"I am interested in starting a trucking business."

Thanks for this post, I am ex-military with no family or ties and I plan to keep it that way, I am excited to get into a truck and I know I’ll be comfortable with all of the “cons” of the lifestyle; My ultimate goal is to be an owner-op under my own authority but I know the common sense move is to get experience under my belt first. A college degree these days is pretty useless unless you’re STEM and even a lot of those are debatable (but that is another conversation.) After reading through all of the horror stories about trucking companies and seeing so much toxicity on forums and elsewhere I was starting to get biased against the idea of being a company driver. I am a pretty intelligent guy and I’m comfortable around equipment and different types of machinery, but I needed to see this and it helped to reinforce what I already knew to be true. I do have a question though. In your opinion would becoming an O/O and leasing on to a company for a year be a bonehead move with no experience? I have plenty of startup capital and I already know I’d like to be running a pre-emission engine (preferably a Cat but wouldn’t mind a Cummins.) I just don’t want to fall in the trap of traveling out to a company and end up getting screwed over etc. When I can just have the freedom to leave in my own rig if I don’t like the situation at orientation or whatever.

Edited for grammar

 

Since I did what you want to do, I can tell you start up capital needed is about 100k to get into this.

About 60k truck and trailer
10k to get things setup

And 30k back up until you turn a profit.

 

I have 380K in startup capital. My numbers were right where you’re were, however, I was hoping to maybe grab a cheap (15-20K) Freightliner Cascadia or something with the engine I want, then put 20K into it for full rebuild and fixing it up. No problem having 30K in my maintenance fund and first couple months of op ex, but I was on the fence whether I should buy my own trailer or lease a trailer from a company for 6 mos. to 1 year and then invest in my trailer.

 

Listen, do you want to go to California? As in be able to get in and out of California? If yes I suggest selectrrucks.com where you can find good deals on cascadias with warranties on them. A trailer is about 10k get it and work it not lease. Having a trailer gives you options.

Pull your own or park and go power only.

If you need help, let me know. I can guide you.

Only reason to lease onto other companies is if you don’t mind working for others benefit, you will never get to develop relationships with brokers if your leased, meaning once you leave you basically are starting from scratch. Driving a truck is easy. Developing it into a business is the hard part.

Pm me and we can discuss this if you want.

 

The only thing correct in this post is the driving is the easy part statement.

You think all those agents you build a relationship with are going to suddenly stop wanting to do business with you just because you are no longer leased to the carrier they are agents for?

 

You can listen to this guy if you want just make sure your contracts with the carrier doesn’t have a non compete clause.

Or the fact the agent will offer you a lower rate then what he pays the carrier because he knows your starting out.

Hell I have not seen a lease owner op talk to the agent directly it’s usually through the dispatcher.

So choose your path carefully.

 

Not everyones situation is the same.

 

Yeah, I know about non-competes and I appreciate you bringing that up, it’s a great point. I imagine there are a lot of brokers/shippers out there who will take advantage of a new MC regardless of the situation, but this is where business savvy and the ability to communicate/negotiate comes in. To clarify, I would prefer not to lease a trailer from a company, but I was curious if it might be a good way to grab some experience early on. I would like to avoid that situation if possible after all of the advice Ive gotten and all the research I’ve done over the last couple months. I’m going through a 4 week school at either Sage or Apex in the Salt Lake City area next month, so that is of course the first step.

 

You dont need the ability to negotiate nearly as much as you need the ability to say no. You say no ten times for every time you counteroffer. Every 5 counteroffers youll book a good load. You better like phonecalls.

High freight DOES NOT seek out a trailer thats loaded now with crap freight going to a crap spot. High freight is on a dock in a hotzone seeking an empty truck that is in position NOW. So stay empty until you book high freight. When you find yourself in a deadzone during the workweek, dont screw around booking rubbish to tie up an entire day for $500. Find the nearest high freight and deadhead straight to it. Your truck should make a grand a day or better. Is saving $200 in fuel worth burning up another $1000 day? Time is money, move before another workday slips by.

Dont go in debt, dont go into deadzones, dont put druggies in your truck and youll be fine.

 

Thank you for this reply, no problem with phone calls as long as there’s a purpose haha. This type of advice is gold, and I agree, I plan on operating this way. I’m from the Southeast and I plan on working the South to Midwest and Southwest mostly, but I’m willing to go wherever.
Edit: Living in Utah currently and will be setting up there first, then transferring license/authority back to the East Coast when I figure where I want my base to be, seriously considering Tennessee, specifically right outside of Nashville.