Advice. All welcome

How much money do these other two partners expect to make? There just isnt enough there from one truck to pay anyone for this stuff, imo. If you want to make more than a company guys' wage for all the skin youre willing to put in, this should all be a one man job

 

Do not go into business with family or friends.

 

"if I can get to a point where I can afford it I would like to pay them" for professional services. If your business plan can't accommodate paying the necessary employees/contractors, then you don't have a "business plan", you have a "blow my money plan". Driving the truck is the easy part.

How much of that 100K can you afford to lose? If you can't honestly and without reservation say you can lose it all, then you shouldn't start the business. If you're just looking to increase your income, get your cdl.

As a final thought - have you considered the cost of replacing your employer provided health care? And if he's not providing health coverage, then again - get your cdl and a better job.

 

With your starting working capital and having the ability to own all your equipment free and clear, you should learn to dispatch yourself. Yes, it will take a little time away from your driving here and there or you’ll have to really plan out your schedule, but it can be done. Then I think you’d probably do all right.

 

"On a side note, my tab at The Mayo Clinic has reached $425,000." Health insurance isn't an optional thing. JohnBoy would have been fine with just the health insurance, but he also had a bunch of other 'optional' stuff that have paid out far more than he paid in. Insurance is a waste of money - until it isn't, at which point bankruptcy looms.

If owning a business that nets you $50k a year will make your dad more proud of you than if you were an employee making $100k a year then you need to stop caring about making your dad proud. Because that's about as much as you can expect to net running 1 box truck.

Many drivers who want to make the jump to O/O make the same three mistakes:

• Not taking an honest accounting of the work/risk to reward ratio and comparing it to other options
• Not preparing to replace equipment
• Throwing good money after bad

During the 'boom times' when guys were on here posting their numbers, they never looked that good to me. Once you figure in the 401K match and health insurance, it looked like they were netting $5-10,000 more than I was as a mega company driver. When you'd ask about how they were planning for replacing their equipment you'd hear silence - especially from the guys running 'paid off equipment'. All that is fine, if they're happy then I'm happy for them - until we get to point number 3 where expenses exceed revenue. They keep trying to dig themselves out but only dig themselves in deeper. Which is why I ask if you're willing to lose the entire $100K - because that's what's on the table.

But if you're serious about this, can you answer these questions:

• How much fuel does your truck use per mile and per week?
• How often does the truck get a PM done? What is the average cost of the PM?
• How many days has the truck been down for maintenance over the last year?
• What are the fixed costs going to be per day/week?
• When were the tires last changed, what is the cost of a full set, and what is the expected lifetime?
• What is IFTA? How do you calculate pre tax cost of fuel?
• What is factoring and how does it differ from quick pay? What is the normal time frame to get paid by a customer?

If you can't answer these questions off the top of your head, you're not ready to run your own trucking business. I'm not trying to be mean, but I've seen far too many guys jump in the deep end without knowing how to swim.

Also, there are a lot of box trucks that are being run 'less than legally'. That's who you're going to be competing against. If you do things the right way, you'll struggle to be competitive.