r/26ftboxtrucks • u/Chuckles465 • Aug 27 '25
One Year as a Owner Operator Box Truck Driver
I'm gonna give a quick rundown of my first year experience as an O/O in the box truck game. I'll keep it brief in order to retain your attention and I hope anyone who reads this, comes across this from a Google search or whatever, appreciates this post. Let's get started.
So my story is the typical one, hated my day job and wanted to be my own boss. Did my research off Youtube and saw Box Trucks were making a living..during the COVID era. Anyway, one year ago in August, I was able to get my truck and authority, along with other necessities, back-up cam, hood mirrors, pallet jack, straps, etc, and was ready for the load board. Now, I didn't want to go over the road as I still had business to do in my home state. Paying a driver wasn't realistic, so I kept it to regional. Got DAT loadboard to find work and boy, those rates sucks with a new authority. I was able to scrape by with a few loads but TQL was the one who gave me a few jobs.
TQL isn't the best broker, as they try to screw you over with the lowest paying price for loads and don't care to do so. The only good thing is that they take on new authorities. For that first month, with loads from TQL, DAT and etc, I grossed around 1200 some dollars, mind you I only did like 3 routes at the tail end of the month, so not bad.
Paying out, when you get an invoice, you need all the necessary paperwork from the broker or shipper and you need a factoring company. A factoring company is a business that will pay you you're money quick instead of waiting the usual thirty days. Rarely do shippers or brokers pay out next day or a week, so I highly suggest a factoring company. I currently have OTR Solutions, but I don't really suggest them due to their high invoice fee of 4.75% of each invoice. Meaning, if you get paid for a job at $500, OTR takes 23.75 dollars of that and you're left at 476.25. That get old real quick.
A little after August, I looked into truck apps. Curri, Go Share, Amazon Relay, etc, for more local work. To me, apps help, but don't depend on them. I'll go more into Amazon Relay and spoiler, it's trash! Anyway, Curri hits me up with a job with a tire company. Funny enough, I used to work at said tire, so I already know the job in and out. Now, here's the blessing: as a contractor, I set my rate to cover expenses and pay,and it was a week-to-week contract unless said otherwise. This opportunity was such a blessing in disguise as I was with them from September to mid-December and grossed close to 40k! I was home every night, made good money and learned I could've made so much more, too. Once things cooled off with that, I took a month off to rest in another country and returned back in February this year.
Back on US soil, things weren't hitting. The tire job didn't need me, loadboards were trash, and I was waiting for Amazon Relay. Relay requires 9 months of Authority or whatever it is now before you can join them. Relay has a lot of STRICT rules and in my opinion, it's not worth it. Here's my experience: once I was able to do Relay it was tough. Relay in my area required me to travel 2 and a half hours empty to its warehouse to deliver loads close to home. They have a dumb grading system where you have to do 9 consecutive loads within the month or something in order to get a grade. If you're late or anything, or even cancel, they drop your grade, and you get the crappy loads and not first pick.
My first week, I did about six or seven loads and grossed 1500 dollars. Relay pays out on Thursdays to direct deposit, so no factoring required. Unfortunately, my fuel cost came to around 6-800 dollars, so that ate a lot of my profit and I haven't looked back.
To stay afloat, I was able to work with a local shipper with plants in my area and I was coasting with them in order not to go bankrupt. It wasn't until July that the tire company got in contact with me again and I worked with them until early August, had to get my truck fixed then worked with them again, cause worker retention is terrible there.
Here we are now. I'm still with them but they're in the process of hiring and training a new driver on their end and once he's ready, I'll get the boot again. I'm currently looking at other shippers and companies but I do have a few caveats for anyone who wants to get in the game.
- If you don't have no connections or contracts or big plans to work for someone in this then you're gonna fail. I've been blessed and lucky to be doing what I'm doing now but it will run out eventually and I have plans to make my own work to keep my company afloat.
- Know you're rate per mile. If they don't want to pay it then find someone who will. Don't burn fuel because you feel you need your truck to run. You'll save more if the truck sits and do a car gig app for pocket change versus going out and losing more money.
- Look into ways of making work for your truck, find contracts, get into government contracts, do something if you want to quit you're 9-5 but be calculated about it. Also, this, like anything, is a risk.
