Help needed setting up a Hot Shot business

First you do not have to post the same reply more than once. We all read it and it would make it easier for you to have it quoted and respond to the individual

See here is the problem, maybe you're not seeing it but load boards and dispatchers don't usually have good freight opertunities for the setup you are talking about.

You have to have experience to make money at the level you are talking about, it isn't instant, and doesn't mean it is profitable.

 

Sometimes you just have let the kid lick the light socket.

 

Re-read posts 12, 14, 18, 31, 34, 35, 40, and 43 and do look for something different.

I will re-repeat an old quip about trucking:

'How do you end up with a million dollars from trucking?

Start with two!'

Without a dedicated source of revenue from the start you will be amazed at the amount of money and knowledge of the demographic needed to just get the first wheel to turn.

I have worked for both large and small motor carriers from 1977 to 2022.

Large carriers maintained an epic sales force aimed at selling more business than last year including the expected % of business they expected to loose to others, perhaps as much as 20%!

Smaller semi regional carriers all had a small and steady core of customers including larger local accounts they shared with a competitor as most businesses won't put all their freight in one carrier's pocket.

Often the smaller companies owner would be the sales force and they were microfocused on serving their customers 1000%.

Often I would get included when there was some entertainment and 'downtown' wanted an ops person tag along with the sales and customer. Not to mention season sporting event tickets where I 'might' get asked if a seat was open.

Either way they had customers and the infrastructure to maintain and build their customer base.

ALSO:

There is no customer that won't at some point dump the carrier.

Matlack had their Customer Centered Quality Management program beliving the closer the came to meeting 100% of a customer's needs would allow them to raise their rates...don't know what they were smoking...for years they bragged how their CCQM was working well with one major chemical producer.

Central dispatch spent millions maintaining the desired compartmented trailer mix at each plant, I was at a nearby facility and they deadheaded a lot of stuff 'just for XXX co' and the head of sales smiled...UNTIL...this customer decided to switch their carriers to another nationwide company and insisted that Matlack lease a bunch of their compartmented trailers as the 'other guy' didn't have enough!

Actually in the end I'd bet they made more on those leases...

Do what you want, it's your money.