Is a trailer really needed?

Well, when you say "dry van", you dismiss many other trailer types.
My trucks were used to haul aggregate and mix, and, if I didn't have my own trailers, it was possible to rent them, but the cost of renting them long term wouldn't have been worth it, at all.
These OTR companies... a lot of them offer the use of their trailers... for a fee. Might be a flat rate, might be set by mileage, might be a percentage of the load... all depends on which company and how they do it. On the upside, if you did drop and hook with a company's trailers, then you wouldn't have to do live loads with every load. But if you're pulling an open deck trailer, that's going to be live load, regardless... flatbed preloads aren't unheard of, but my experience with them is that the actual securing of the load still falls on the driver.

 

You can certainly start out without a trailer. Many companies you can lease on to will provide a trailer or allow you to rent one. Long term, owning is better, but short term its one less thing to worry about and lower payment might be a good decision.

 

Working as a broker I used a couple of Power Only companies to haul trailers between race sites. The drivers all seemed content with their jobs. Towaway.com in Mechanicsburg PA--R & R express-- were 2 that drivers never complained about and actually spoke well of. They covered the whole country for me. Google "power only trucks" and you will find more like minded companies to research and call on.

 

I would think you would be able to keep a little more money and have a little more control of your business??

 

If you're planning on picking off open loadboards you definitely need a trailer. Power only loads offered at a dollar a mile are the norm mostly those loads are purely viewed as "backhaul" and whoever is moving them has the time to wait for cheap. Occasionally someone will have a power only load that has to go last minute that pays $5 a mile or better but these loads will go to carriers they have relationships with first. During Christmas season there is a lot of power only ups and fedex stuff. PO is just so hit and miss that is why you need a trailer so you can pick and choose the money makers and leave the buck a mile majority of it alone. You could do loadout power only but again you're hamstringing yourself.

 

Somebody needs an empty 53' dry van moved from say Indianapolis to Atlanta. They pay you peanuts to do it but give you a week or two from the time you hook to the trailer until you deliver in Atlanta. The idea is you are allowed to use that trailer for a week or two hauling freight making money then deliver their empty van in Atlanta. But again we are talking about hit and miss opportunity here. If you limit yourself to power only and don't have any connections to stay busy at good rates you will be running for nothing especially off loadboards. The way I view power only is it's only something to do when somebody is paying big bucks, park my trailer and hook to theirs, but there' just not enough from what I have seen to do it exclusive. You really need your own trailer. There is a company called trailer transit who does power only if you're satisfied with cheap rates and doing about $1.30 on every mile you turn, that's a sure way to the poorhouse....

 

I don't see many power only loads. We have a customer that is an electrical contractor that has 2 vans full of tools and we move his from 1 job site to another every few months. I needed to go to Oklahoma City to get one of my trailers that was abandoned. (Flatbed). Looked for a power only and from what I could find it was cheaper to haul a load on my trailer and then have the abandoned trailer loaded on mine and deadhead home with it.