Looking for mentor for help starting out. (Please)

Do not do this, you will loose your investment. Your brother needs to pick a better company to work for.
If he can’t make it as a driver in this industry he will absolutely fail as an owner. Being an owner operator is not purchasing a job, it is running a business.

 

Do you and your brother live close to each other?

 

I’m no owner op, and even I know this is a terrible idea. Tell your brother to make an account here and tell us what he wants to do, and we can help him find a better job.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you want to help him, but what you are describing is a recipe for disaster.

 

1. No. Unless you lease on with a company but I suggest getting a trailer.
2. Currently with your authority $1.50-$2.50 avg depending on your trailer type.
3. Yes get a fuel card. Do some research there are many.
4. 1996-2006 or 2019+ For truck.
5. Depends. Difference between a 2002 cat 379 Pete will pay for like half of a new truck payment almost by itself in fuel cost. Also depends what you haul. But difference between like a detroit Columbia vs a new truck isn’t as much.
6. Repairs imo is word of mouth and building relationships with a couple mechanic shops near you. Roadside repairs are very uncommon if you’re maintenance is top.
7. Regular insurance is fine.
8. If he works really hard maybe 13k miles a month. But you’ll get burned out doing it after awhile. I suggest 3 week on 1 week off with being home 34 hours on the weeks he’s gone.
9. My advice is don’t do it. Your brother is a big boy and he needs to put on his big boy pants and get a job. There are thousands of good ones if he has a work ethic and a good attitude. If you can’t do well as a company driver you won’t make it as an owner operator. Also if you invest all that money into the stock market instead you’ll be laughing all the way to the bank in 5 years instead of murdering your brother.

I’d also like to add being in this business as an owner is really a labor of love as the amount of suck is huge. If you do this business strictly for money be prepared for disappointment.

 

Have your brother go get another job, between the two of you, you will fail miserably.

There is no need to explore this unless he is willing to learn the industry by paying attention with the right company. AND finding the right company is up to him and his skills, not any one of us.

The investment for him just to start is going to be more than $80k, that isn't something that you can get a loan for, that is money that has to be in the bank, and then you after that you have to make sure there is at least $30k more in the bank for problems and sustaining the company when there is a down time - and there will be a down time.

Insurance is a high cost thing, you can't comprimise or cheat (as I seen a few lately do just that. It is all thanks to the problems with crap drivers (not everyone can actually drive a truck, they are great steering wheel holders), problems with new entries into this industry and most of all the litigation that has been prevelent in the industry - just look at the ambulence chasing lawyer's billboard in any major city, "big trucks are big bucks for us to get you" or "we make you millions from big trucks when you get into an accident even if it is your fault".

For you a serious relaity check is going to be buying a truck. There is so much crap and junk out there that have hidden problems that are being dumped on the market, and many of these trucks need to just be scraped. This isn't like buying a car and many are just plain ******* lucky buying an old truck that doesn't crap out on them in a few months. The process I have posted before is involved and costs - sometimes as high as $3k. It is mostly ignored because it is too hard and costly (why should a buyer do this if the seller isn't going to?). All of this ensures that the risk is lower for that truck but many find out when they treat the truck like a car and just buy the one they think makes them feel good.

 

@Green-Horn

Please read Ridgeline’s reply over and over until it sinks in.

Off the top of my head I was thinking $100k to get a start..not even a comfortable start. My second thought was that you would lose absolutely everything within 6 months.. If you do secure the funds for him do it expecting to never getting it paid back.
It’s really bad out here right now and expected to get worse.

Don’t do it. Straight up, no man would ever think of putting his sister in hock for such a high risk occupation. Help him find a decent company job making $1,500+ per week first. Make him prove that he can even handle that.

Quite honestly, your brother imo seems like sniveling bum who really doesn’t want to work.

 

There are two requirements for success in trucking, 1 you must know how to drive, 2 you have a desire to work.
There are many companies that will treat a driver badly but there are more that will treat you fairly.
If your brother doesn't want to find a job and put up half the money to start a business with you what makes you think he will succeed.

 

Please heed the advise given above. There is a lot of truth to the old joke:

How do you end up with a million bucks in trucking?

Start with two.

Most entry level trucking will eventually hemorrhage money unless the unit is well managed and well driven by a driver willing to do almost anything to make money.

You have been warned.