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There are parts of this story that are true like leasing to be an owner operator means one must pay all expenses of the rig, including the lease fees, fuel and ALL other owner operator expenses. Most experienced owner operators do not lease, rather they purchase. There are parts of the story that cause one to seriously doubt what is being reported, or that it is only based on the word of inexperienced owner operators who don't do their jobs properly, spend too much time eating out at truck stop diners and too much time with the wheels not turning during their normal HOS (hours of service).
Several things I can say for certain are not true is 16 hour a day work days as this violates the federal HOS laws. 100 hr a week service, again in violation of federal HOS laws.
Trucking isn't for everyone and many can't and don't cut it. There are also better products to haul, with better pay based upon percentage of load, and there are poorer jobs which pay based upon miles, but if your truck is driving down the road empty, you aren't getting paid or if you're stuck in line waiting to be loaded all day and aren't in your bunk getting sleep, when you finally get loaded it may seem like you've had a 16 hr day, but I guarantee any driver who turns in a log claiming such will find themselves on the bad end of a DOT audit. A lot depends on the contract that is signed, and that is where many new drivers don't have a clue.
The truth is for every newer truck driver who tries to start their new truck driving careers as owner operators, without the benefit of knowing and understanding what is involved, there are 10 to 20 good, experienced drivers out there who make a damn good living because they know how to be a good driver which includes smart time management, pre-planning, maintenance, route selection, load acceptance or denial and planning to insure that their truck is not running around without a load on it whenever and wherever possible.
All that said, there is so much more to the story that the author either doesn't know or is willfully omitting because their article wouldn't sound as good without all the emotion he is trying to draw from an ignorant (due to not knowing or understanding the trucking industry) audience. Most experienced drivers know how to avoid the financial setbacks of bad contracts.
This article is the equivalent of an article written about a group of brand new motorcyclists who are screaming about the dangers of riding they never knew about when there are plenty of experienced riders out there who just say, "Pfft!" to those newbie cries of alarm.
Location: Live:Downtown Phoenix, AZ/Work:Greater Los Angeles, CA
27,606 posts, read 14,671,606 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by KS_Referee
There are parts of this story that are true like leasing to be an owner operator means one must pay all expenses of the rig, including the lease fees, fuel and ALL other owner operator expenses. Most experienced owner operators do not lease, rather they purchase. There are parts of the story that cause one to seriously doubt what is being reported, or that it is only based on the word of inexperienced owner operators who don't do their jobs properly, spend too much time eating out at truck stop diners and too much time with the wheels not turning during their normal HOS (hours of service).
Several things I can say for certain are not true is 16 hour a day work days as this violates the federal HOS laws. 100 hr a week service, again in violation of federal HOS laws.
Trucking isn't for everyone and many can't and don't cut it. There are also better products to haul, with better pay based upon percentage of load, and there are poorer jobs which pay based upon miles, but if your truck is driving down the road empty, you aren't getting paid or if you're stuck in line waiting to be loaded all day and aren't in your bunk getting sleep, when you finally get loaded it may seem like you've had a 16 hr day, but I guarantee any driver who turns in a log claiming such will find themselves on the bad end of a DOT audit. A lot depends on the contract that is signed, and that is where many new drivers don't have a clue.
The truth is for every newer truck driver who tries to start their new truck driving careers as owner operators, without the benefit of knowing and understanding what is involved, there are 10 to 20 good, experienced drivers out there who make a damn good living because they know how to be a good driver which includes smart time management, pre-planning, maintenance, route selection, load acceptance or denial and planning to insure that their truck is not running around without a load on it whenever and wherever possible.
All that said, there is so much more to the story that the author either doesn't know or is willfully omitting because their article wouldn't sound as good without all the emotion he is trying to draw from an ignorant (due to not knowing or understanding the trucking industry) audience. Most experienced drivers know how to avoid the financial setbacks of bad contracts.
This article is the equivalent of an article written about a group of brand new motorcyclists who are screaming about the dangers of riding they never knew about when there are plenty of experienced riders out there who just say, "Pfft!" to those newbie cries of alarm.
Move along... there's nothing to see here.
I'm smart enough that I never became an owner operator, and now I don't even drive over the road anymore. I run local in a day cab these days, nice to get to sleep in my own bed every night
Thank you for injecting the truth into this thread. My oldest brother was a truck driver for many, many years and did very well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KS_Referee
There are parts of this story that are true like leasing to be an owner operator means one must pay all expenses of the rig, including the lease fees, fuel and ALL other owner operator expenses. Most experienced owner operators do not lease, rather they purchase. There are parts of the story that cause one to seriously doubt what is being reported, or that it is only based on the word of inexperienced owner operators who don't do their jobs properly, spend too much time eating out at truck stop diners and too much time with the wheels not turning during their normal HOS (hours of service).
Several things I can say for certain are not true is 16 hour a day work days as this violates the federal HOS laws. 100 hr a week service, again in violation of federal HOS laws.
Trucking isn't for everyone and many can't and don't cut it. There are also better products to haul, with better pay based upon percentage of load, and there are poorer jobs which pay based upon miles, but if your truck is driving down the road empty, you aren't getting paid or if you're stuck in line waiting to be loaded all day and aren't in your bunk getting sleep, when you finally get loaded it may seem like you've had a 16 hr day, but I guarantee any driver who turns in a log claiming such will find themselves on the bad end of a DOT audit. A lot depends on the contract that is signed, and that is where many new drivers don't have a clue.
The truth is for every newer truck driver who tries to start their new truck driving careers as owner operators, without the benefit of knowing and understanding what is involved, there are 10 to 20 good, experienced drivers out there who make a damn good living because they know how to be a good driver which includes smart time management, pre-planning, maintenance, route selection, load acceptance or denial and planning to insure that their truck is not running around without a load on it whenever and wherever possible.
All that said, there is so much more to the story that the author either doesn't know or is willfully omitting because their article wouldn't sound as good without all the emotion he is trying to draw from an ignorant (due to not knowing or understanding the trucking industry) audience. Most experienced drivers know how to avoid the financial setbacks of bad contracts.
This article is the equivalent of an article written about a group of brand new motorcyclists who are screaming about the dangers of riding they never knew about when there are plenty of experienced riders out there who just say, "Pfft!" to those newbie cries of alarm.
Its been going on for years in the trucking industry. Company will train you, lease you a truck after trained, tell you they will give you work (called loads). Then only give you enough work to pay lease payment. Lots of young guys with a couple of kids fell for the BS. I won't name the company's for obvious reasons.
If you have Sirius radio check out the trucker channel "Road Dog News" runs from 2-4 pm with a lot of information. It is a good place to here about trucking and will give you good info on all aspects of the business.
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