Is it better to own your truck

[horselogger50]

Is it better to drive for someone or to invest in a truck?

[gspren]

   Depends on you.

[Autocar]

For myself owning a truck is the only way. Never have to wait to move equipment haul logs or anything else I do with it. Bad side when your in the truck your not in the woods cutting timber so your not making any money. License insurance and general maintaince gets deep in your pocket also. But I don't have any regrets , good luck eather way you decide to go.

[Spartan]

For myself owning a truck is the only way. Never have to wait to move equipment haul logs or anything else I do with it. Bad side when your in the truck your not in the woods cutting timber so your not making any money. License insurance and general maintaince gets deep in your pocket also. But I don't have any regrets , good luck eather way you decide to go.

You might not be making the money, but you are saving it from hiring a trucker and that can run pretty steep depending on where you are hauling. 

[logging pete]

Once you jump in it becomes a terminal addiction. Seventy years ago, on his sixteenth birthday, my Dad stopped at the sheriff office on the way back from the mill with his log truck. He got his drivers license that day, we have been afflicted ever since. My truck is parked in his yard now. It needs a compressor, air bags and service. When it drys up or freezes I will be under it. Save all the larger pieces of cardboard you can get your hands on, you will use it. We are the last cowboys in these parts.

[Spartan]

Is it better to drive for someone or to invest in a truck?

I misread your post, thought it had to do with a logger hiring out a truck or running one themselves.
Are you talking about working for someone else as a trucker vs being an owner operator?

[horselogger50]

I was asking if it would be better to be a owner operator vs a company driver.

[Logger RK]

I would think it depends on the person. A owner/operator has to be self motivated & pretty good mechanic and a good bussiness man (or women)to make a go of it.

[WV Sawmiller]

LPete,

   I drove a truck for Schneider for about 6 months (They were good company and did everything and paid everything they said they would promptly) and we were out on the left coast and had a maintenance issue. Your story reminds me of a guy I met there at the International maintenance shop. He was getting his truck serviced. Said he had gone in the Army after HS and hated every minute of it and said he never wanted to take orders from anyone ever again so decided he'd become an owner operator. Got his discharge, took all the money he'd saved and went to the International sales office, talked to the salesman and bought his first truck. Salesman thanked him and handed him the keys and he said "Wait a minute - you have show me how to drive this thing." Said the salesman was amazed he had no experience but wanted to be a truck driver. Said the salesman got in and showed him how to change the gears and he hit the road and had been driving about 40 years ever since. He drove a cabover and said it and a VW microbus was all he could drive. When he got in his wife's Olds said he knocked over the mailboxes and trash cans as could not gauge distances with that big hood out in front of him. I have looked and no longer see cabovers so I assume they have been banned and only Conventionals allowed. I always wondered if the old guy ever made the transition.

   I only drove a company rig and only about 6 months. Partnered a few months and found that was not for me. An 8X8 cab/sleeper is a tight space for 2 people. I had a good partner but we'd be headed to or from out west back to East coast and it would be 3:00 am and I'd be laying in the bunk wondering if he was awake enough to drive or going to run off the mountain and kill us both. To his credit if he could not stay awake he'd pull off regardless of our schedule. If I had hours to run I'd take over. When I went back to solo when I parked I slept good and I pushed the dispatcher to keep me loaded and moving. My philosophy was I either wanted to be making money or parked at home. I enjoyed the work and met some real nice people but it is a hard way of life. I never knew 3 days ahead where I would be next but it paid the bills till I got a better offer.

[David-L]

Once you jump in it becomes a terminal addiction. Seventy years ago, on his sixteenth birthday, my Dad stopped at the sheriff office on the way back from the mill with his log truck. He got his drivers license that day, we have been afflicted ever since. My truck is parked in his yard now. It needs a compressor, air bags and service. When it drys up or freezes I will be under it. Save all the larger pieces of cardboard you can get your hands on, you will use it. We are the last cowboys in these parts.

I like cardboard in the summer and 1/2 plywood in the mud season. Love those comments.

[Logger RK]

I personally saved a spare tire cover from a Pontiac J2000 car. It's lasted longer then cardboard has ;D.

[sawguy21]

A close friend has done both over almost 50 years of driving, it has been a mixed bag. He is now driving a company truck and likes it, he gets paid regularly and is home every night but gets frustrated with the boss over maintenance. He jokes he will eventually get a new truck one piece at a time.
He was also an owner operator, it gave him a certain freedom to pick who he wanted to work for but it wasn't a bed of roses. If the truck didn't work he didn't eat and still had to make payments, the long hours away from home almost cost him his marriage. Then he had to decide new or used. The new truck was nice but it HAD to be working and needed to be replaced about the time the last payment was due. Used took that pressure off but needed to be replaced more frequently or spend too much time in the shop.

[starmac]

This all depends on what you have in mind and how well you know the business.
Many companies will sell you a truck and call you an owner operator, that is because they save money over hiring a driver, not because they want to see you get ahead.

Owning them has it's own ups and downs, mine is sitting in the woods tonight with the trailer over the edge, waiting on a self loader to come out in the morning and unload it, so we gan get her back on it's feet, one of those downside moments. lol

[killamplanes]

Well there are still a few cabover still alive. I drive this one about 1k miles a month hauling 53ft dryvans pulling pallets. Anyway I've owned semis since 24 yrs old. Have 3 for farm 2 for logging.  Not alot of overnight travel. Anyway if you want to be owner/operator 2 big things do you have enough profitable work. And like any self employed person with a business can you cash flow good times and bad. Being behind the power curve of money all the time gets old and stressful. My2c