I am considering buying a truck, need advice

The best advice is not to do it. Especially since you don't even know the basics and aren't even able to drive it yourself. And using broker freight to get you to what is essentially cheap freight (hay) is a losing proposition.

If you want to be in the hay business from now on, that's different. But it really isn't a wise business decision to make the investment and to incur all of the financial risk and associated problems with trucks, trailers, licensing, insurance, maintenance, drivers, etc. - just to solve a short-term problem this year.

Bite the bullet and pay the freight on the hay. Let somebody else have all the headaches and risk. You can almost always find a cheapskate trucker that will haul ag commodities cheaper than you can do it yourself.

Try some of the pipe haulers that are bouncing back from the Bakken. I talked to several of them last year that were willing to bring back big squares from Kansas/Nebraska. There's probably a lot of pipe coming out of Houston going up there and it could work out well for you and the truckers, too.

 

Well, I tried. And I can almost promise you that you will regret the decision to proceed. Good luck, anyway.

Just keep in mind that there aren't many things that can make your life more miserable than having a truck driver on the payroll. A good one is priceless. If you're ever fortunate enough to find a really good one, pay him accordingly.