Newbie trying to tap into box truck fleet world!!

There have been articles about increases in Final Mile trucking. I would think getting a CDL and working regional or LTL for a big carrier for 2 years in your area would probably give you time to start understanding the industry and make some connections. See warehouses and crossdocking. Van vs reefer. Etc etc. Plus any trucking insurance probably needs you to have experience or your rates will be high.
Put in some time in someone else equipment and learn the basics on their time/their dime.

 

it seems a lot of people are wiling to buy into a trucking business when they know nothing about the business and how to make money in it , but they would never think of buying into and opening a hair salon or pizza place or gas station or pet store or whatever other type of business
That they also have no experience in.

 

I’m not trying to discourage you from getting into the biz,

I enjoyed it while I was in it and made a lot of money.

I got out of trucking to have more time at home with my newborn children. And at the same time I got a very interesting job offer that I couldn’t turn down.
I’ve always been a pretty good mechanic and handyman and
I got offered the job of maintenance supervisor at a hospital. 8-5 Monday thru Friday. Good salary, full health benefits for the wife and new twins,
Paid vacation and holidays etc.
Slightly less than I was making as an owner operator , but was worth it.

I just wish I had gotten some advice from owner operators before I jumped in.

I had never driven a truck at all,
Went to CDL class at the local state run vo tech college, and jumped into a rent to own lease purchase.
I made a lot of money, despite making a lot of mistakes that kept me from making even More money.

I got a one way ticket to ft Wayne IN and say they a four day orientation class at North American Van Lines and picked out a truck in the parking lot of their rent to own rigs, and manages to get it hooked up to a trailer and out of the parking lot. stopped at the first truck stop, and asked around in the Restaraunt and found a experienced driver to show me how to drain the air tanks, how to raise the cab on the cabover I just bought, all that stuff I should have learned before I bought a truck

buying a truck is easy, driving the truck is easy.
It’s the business part of trucking that’s hard.
Finding customers, which I didn’t have to do NAVL provided all the trailers and freight, but finding the customers and finding a mechanic and finding an accountant and learning the business part is what’s hard. Because if things go wrong , it gets very expensive. very fast.

a blown engine in an 18 wheeler is $20k to replace.
Plus you will lose $20-35k in revenue while it’s not rolling.
the best thing to do if you have a 10-12 year old truck is just buy another rig ASAP and keep rolling and making money , and either sell the blown one for scrap or repair it later.
Wish I had known that.
When the engine blew in my rig I spent A lot of money getting it rebuilt and lost a months worth of revenue.

nowdays you have the emission systems to be worried about, they are very trouble prone and very very expensive to repair.