Found an Owner

One of the major decisions we had to make when looking to get into expediting, was whether to buy our own truck or drive for an "owner". Someone who owns the truck, and gives us a percentage of the profits to drive it.

Almost every expediter we have spoken to over the last few years has "strongly" suggested we start out driving for someone else, until we see if this "lifestyle" is for us or not. We both think that just makes good business sense. After all, any truck, even a older, used one, is still quite an investment, especially if we are not 100% sure this is for us. (I think it will be, but you just never know!)

We realized finding a "good" owner was going to be one of the most critical aspects of getting started. There are many horror stories of drivers and "bad" owners. Not getting paid, owners not keeping up maintenance on the truck, owners not making payments on the truck, and drivers even having the truck (and their personal belongings), repossessed right out from under them! Scary stuff.

We wanted to find an established, reputable owner that was going to be around for a while. Sounds easy enough, right? Well since there isn't a "list" of just such owners, we had to do a little digging.

After speaking to several current and former drivers, and speaking with our FedEx requiter and talking to several owners, I think we have a winner. I won't go into the details or name names just yet, but they are one of the largest (if not the largest) fleet owners in the expedited trucking industry. They actually have trucks with three of the major carriers. They mainly have newer "Class 8" T660 Kenworth trucks and seem to keep their trucks in good repair. (Anyone in the expedited trucking world can probably guess who I am talking about.)

Their trucks aren't as comfortable as some (the sleepers are, well let's say "cozy" to be nice), and they might not pay quite as well as some owners, but they must be doing something right. I have spoken to three former teams that have since went on to purchase their own trucks. None of them left because they were unhappy; they were in the financial position to become owners themselves. That to me says a lot. They must have been making money!

So, one major decision out of the way. Now just continuing to play the waiting game.