I bought a truck back in October and I’ve been working pretty well since. One problem I’ve been having is trying to look for year round work. I’m trying to get some local work and be able to have a 5-7 loads a week and I don’t know how to go about looking for this customers or even selling my services to them. I’ve seen a post on this website a while back and I tried everything it said on there but I’ve gotten no luck so far. The only payments I need to make a month is literally just insurance. Truck and trailer is paid off. I’ve heard reefer loads pay well. Which industries or types of shippers usually have loads year round also?
Where do you live? Year round? Trucks are commodities. If the economy slows the rates will go down for everyone over about 6 week period.
Steady work can be overrated. I’d hammer the spot market hard as you possibly can and stack your money up. There will always be freight in your area. If you do a lot of local for brokers, I have no doubt you’ll find consistent work.
I see, reason I want steady work is to build and stack up and eventually have drivers so I don’t have to do the driving myself. Having about 5-10 trucks is my goal at the moment
You can build an entire company off the spot market. Nothing wrong with that. With time maybe you’ll pick up some customers. Hire a nice lady with good skin and a short skirt to do your sales. In the mean time you focus on learning lanes and negotiating with brokers. Work on efficiency and maximizing every day and opportunity. That’s what’ll make you successful when you have more trucks.
Regarding reefer work, as I understand it, it is the most recession proof and consistent work. Dry van and flat bed work often has seasonal of sorts. There are times where there are tons of loads available and other times where freight is hardly moving. But, reefer work is almost always food, which has a more stable and consistent demand. At least when I was looking at becoming a truck driver and exploring the industry, it was what I learned and it seemed to make sense. I went with reefer and glad I did. I've been a company driver for about 16 months now and I've only sat twice without a load when I was ready and able to run. Both times, it was only for a couple of hours. Usually I have my next load well before I finish my current load. And, I've been to some of our terminals and commonly ran into to dry van guys waiting for a load.
This just gave me a new perspective, maybe with a little strategic planning on going thru the change of seasons it can be done
