Frequently Asked Questions

OOBT has a long history in all facets of the owner-operator aspect of the business. Consequently, OOBT has established relationships with folks that provide all of the essentials needed for O/O success, and that includes contacts within a select group of carriers that we feel offer a good environment for O/O success. We can put you in touch with our contacts, but ultimately, the decision to proceed is yours and yours only. We can help you gather and assess the facts for making your decision, but OOBT will never make a decision for you.

OOBT is focused on helping O/O’s understand and manage “the numbers” side of the business. After all, “the numbers” is really about “the money”, and OOBT is committed to helping O/O’s maximize earnings.

OOBT understands that “the numbers tell a story, but there’s always a story behind the numbers.” We take great pride in helping O/O’s understand every penny of income and deductions on each settlement statement. There should be no surprises, and OOBT will make sure you have the facts to help you make decisions and manage your business for maximized earnings.

Our most honest answer is, “maybe”. Pay Per Mile (PPM) and Percent of the Load are great numbers to know, but each does not necessarily tell the entire story. There are many variations of each being offered and each compensation program needs to be closely examined in its entirety. OOBT can help you project earnings by taking all factual matters into consideration. The additional 5¢/mile or additional 5% being offered by another carrier might actually result in lower earnings. Let OOBT help you understand the “total package” for making actual earnings projections.

Bookkeeping and preparing Profit & Loss Statements (P&L) is essential for every business, and make no mistake, as an owner-operator, you are running a business. The P&L allows you to measure, assess and manage your performance based on factual information. By “keeping score” you’ll be able to see trends and determine at a glance if things are performing well, or if things are in need of attention for improvement. Without keeping score, you might luck into being successful, but why let luck control your business? In addition to measuring your performance, bookkeeping allows you to have accurate records for preparing taxes. If you’re making money, you will owe taxes. However, bookkeeping allows you to also keep track of every legitimate business expense to help minimize the tax burden. Besides, your tax preparer will love you for having such neat and organized information.

No, OOBT does not provide any type of tax preparation services. We believe there are many qualified tax preparers available across this country that are very capable of providing accurate services for owner-operators as they do for other business. We also believe that it’s a good thing to have separation between bookkeeping and tax preparation as a form of checks and balances without any concern of having the fox in the henhouse. We also believe it’s a good idea to easily have the ability to meet personally with your tax preparer to develop a solid working relationship, and that would be tough to do with your returns being completed by somebody you’ve only “met” over the phone. And to be honest, if we were to offer tax preparation services, the sheer volume of returns would require us to farm out the work or bring on temporary help to get it all done, and that just doesn’t seem like a good way to go for offering care and consistency. That said, our weekly Performance Reporting can provide a report with detailed and accurate information that your tax preparer will love.

In one word…Planning! Of course, the word “planning” covers a lot of ground, but that’s ground that must be covered. In this business, there are a lot of factors you CAN control, so you must get your expectations clearly aligned with reality and take control! And, there are a lot of things in this business that will put Murphy’s Law into play, things that you seemingly can’t control, you know, those surprises that pop up at the worst possible time. We believe you CAN do a fair amount of planning for the unexpected as well based on established “rules of thumb” in this business. In a few words, take control of those things you can control and be prepared to control the surprises that will certainly pop up. OOBT can help you with that type of planning.

The folks of OOBT have been heavily invested in the O/O business for many years. By “invested”, we mean we went to the bank and borrowed a lot of money to provide equipment financing to help O/O’s realize their dreams. If one of our O/O customers was not making enough money to cover all obligations, including our truck payment, we did not get paid and that’s not a happy day for anybody. Consequently, you can trust that we’ve had a very serious interest in O/O success. If the O/O is successful, we’d be successful, and vice versa. We’ve learned a lot about what it takes to be successful as an O/O, and unfortunately, we’ve also learned a lot about what leads O/O’s to failure. O/O success is good for everybody, while failure can be devastating for everybody, including the O/O, the O/O’s family, the finance company, the carrier, repair shops, the shippers and receivers and the industry as a whole. We love this business, and we are passionate about making a positive impact on the industry overall, one successful O/O at a time.

Based on our experience, the real question is “how can I not afford it”. OOBT services are reasonably priced, especially in relation to the improved earnings you should realize! We are well aware of how tight margins can be in this business, so everything we do is designed to provide a return by helping you save and/or make additional money. The typical person spends money every day on things that bring absolutely no value or monetary gain, things like snacks and soft drinks and tobacco products are good examples. Substituting the cost of OOBT Performance Reporting services for one of those things will likely cause no increase in your daily expenditures, yet you should be able to realize measurable financial return. In regards to our other services like Budgeting and Stay vs Leave Analysis, how much would you pay to avoid catastrophic financial failure? As Ben Franklin so wisely stated, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Contact OOBT to find out how we can help you reasonably obtain that ounce of prevention!