Owner Operator

At some point most drivers at least consider becoming an Owner Operator. Many see it as a "step up" from being a company driver. Others want the challenge of running their own business. No matter what a driver decides to do.....

Some people become very successful Owner Ops. Some go on to buy more trucks, get their own authority and start their own trucking companies. Others barely scrape by with a small income and their name on the door of their truck. Others will face bankruptcy and repossession.

Many people want to dive in headfirst without the proper experience and preparation and they become angry when I advise that they should wait. As an experienced driver of a decade, I would find becoming an Owner Operator a challenge, yet some brand new drivers have an illusion that he or she will jump right in and do better than I would. (I admit it, I find that fairly offensive.) I would like to warn you now that the following series of pages are going to try to convince you that you should wait before buying your own truck. Not only will I try to convince, I will try to provide the best proof that I can. If you are going to buy a truck no matter what anyone says, you probably will not find much useful information here. If, on the other hand, you do not know what it entails, but you want to know more, please keep reading.

A smart business operator will do his or her homework. If you have no experience, you have done little homework. You can read everything you can get your hands on, but we all know that there's nothing like hands-on.

Running a truck is a business. Good business sense, smarts and planning are essential. Knowledge of the subject is imperative.

If there were any one subject that I receive the most email about, it would be about the advisability of a new driver immediately becoming an Owner Operator. I disappoint many people because I almost always advise them against it. I do believe that a person needs to spend at least a year and better yet, two years, in the field that they want to become an O/O, before they take this challenge.

I am also surprised quite often by the reasons people give me for wanting to become an O/O. In all truth, many of the reasons are often not realistic of what really happens. Because of these things, I have put this section together. It may not be what you want to hear, but you owe it to yourself to consider the reality of the major undertaking that you may have in mind.

New drivers often want to become O/O's because...

They don't want to run certain regions.
They want the power to say "No" to dispatchers.
They believe they can be home more often as an O/O.
They believe they have more control over home time in general: when they will go home, how long they will stay there.
They want to drive a fancy and/or fast truck.
They want to be able to refuse any load they don't want to haul.
They think anyone can ride along with them if they own their own truck.
They want their pet in the truck.
They believe the money is much better.
Bottom Line: They want ultimate control.

Some of these reasons are perfectly understandable and are why many become O/O's. Some of them, though, are absolute fiction.

Do you know the difference?