mentoring in canada on the west coast

I do appreciate your (and anyone's) determined drive to give anything a try and see if it works. Making your own way, least reliant on others, for anything - respect.

Couple things to mention:
1. It sounds like you are new to truck driving altogether. If you are totally new, how do you know you'll enjoy it? What will you do if you don't? Got a wife and kids to feed? Are the hours trucking operates (24/7) suitable for your home life? The time away? There is much to be learned which can really only be learned through experience. This is pretty much *every* aspect of this job. Going from zero to truck ownership/totally on your own authority the success rate is basicly zero. It's kind of like getting married before you live together. In your case getting married before you even know the other party (hint the answer is the devil on this one). It is easy to buy the equipment and setup the authority and the insurance and all the regulatory stuff. Actually making it a profitable venture? Something like 95% fail within their first year. And those are people who have been driving for at least a few years and have a handle on how it actually works. The picking up and delivering of loads and how to manage hours of service, where you can park where you can't, everything about it from a driver's point of view. It is way easier to get into it, than it is to get out of it.

2. Don't buy in to the "oh my God there is a truck driver shortage what are we to do!" You can believe that when you go to a store and get told nobody was available to haul it here for us. It makes about as much sense as "oh my God there is a diesel shortage!" Ya? Where? Me: "I only want to pay 0.50 per liter and that's it!" If I have 1.50 or whatever the price is I can buy as much as I want. So if I said to you, truck driver I only want to pay you minimum wage. Nobody gonna be driving for me. So I cry to the government truck driver shortage! and you get what we have today. Customer says the same thing, "I can only afford X to move this freight." Well if I look at it and say that doesn't even pay for the fuel I'd be a fool to move it now wouldn't I? What happens if you are far from home and someone offers you fuel money? When you get started, will you say there is a shortage of work that pays enough for you to earn more than the 25-30/hr what you'd make just in the driver's role? Did you know for every cdl holder actively driving, there are 2 who have a cdl but are in other fields? Welding, mechanic, factory, etc.

I just think you are ahead of yourself. There's already enough people who go out buy a truck then they fail and say there's no money in trucking it's impossible blah blah blah. They usually are under funded or never had a clue in the first place. We just trying to warn you, that's all. You would probably get more help being mentored if you said hey I am new I'm going to be driving for this company (can even find out who is good and who is not so good on this forum) and I need advice on this or that, the driver side of it. The owner side of it, how exactly do you want to be helped? Be taught how to talk to brokers or find work yourself? Or do you want to go straight for the jugular and say you want our contacts information directly? Lots come here and try exactly that, get upset when people say I'm not telling you any of that, stomp their feet, pout then leave.

 

Knowing how to drive a truck and do it legally is a good way to reduce losses. A driver who works for free can offset some of this cost, however.

 

Personally I don't think you could be in a worse area of BC to start a trucking company. The market in that area is pretty saturated.

 

Customers care about one thing. Money. They have fly by night companies fighting to pull loads at a loss just to get the load. All they have to do is keep the business going for 2 years to get citizenship. That’s a fact. We have customers tell us they can get a full 53 for their 8 skids for what we charge in ltl. It’s all about the money now. Cut cut cut.