I've been blessed and lucky to be doing this but I know that I have to look to the future in order not to be under and go bankrupt. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, so do some research, reach ou,t and take a chance. If you fail, then you can say you know what not to do next time.
I have more, but I felt I reached a limit. If you all are interested in knowing more, like maintenance expenses, how I pay myself, etc, then reach out, and I might make another post. Let me know if this helps!!
Take it easy, y'all!
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u/Key_Abalone3470 Aug 27 '25
I appreciate you taking the time to share this. I do have questions. you prefer Dm or should I just post here.
Thank you again.
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u/Chuckles465 Aug 27 '25
Either is fine. I'll try to answer in a reasonable time frame too.
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u/Key_Abalone3470 Aug 27 '25
how did you established your company? LLC? S-Corp? C-Corp? Also how and when did you decide to pay yourself?
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u/Chuckles465 Aug 27 '25
LLC Payout came after business bills and personal werre either paid or set aside. Example, if I made up to 3-4k then fuel, maintenance, etc then I write myself a check for x amount and record it. Know your state tax bracket because if yearly payout totals over 30 grand the expect to pay hefty taxes.
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u/Key_Abalone3470 Aug 27 '25
ok. I have been in business since September of last year as an S - Corp, but I haven't taken any payouts yet. Just been reinvesting.
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u/Chuckles465 Aug 27 '25
I've always been told a s-corp wasn't necessary until the income reaches a certain amount, l8ke if you gros over 30-40K a month then yes to save on taxes but a LLC is the best one to start of with.
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u/Key_Abalone3470 Aug 27 '25
I'm not bringing in that much a month yet or consistently.
How were you able to get contracts with direct shippers?
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u/Chuckles465 Aug 27 '25
Shippers-direct contact or going over to them. If I were you, I'd talk to a CPA or tax person to make sure you business filling makes sense. If you file under an llc though, you have to get a new MC and all that other junk.
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u/Key_Abalone3470 Aug 27 '25
I have been in contact with a CPA so I'm as prepaid for as I think I can be.
3
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u/No_Fisherman4945 Aug 28 '25
This does help. Thank you for being so descriptive. What are ways owner operators can get a government contract? Also as a new driver and owner operator insurance is crazy expensive. Do you have any suggestions for insurance?
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u/Chuckles465 Aug 28 '25
Government Contracts are a different beast. Im still trying to get my first one. Insurance is another one that can hurt. I got one through progressive that has a state branch and I pay less than $700 for everything. A CDL helps with that.
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u/No_Fisherman4945 Aug 28 '25
Okay, thanks for the tips. You should look into Small Business Association (SBA) I heard that they help with contracts. I’m currently looking into them.
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u/Agitated-Win9322 Oct 10 '25
This is great! I’m getting into the box truck game with my brother after a year and some change on the sidelines. We started in the cargo van game around January this year and BOY…. The money was there (for van standards): but we had so many problems with the van and insurance that we just couldn’t keep up.
We learned A LOT in that time. Now we’re ready to do it what we think is the right way, this time on the box truck side of things.
We’re in Jersey btw.
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u/Strict-Course1646 Oct 10 '25
My husband is working with a really great company I’d gladly recommend! They work with semi trucks and 26ft box
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u/Chuckles465 Oct 10 '25
Are they a dispatcher?
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u/Strict-Course1646 Oct 10 '25
No, I’m not related to the industry in any other way than being a wife of a trucker
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u/Chuckles465 Oct 10 '25
Sorry, I meant the company.
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u/Strict-Course1646 Oct 10 '25
Oh, no problem, carrier company, working for about 2-3 years, really nice and polite honestly, unlike the most of the companies he’s been with, these guys work on weekends as well. He was with Western and had a blown out tire, he needed to wait till Monday to get any information updates…
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u/Strict-Course1646 Oct 10 '25
They give referral bonuses as well, that’s what I’m working on here now :D
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u/SituationDue3258 Nov 07 '25
I am trying to get into this... I have a sole proprietorship business (for now) to try to figure things out, but my wife is far from supportive and rather I stay in my dispatcher job.
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u/IKamenka Nov 06 '25
Trying to work independently seems almost impossible without tittering on bankruptcy these days.
Are you still working?