I went over the road in October 2020. At the time, I didn’t know it but eventually I would have liked to become an Owner-Operator. This idea and concept about being an owner operator was new to me. From what I read and watched, they were saying things that would have never crossed my mind. So you’re telling me that I can buy my own semi truck? And make more money than company drivers? Have more freedom? Be my own boss? Run however and wherever I want to go? I don’t have to beg for days off and I can make my own schedule? I can be home for all the holidays, and have to alternate with other drivers? I have to know more. I have to learn more. Being away from home making pennies is not cutting it for me anymore. It is not worth it. I need to know how to become an Owner Operator. Please understand that I was very new to all of this. I was very ignorant when it came to the trucking industry. 

I come from a very small town outside of lubbock texas. Oilfield and farm fields are all I ever saw growing up. With my father being a migrant, and a farmer, that’s what I saw in my future. He taught me how to drive a tractor from a very early age. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, but my father could not teach me what he didn’t know. With very limited English and no skills, he had to work an unskilled job that paid below minimum wage. If you know you know. Once I graduated high school, I tried the college route but with no money, I ended up dropping out. Working low paying jobs, jumping from one to another one. Don’t even think I held a job for longer than 6 months at the time. Several years later after wandering this earth lost with no guidance, doing hedonistic behavior, drinking every weekend, doing drugs I don’t even want to admit to, and the girls, I don’t even want to get into that. I knew I had to change or it would not end up good for me. I reached out to my best friend for help. His dad worked in the oilfield, and at the age of 18, my friend was able to get his CDL. I wanted to get my CDL. The easiest and fastest way to kick off some type of career was if I got my CDL. He was able to get me a job with him, got trained, and a few months later, I was able to obtain my CDL.

So fast forward to late 2020 when I went over the road, the possibilities expanded from having to work for somebody. I was on a mission to one day become an owner operator. I need to come up with a plan. That was my vision 3 months in being over the road. Crazy isn’t it. I mean never in my life did it even cross my mind this idea of buying my own semi truck. Not only that, I knew absolutely nothing about the trucking industry. All I had under my belt was my cdl and 5 years of local experience working in the oilfield. For most of those 5 years, I was hauling water to and from rig sites. I had never even driven a sleeper truck. All the companies I worked for in the oilfield had day cabs, so that meant I was home every night. Eventually that would change  when I was forced to go over the road. I know force is a strong word but let me put it this way. Either I used my skills as a licensed commercial driver or go work an unskilled, minimum wage job. The pandemic really did a number on many jobs across the nation, and the oilfield was not an exception. The only thing that seemed to be doing okay was OTR.

The Plan

 Since I didn’t have money saved up, I knew I was going to have to borrow money, but from who was the question. I can go the bank route, which my credit score was low 600, so chances were pretty slim there. Or I can ask to borrow money from another one of my best friends that had been good with his money. And in order to convince him to let me borrow the amount of money I needed, I had to make him an offer that he couldn’t refuse. After several hours of talking to him about this new gold mine I thought I had found, the trucking industry, he didn’t seem very convinced to let me borrow the money. He was very skeptical about the whole idea, but who wouldn’t be. It’s not like I have years of experience and know all the ins and outs of the business. I hadn’t even been over the road for over 1 year. He said, let me think about it, I’ll get back to you in a few days. To me, that was a kind way of telling your friend no. One day passed. 2 days passed. 3 days passed and i still haven’t heard anything back from him. During this time I was on the road, so it’s not like I could just go pay him a visit. It would be a few weeks before I went back home. After 5 days I gave up waiting for him to call. And it’s not like I could be mad at him. Even i thought this whole idea of becoming an owner operator was crazy. Is this thing that I’m chasing really possible for me? Have i lost it? Am I delusional? I need to get off YouTube, I would tell myself. I need to stop listening to people on the internet selling me fake dreams. But I couldn’t. One way or another. With my friends’ help or not. I was going to figure out how to become an owner operator, even if I have to live on beans and rice for 3 years and save every single extra penny I came across. Mind you, I have a family back at home. A beautiful wife and a 2 year old boy. It’s not like I could live out of my truck and save every extra dollar to speed up the process. My first priority before anything is that my family be taken care of. As long as they had a roof over their head, food on the table, and reliable transportation, then I could try to entertain this idea of being an owner operator.

