Need Help Understanding O/O Pay (LONG)

First let me immediately express my deepest respect and admiration for all drivers. For the past five years I owned a local trucking company running dumps and semi dumps with frameless trailers and side dump trailers. Health reasons and the economy helped make the decision to shut it down and we helped our drivers obtain jobs with similar pay at other companies because they were really like family to us. I have only the deepest respect for anyone who can deal with the stress and fight constantly to make a living in such a hard way.

I came to this forum to ask for help with a problem. My ex-husband is an Owner Operator who is out two weeks, in for a weekend then back out for two weeks again. He pulls a Reefer? He has worked for Great American, Dart, Thomason Transportation and a few others. I have gone out of my way to make sure that he gets to have the kids for visitation everytime he manages to come in and let the older boy go out on the road for a couple of weeks at a time in the summer. We've tried our best to work together to parent the kids and everything is fine except in one area and that is in the child support and medical insurance. He has said that every company he works for does not offer family medical plans and I think they do. He refuses to pay the child support and has lied to me for years about how hard of a time he was having out there making money. I believed it and let it go, not griping when he didn't pay or only pay half or less each month. (650.00 for 3 kids) I recently find out that he has bought himself a big fancy pick up truck with a payment book of $800.00 per month. Now, with him being out on the road and home 2 weekends of each month he is paying $800.00 a month for a vehicle he drives for four days each month. Yet he can't pay his child support? It gets deeper and worse than all this and to keep it short, he managed to buy himself a fancy house, a fancy car to go with his expensive truck and do all of this by refusing to take care of his kids and didn't pay the child support each month so he could take care of himself first. I'm not out for revenge on him, I just need to understand how his pay works so we can get what is owed to his children. Nothing more or less. Of course, revenge would make me feel better but that isn't setting a good example for the kids so I'll just settle for being fair.

As an O/O the law is unclear about whether he is an employee of a company he is leased to or just an o/o. We can't get a child support withholding notice served on his employer if we can't learn what is correct about it. Could someone please advise?

Further, could someone give me an idea of what net income would possibly be each week and how per diems, reimbursements, etc...are all paid. I am very confused about all of this as we never dealt with anything like this in our small trucking company.

I would really appreciate any advise on this. I only want what he should have paid to care for his kids. Any help will get us one step closer to that goal. Thank you in advance.

 

Thank you for a fast reply. I was afraid that was what I was going to find out. I was hoping to avoid paying out so much money for an attorney and an accountant to go thru his books. If I go thru the state they will suspend his drivers license which won't do either of us any good if he can't work or even worse, if he gets put in jail. He really owes me a lot of money. Again, thank you for the fast reply and honest information. I appreciate it and hope you all stay safe out there.

 

Thanks to each and every one of you for your answers and tips. It really helped to make sense out of some of the things I questioned. As far as I know, he makes payments on his older model semi truck then leases to different companies? I don't think he has his own operating authority. It's really a big mess. I have an attorney and when I go after him he gets scared and will agree to things outside of court then my attorney goes to the judge with it to have it awarded and filed. I went thru the state of Illinois division of child support and because he pays the support once in awhile they pretty much told me to be grateful that I'm getting anything at all as they have bigger fish to fry. As of right now he owes me seven thousand dollars for just the past few years. They intercept his taxes but it amounts to very little. Because he claims to be self employed the state can't enforce the child support order which gives him the freedom to pay as he wants to.

Truckerjoe, you are a good father and a good person. Just remember something. The child support is for the parent to use as needed. You pay for the house, electricity, water, cable, internet, activities, doctors, dentists, toys, etc. The Child Support basically pays you back for what you are paying out. My ex told my kids that the money is supposed to go to them to spend how they wanted and that I spend the money on myself instead. Funny isn't it? My new husband, who is a cop, has the kids on his government insurance plan at his expense of three hundred every month. We have no dental insurance and three mouths full of braces to pay for. One kid has to have prescription medication for allergies every month that we couldn't afford without the insurance. Gymnastics, football, basketball, track, etc. Normal kids doing normal activities but that six fifty per month doesn't even begin to cover the monthly costs. Actually, I settled for six fifty but the attorney said his income put the child support at nine hundred something....I was trying to be nice. Over the past few years one has had several accidents requiring stitches. Another flipped the four wheeler and broke both his arms at the same time. The girl hasn't broke anything yet. I guess my point is that when you first hear that amount, six fifty per month, it sounds like a lot of money but when you break it down and think about everything you pay out because you want your kids to be well cared for and have a good home and good childhood...well, that sixfifty for three kids doesn't help pay for much. Then, when he calls me and actually has the nerve to tell me he hasnt been able to pay the support because he had to pay his Dodge truck payment of $800.00 per month I decided that enough was enough. Especially considering that since we shut our construction company down and I am no longer able to work I sold my 2004 Ford vehicle with a $450.00 per month payment at a loss, went to an auction and bought a 1997 used van for cash because the financial needs of my kids come first. Two growing teen boys and a pre teen girl eat a lot of food! That $450.00 per month pays for the groceries each month instead of a truck. Lucky for my children and I my new husband loves them like his own and provides for them by working full time as a police detective and part time at two other jobs. When that child support that we count on isn't there each month we have a harder time paying the bills. I hope this makes some sense to everyone.

Well, that is my sob story and I wish I could say I was exaggerating about my ex husband and his childish ways but unfortunately it is all true and much much more. I respect that he works hard as a truck driver but coming in every other weekend, going out to eat and to the movies and buying them toys is good parenting but BAD PROVIDING!