made as an owner in for the load revenue. I used a spreadsheet, in fact I still use spreadsheets for my business records. In my former life I was a computer professional so I know the records can be kept other ways; for one car a spreadsheet is quite adequate.
Regarding taxes, I used to figure 25% for taxes and benefits. Keep in mind self-employment taxes are about 15% of gross, then you have income taxes, and in most states, state income taxes. I am now thinking that you may want to figure 30% for taxes and benefits. This is because
1) cost of health insurance and medical/dental care is skyrocketing
2) you should save some money for retirement. By all means start when you are young. Self employed people can easily set up an SEP-IRA or one of several other retirement plans. There are tax advantages to some of these as well.
Your post indicates you are looking at the long term, which is good. IMO the new hours of service regs will wreak havoc in the industry, especially in the short term. Worst case scenario? Lots of O/O may lose their businesses. I would advise anyone looking at this to wait until this whole thing shakes out. Others may be more optimistic, but I see little reason for optimism at this point.
Good luck!

Answer:

I will continue to be amung the optomists here. I think this is a great time to start as things in the economy continue to climb. I would actually like to see careful continued growth, but knowing some investors as I do, and consumers as well, they are likely to build up confidence and go overboard once again.
Although I remain optomistic, this is no place for the foolish or ignorant. It is more vital than ever to learn your trade. It is more vital than ever to understand this is a business first and a job second. It is more vital than ever to operate smart as opposed to hard, but hard work will always be required.
No longer can one just jump into a car and expect to succeed. You must actually know what you are doing and how to manage every aspect of the position. Failure to do so will lead to failure of your business.
«"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."»

Answer:

I was happy to find out that my credit union will give loans for a comercial vehicle. The intrest rate is approximately 2% more then a vehicle loan. Right now they will write a loan on a 99 for 6.5% and will go as long as 60 months. I personally would not want to keep a note that long. I was told if I financed 30k that my payments would be around $580 a month for a 60 month loan. I see this as a better option intead of having to pay that much in a week. If I do go this option I plan on making at least double payments or more if things are going well.
Just thought I would throw that out, there are alot of options besides the "select car" deals out there. I am still a ways off before I can make the leap, still have alot to do.
DRIVER BY CHOICE
Buzzdog

Answer:

Now find who is making money in the area where you live and find out what they do. Who keeps buying a new car every couple years etc. Do not buy a car and then find some crappy 84cpm loaded 65cpm mt job. If there are guys buying chromed out garbage wagons....haul garbage. If there seems to be a lot of new tri axle dumps in the area ...talk to them. 2004 reefer sitting in your neighbors yard every weekend ...thats the guy you want to talk to. Bulk tankers loading in a local railyard?etc

Answer:

I am not an 0/0 but I do own a business, and it is a corporation (of which I am the only employee)....I follow this site because I find it interesting and have some background in the industry (years ago).
Re medical and medical insurance expense, there is an option to set up a "self-insured" medical payments account, into which you can put a lot of money, and part of that money is tax-deductible when deposited in the account......Then you can take a higher deductible on your health insurance, which lowers premiums a lot....You might want to ask you accountant about this....I am single and have two children on my health insurance...At the beginning of 2003, my health insurance deductible was $1000, and my premium increased to almost $500 per month...So, I increased my deductible to $5000, and my premium dropped to under $300 per month. Once my kids are out of college, I will increase my deductible to $10,000.
Also, there can be advantages to incorporating, although not, as some think, to avoid liability. The advantages are tax-related, and they have nothing to do with what type of business you are in...so you don't need a "car=qualified" accountant just to find out what they are; any good certified public accountant can tell you. While your accounting fees will be higher because you will be filing both a corporate and a personal return,these will be offset by the tax savings possible, and of course the accounting fees are tax deductible....

Answer:

Originally Now find who is making money in the area where you live and find out what they do. Who keeps buying a new car every couple years etc. Do not buy a car and then find some crappy 84cpm loaded 65cpm mt job. If there are guys buying chromed out garbage wagons....haul garbage. If there seems to be a lot of new tri axle dumps in the area ...talk to them. 2004 reefer sitting in your neighbors yard every weekend ...thats the guy you want to talk to. Bulk tankers loading in a local railyard?etc
Every area in our country has different kinds of work that do better than others. Only problem is, once many in that region find out there's money in something, they ALL do it, and then the work slows down for some due to competition.
In Texas, during the mid-1990s, there was a few who went into hauling cars, most of these guys went out and bought a 1-ton dually and a 3-car ramp trailer. Some made money, and built a good customer base. Soon, there was too many of them, and in the summer of 2001, the work for them started to dry up. Now, everywhere you look, there's ramp trailers and dually pickups for sale. Liability insurance costs went through the roof, and forced those hauling cars for cheap, and/or with questionable financial stability, out of business.
If you live in the "rust belt" (upper midwest), then expediting with a "d-unit" may be your cup of tea!
Where I live (in close proximity of Laredo), flatbeds and dry vans seem to do well.
Most of those who live in Florida or California do well with a reefer.
"Creatin' Chaos- Coast to Coast!", but doin' it safely!
ASE Certified Diesel Technician who found a love for the road!