On the 8th day he finally calls me back. I was really shocked to see my phone ringing with his name on it. The last bit of hope I had had vanished a few days ago. I ain’t ever picked up a phone call so fast in my life. “Hello?”, I said. He started coughing before he even spit a word. It started with a slow cough but then it became uncontrollable. Like he needed some water to calm it down. I was starting to get worried for him, but at the same time, I was kind of getting mad. Really bro, I’ve been anxiously waiting for this call for over a week and you want to start coughing a lung out as soon as I pick up!? I know, I am very selfish. I would ask him if he was okay, he would say yes while trying so hard to get it together. I told him he can call me back later if he wanted but he said no, that it’s about to pass. After a few minutes, he finally catches his breath. First words that come out his mouth are “so I’ve been thinking about it, talked it over with my wife”, at this point I knew my chances were over. Aint no wife trying to let no one borrow or invest into something that she doesn’t understand, especially if she has no ties to the borrower, but rightfully so. His following words were “we have decided to let you borrow the money”. My heart sank. Didn’t know if I should be excited or shocked. That’s not what I was expecting to hear. My mind was already made up with the answer no, but with a kinder tone, like we can’t financially help you at the moment. I thanked him non stop and told him I was very appreciative of him and his wife for not only letting me borrow the money but believing and taking a risk on me and this wild venture that I wanted to go on. I was overjoyed to say the least. Now onto the next step, the execution. I had to get all my ducks in a row to finally become an owner operator after getting the funds I desperately needed.

The Execution

There are 3 ways to purchase a truck from my knowledge. Buy it straight cash, do a lease-purchase, or financing it through a bank. Since financing was out of the question, I was left with 2 options. If i buy it straight cash, where do i even begin? My expertise on commercial trucks was very minimal. I barely even knew what kind of truck I was driving. A freightliner, and i only knew cuz i was reminded of it every time i passed by the front of the truck, it had a freightliner logo on the grill. No idea what kind of model it was. I don’t say this lightly. I was very ignorant to all of this. So I would either continue to do more research on trucks or potentially do a lease purchase. I came across several videos that some carriers offer to do lease purchases. But what exactly does that mean? Lease purchase? Is it the same as when you lease a car? I decided to ask my dispatcher at the time about it, maybe he could give me some info.

 And he did not disappoint. He told me that if I wanted, I could buy the truck that I’m currently driving. This freightliner that I had no idea what the info on it was, but what I did know was that it was a good truck. In the 6 months that I was in it, not once did it break down on me. He wasn’t just an ordinary dispatcher, he was second in command of the company, cousin to the owner. I wasn’t with a mega carrier, it was a smaller company based out of Chicago with less than 50 trucks. So asking him was the right decision. He told me to give him a few hours, possibly a day to work out all the details on the truck, that  he would have to get with accounting to see how the payments are going to be structured, and then he would get back to me. Told him no problem. The next morning he called me with the information he had received. It is as follows. 10k down payment, $1,529/mo for 34 months. Just shy of $62,000. It was a 2016 Freightliner Cascadia with appx 500,000 miles. I told him let’s do it. When and where can I sign. He booked me a load to Chicago from where I was at, and the day after I delivered my load chicago, I became an owner operator. The exact date was February 13, 2021. The beginning of financial freedom, or so I thought. The following 3 years have been nothing but a roller coaster.

The only thing I regret is not doing more is market research on the price of trucks. Carriers jack up the price like crazy. I was really naive to think that the company was out to look for my best interest. For all that I know they could’ve sold me the truck 25% above market value. I want you to Understand that companies are about making money, some are more greedy than others, and they are going to squeeze every nickel and dime out of every avenue possible. Lease purchase is one of the easiest ways to trap the drivers in thinking they can be their own boss, and your dream can easily turn into a nightmare, very fast.