Going to start a trucking company - advice welcome

I lease a 2007 Volvo 780 with about 330k miles on it now. If you are keeping up with the regular maintenance and the trucks are equipped with APUs the engines should average past a million miles before you need to inframe them.

The 780 is, by far, the most livable truck out there unless you're talking custom sleepers. The storage space, fridge/freezer and (especially) the RV-style lower sleeper make it incredibly driver friendly. SoCal and parts of the northeast will require APU-equipped trucks to comply with anti-idle laws, and an APU makes any truck more friendly to operate.

Finding well-qualified, safe drivers with 45 CPM shouldn't be difficult in this economy, particularly if your benefits are good. The biggest hitch with benefits at most companies is the health care plan, so do your research and get the best you can afford. I'd scrimp a bit on the CPM (say, 40 CPM) to get much better health care.

As far as load planning / dispatching goes, you're probably fine with one or two with that few trucks. If they have to plan on the fly every day (where you don't know until the last minute where your outbound trucks are heading and thus where the inbound load needs to be found) that will be a lot more work and hassle than if you know days in advance that truck 1 will be in city A on a certain date.

Good luck,

Jim

 

.40 cpm is kinda high if you hire some one without a lot of experience. most folks I talk to, pay 28. .32 to start. now I dont know what kind of mileage your drivers would get, most out here would like to average of 2500 to 3000 miles a week. 3000 miles times .40 is $1200 to the driver. that i.m.o. is to high if you are going to be paying for the fuel, tags, ins & all maint/breakdowns of truck, & the truck itself. you can be competitive, just offer a bit more than the going rate. look at the major carriers & see what they offer & come up with a similar pakage.

 

I am guessing they already have some employee's that would transfer over from the hourly pay scale to full time driving.

Running the load boards may compromise your own time schedule for your own freight with various delays or lack of communication from brokers. So the empty miles could add up more than you would like & something that may need to be given some thought.

 

If you want happy drivers pay them by the hour....

 

Hi, Tom. Most fleets where trucking is not their primary business seem to prefer leasing new equipment. They don't want to deal with the maintenance issues of used equipment nor the hassle of selling it when replacement time comes.

Pay, benefits and working conditions are what will help you find and retain good drivers.

Volvos are nice trucks. The private fleet I drive for is unfortunately replacing ours with Prostars which International is just about giving away to fleets right now. All the drivers hate'm, but no one's going to quit over the trucks. If the company were to switch from hourly to mileage pay several drivers would be gone immediately.

Hard to say what would be a good mileage rate without knowing more about your operation. Figure you'll need to pay at least $1000 per week to keep good drivers.
Especiallly if they are not getting home every night.

No offense to what others have posted, but DO NOT base your pay package off the major truckload fleets. You will not be happy with who is servicing your primary business's customers.

Working conditions is the other big one for keeping drivers. Something you will soon learn taking freight off the load boards. I'd suggest browsing the bad shipper forum on this website to get an idea of what contract carrier truckers have to deal with.

Have you considered approaching your vendors about handling some of their transportation needs? Much better option than load boards if they ship the same lanes your trucks are running.

 

Tom,

I have been in this transportation business almost 22 years so I know the ins and outs of running a trucking company. I helped set a friend of mine who was also a small business owner up with starting a small fleet back in Charlotte and he is doing well. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with me.

Marc