want to open a trucking company

One more honest question, with your 500k, and 10-15 trucks, where will your home terminal be? Will you own/lease different land? Will it already have the shop and/or sufficient parking setup?

 

Good point. With that many trucks, you had better have a mechanic, a shop, tools, parts suppliers set up, bulk oil deliveries and old oil pickup, tire accounts, fueling accounts, etc, etc, .....

Maintenance is going to be a bear. Not saying it cant be done, but I can't imagine how the fleets manage that nightmare.

 

I got some ocean front property in Arizona to throw in.


Im sorry I couldnt resist. (not mocking you mike)

 

Another option would be to call around to some of the different truck manufacturers or check out their websites. They all have good deals on fleet leases with maintenance and fixes built into the program. Another thing to look into is truck brokers. That is going to be your major player in the whole game. Check out the OOIDA website too. There is a wealth of info in regards to running your own trucking business on there. Lots of good links too! Good luck to you on your endeavor!

 

geez soo many trolls on this thread.


here are my thoughts: if you have no mortgage on the property, i would go to a bank or credit union and take a mortgage out on the property and start your company with cash in hand. you probably won't be able to mortgage it for what you have invested in it, but you should be able to get a good chunk of cash. with mortgage rates sooo low, this would be an incredible option for you. i just had a friend who bought a property at 3.8%.

this is also attractive because to swap your property for the trucks would be a mess from an accounting/tax perspective. and you could keep your property to park your trucks if you'd like or you could try to lease it out.

like others have mentioned, starting out with 12+ trucks is a little aggressive. but with that much capital i think you are in a great position to start out in this business. i would say that most of the morons that fail in this industry do so because they are under capitalized. don't let the trolls get you down!

 

Hmmm... Came to the US at 19 with $300. and now you want to buy a business??? And you are in Florida?? My best guess to your situation is you made a beach landing off the coast of Southern Florida, you met up with some relatives from Cuba, and you have been getting assistance from the US government!! Just kidding!! If you are trying to seek help with a business start up why not try a Hot shot start up?? It will be much cheaper than trying to create a full scale trucking operation!! You can make some really good money this way!!

 

While I am a newbie, I am also very observant, and fairly well versed in business. My observations have lead me to understand that the only real way to start a trucking business is to have experience driving, then buy a truck. Notice, I said A truck, as in ONE. This truck you will drive yourself and/or with a buddy who you pay by the mile as an independent contractor. Once the freight brokers, and everyone else you have to deal with, are happy with you and your service, then MAYBE, if you're profitable, you can buy another truck, as in ONE more, and get your buddy to drive that one. Now you've got two trucks and perhaps once both of them are in the black you can move on from there. Personally, If I had that land and wanted to get into the trucking business I'd do this:

1. Once you start your company you're going to need a place to park your truck. Find some owner operators who are having a hard time finding a place to park their truck and offer to rent them a parking space for a very reasonable cost. Now that land IS making money, and it will still be there when you need it.
2. Get in with a good company that will train you and where you can get at least a year behind the wheel OTR.
3. Don't just drive! You have to STUDY the industry. There's a lot of stuff to know about if you're going to run a company that your average company driver doesn't need or want to know. However, the first thing on the list IS driving.
4. Buy ONE truck at first and drive it yourself. Don't buy another truck until you're IN THE BLACK and have the operational and administrative side down pat, and then buy only ONE more truck.

Also, keep in mind that hiring a Class A truck driver is not the same as hiring a receptionist or a cashier at Walgreen's. The rules are much stricter, and hiring the wrong guy could cost you your business in short order. You'll need to hire experienced guys with a good record. Those guys aren't going to want to work for some guy who just bought a bunch of trucks, but has no experience running a trucking operation or even driving a truck for that matter. Even as a newbie, I wouldn't work for you either.

Looking at historical precedence and just by making some calculations I've come to the conclusion that it MIGHT (this is all theory at this point) be possible once you have two trucks operating effectively for a good period of time, like a year or more, to then go to five trucks. That's five NEW trucks. However, before you do this, you need to be able to do a number of things.

1. Hire your drivers as employees, not just contractors.
2. Hire operational staff like a dispatcher, book keeper, and general manager if you want to keep driving.
3. You're going to need physical land to park trucks and have an office.

I know a lot of guys will see this and think I'm nuts, especially since I'm a newbie, and I suppose that is possible. However, trucking is like any other business in many respects. If you deliver a quality product or service at a competitive price you'll become the preferred source of that product or service. Once you get to the point where the brokers and shippers are calling you, and more of them than you can handle, buying more trucks is inevitable, and buying NEW trucks is preferable as it serves to make you even more desirable to the customer. The trick is to become the guy with the busy phone. THAT is the hard part, and don't go buying a bunch of trucks until you ARE that guy.

 

Not really sure how observant you are. This thread is over a year old!

Sorry man, couldn't resist!

 

This thread is almost a year old!!!! He's more than likely already traded his land for some ragged out ex-werner trucks and lost his ##### in the great trucking business. Hell I would've sold the land for what I could get and got out of this crumbling country.