I take it that since he has his own rig, he gets paid a higher rate.  But then your boss has to figure out the cost of the truck when he chargesfor the load as well.  So I wonder - how does the extra money get sucked away?  Bad management can play a role.  And when you dont own, that is a lot less hassle and headaches.  But shouldn't it be more profitable in the long run?

Just curious.

You would think so wouldn't you? If you have a nice new truck that will have lower maintenance costs, and managed to get a good low payment on it, then yeah you can make more money. Also, if you have a truck that is in really good shape and is actually paid off you might make more money if it doesn't start needing a lot of work.

Big trucks have a way of sucking the money out of you pretty quickly. The freight rates are virtually the same now as they were in the late 80's but the cost of everything else has gone up. Trucks, insurance, fuel, tires, and maintenance, not to mention just the cost of living itself, have all gone up a lot since then.

The companies with multiple trucks can save on their operating costs by doing their own maintenance (we have our own shop), getting discounts through bulk buying power, even getting a discount on the trucks themselves. Insurance rates are also cheaper as they get a bulk discount.

The lone guy with a single truck simply has higher operating costs as he doesn't get these savings. If he knows how to do a lot of the maintenance work himself he can save some money that way, but then he is spending his home time working on the truck instead of resting and enjoying his time off.


That's why I sold my truck. It simply became too expensive to run it. The way I see it, if I'm only going to make as much profit as I would have earned in salary driving someone else's truck why in the world would I want the headaches that go along with owning and operating a rig? It simply didn't make good business sense to do so. And to be honest, I actually keep more money now than I did when I did own my own truck.