Researching a business that i can invest

The ROI in the trucking business can be very good. But the key is active involvement. As a passive investment you have a lot of areas that will eat away at profit.

Great example is some responses on this thread. You can find companies that are paying $1.60/mile to the truck. But for many research stops at advertising rags at the TS.

Diversification is a great thin. But straight trucking as a passive investment needs to be done right and with the right people.

But as you take your time a learn this business you will find other areas that could work better. Look at factoring or financing a tractor or trailer.

Look for a smaller trucking company that is factoring or needs extra capital to expand. If they are paying 500 points on an invoice, would you be willing to get 300 points for using your money for 30-days.

I have business partners and investors that finance equipment at great rates, fund fuel and A/P. They make a GREAT return, are not in the trucking business and we have resources to expand.

Once you understand the business you will see there are many ways to make good money without having to just buy a truck.

 

It's doubtful you will make $.30 -$.40 a mile paying a driver to drive your truck . You might look at being an expedite fleet owner . The usual contract gives drivers 60% of the gross plus FSC and the drivers pay for the fuel . I'd recommend hiring an experienced solo driver and spend some time in the truck with him to become familiar with the business then have a team in the truck .

 

Bill is dead on when he talks about active involvement. There are so many ways a driver can bankrupt an owner asleep at the wheel, or desk I mean. There was a thread just a few weeks ago where an owner lost his lucrative oil frac lease because his new driver hit something at an oil well that didn't even matter.

You posted earlier that you don't want to deal with renters. lol. If you can't deal with renters one time per month and the various times of the lease when something minor like a dishwasher breaks, how do you think you'll cope with a whiny driver (they all are to a degree) when they call you at 2am, they are going to be late for their delivery because (insert item here) is broke and needs to be fixed. Trust me, it happens. I got a call from NYC one time as my driver locked his keys in his truck, idling no less, and he wanted to know what I was going to do about it.

My advice, browse through the posts here, including old ones, see what the company drivers are saying in their sections, and make your decision. If you want to blow your wad on a truck, go for it, just don't haul cheap freight and hire a GOOD experienced driver, and you may succeed. An OK driver with a year experience can be had for .30ish cpm, a better one with a few years will be .40ish, and a veteran trucker will be .50ish cpm. You really do get what you pay for. Don't forget workers comp/occ acc, employment taxes, medical (if you want a decent driver), etc.

 

Here's the problem I found with learning anything about the trucking Industry is the information is not available in a logical manner. You get it piecemeal, like reading a book where the pages are mixed up and not numbered.

OOIDA has a bunch of webinar classes available online that can teach you a lot of what you want to know. I think truckersu.com has some too. I know with my research it will be difficult to recoup your investment of just 1 truck if you have to pay someone else to drive it.

 

Taxes ran me right at .18cpm married no kids head of household

As far as maintenance if you feel comfortable with 15cpm then put 20cpm, trust me you will use it!!

Insurance will be anywhere from $150 to $300 way too many factors depending on you situation

Benefits, I couldnt say, I'm covered under my wifes policy.

The ETC part, well we get $5 and $10 dollared to death out here not including cell phones, internet access, and the list goes on!!

Tolls, I just hope the company you lease the truck onto pays for them, if not then it can get pricey running to the North East, and any decent driver should know how to get around alot of the tolls in chicago and somewhat in the north east
But then again it aint your drivers money so he's probably gonna just run the toll road!!

 

Better figure your fuel mileage way more conservative than that. 5mpg. I don't care how good/experienced a driver may be or if you're paying them top dollar or what... They will think nothing of wasting lots of fuel idling for no good reason (about a gallon per hour or worse with most trucks) because as a small company you dont have expensive sat coms that keep track of idle percentages sending you weekly reports and they know that. They will also think nothing of joyrides 10 or 20 miles to the other side of town, while waiting on a 4 hour unload job to get done, so they can eat at their favorite burger joint they drove past on the way in. Costing you a $1.50 or more per mile to roll, unpaid, every one... I used to do that myself as a company driver. Those things rack up big costs and are very difficult to keep track of when you are always sitting in an office 1000 miles away and don't know what the ACTUAL odometer miles are on every mile driven. As far as benefits go. You're not going to make profit if you think you can offer guys medical/dental, 401K, paid vacation and such. Forget it. The way I see it, if I was a company driver, you can only offer an ungoverned truck without a qualcomm constantly beeping. And that was never something that tempted me away from my cozy gig with full benefits as a company man.

Some drivers are attracted to that. But even if you paid them 50 cents a mile, with no bennies, that driver is working very cheap compared to most drivers out there running at 35cpm with full bennies. You just are not going to be able to attract a top caliber driver imo. Lots of sorry excuses out here thieves that will rob you blind and tear up your equipment etc. Fly off the handle over ordinary every day trucking problems, blame you for it, quit and leave your truck in the middle of no where. Drivers are fickle. There are guys on here who will tell you they thought they could offer first class equipment, pay top dollar, and they would pull it off where many others have failed. And they failed. I think there are even a few guys on here who have solid company drivers. Of course they themselves actually drive or have driven a truck for decades and are invested heart and soul into the business - they didn't see this as a quick easy return. Cause it isn't. This is their life.

I'm just being a realist here. I don't think anyone I could hire and put into a truck will be into the business heart and soul caring about every little detail like I do, because they have no blood and sweat in it, and they don't. It's just that simple. Maintinence, insurance, taxes, that is the easy stuff... It can cause headaches sure enough but no-where near what you have to deal with when dealing with an employee..

 

Everything you said was 100% true and correct!

 

Trucking is the only business I know that you can make a million dollars.
You just have to start with 2 million dollars and in a short bit of time you will have one million dollars!