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Rubber Duck thank you very much! according to all these guys there no money to be made in the industry.. but i made almost 8000$ last month after expenses.. so i figured going fully independent i would cut out the company im leased to and put more money in my pocket
These guys are giving it to you bluntly. They could have been more polite about it, but what they're saying in general is just how it is.
You CAN make more money on your own, .. but you have to play your cards right, know ahead of time what all your expenses will be, and have a lot more headaches to deal with. Tim & blackw900 have been O/O's since Ug invented the wheel, .. they're both operating under someone else's authority just cuz it works out better for them that way.
I've been soaking up information about that sort of thing for a couple years now. There aint' no way I'd consider going independent unless I had one hell of a good reliable relationship with a decent shipper. There's a guy who operates a beautiful red Pete 379 day cab with a big noisy yellow thing under the hood and an 18 speed, parks it next to my house and has three trailers. Primarily he hauls sod on his spread-axle flatbed, when there's no sod he's hauling flat steel. He also owns a grain hopper and some kind of dry bulk trailer that I rarely see him pulling. His main shipper is this commercial sod farm next door. He's home every day, ... that's the kind of deal I'd be interested in, ... but they've already got two full time independent's working for them and the only way I'd be able to get in on that is to either wait for one of them to die of old age, or under-bid them which I wouldn't do.
The only way I'd ever buy a truck is if it's engine manufacture date is older than 1-1-07, but it's not old & worn out either, ... aint' no way I'd own a truck with a DPF filter or a SCR system. And if I could buy JUST the truck, and just park it in the barn til it's paid off AND I've had time to save up 30 grand or so for operating expenses, while driving a company truck. I'm not sure if a bank would let me keep just fire/theft insurance on it and no other kind of insurance though. Yeah I'd have some problems to work out, ... I'd have to borrow ten bent rims and junk tires to park it on so the good ones don't get flat spots from sitting, .. I'd have to bobtail it up and down the backroads to keep **** oiled & I'd probably have to deal with keeping mice out of it & stuff. I don't even know what happens to diesel fuel if it sits too long, ... that's stuff I haven't even looked into yet. I posted that idea on a different forum in July of 2011 and had a bunch of ass holes jumping all over me, calling me a moron & stuff.
You also need to apply for a permit for NY, KY, NM and you have to pay property tax to Arkansas even though you don't even freaking live there!!!!!!!!!!
The last time I went through NM I had to stop and buy a permit at the POE cuz the company didn't have permits ... I think they do now though. And WTF is up with Arkansas? They want to charge you property tax, but won't even let you park & sleep on an entrance ramp? **** 'em. I'd just stay out of Arkansas.
