How much does a company driver paid 36 cents per mile make compared to an owner operator with the cost of truck operation?

There's a couple different way owner/operators and lease operators get paid. Some are paid mileage, and this works two ways

• they'll either be paid a (lower) rate for loaded and empty miles,

or they'll be paid only for loaded miles (at a higher rate). Others may be paid on percentage, which is based on distance, weight, and load value.. the company will be paid a certain amount for transporting a load from point a to point b, and an owner operator would receive a fixed percentage of what the company gets paid for that load to be transported. Others may run through a freight broker, and will be paid the full amount of what the load pays out, minus the brokerage fee.

In all cases, it really depends on the ability of the owner/operator or lease operator to be frugal... doing your own repairs saves money, for instance, consistent freight, for the ones paid by percentage, avoiding cheap freight, etc. There are owner/operators and lease operators who've done very well, and ones who've done very poorly.