Owning a truck, Hiring a driver

I just signed up here to make a quick reply,,,


I'm a site manager and I have hired someone that owned 2 trucks out of IN and he is making $1500 a month ouf of each, he is also not dependable
on living off of the trucks profit, but you know what, he just bought his third truck.

Maybe you cannot live a life with hiring someone to drive your only truck and staying home, but if you have means of living without depending on the only truck, then yes you can have someone driving it for you and saving the money to increase your fleet.

I though about doing this myself few years back, but the forums/ insurance and driver torn me down,, but after meeting this guy my ambition has grown back

He gave me some insights about insurance/drivers and I will definitely be getting myself into the trucking business.

I dont need the truck money for living, this money will be savings/investment money.

If I do not do well, I just sell the truck , (i will buy off a truck) and will live my life as a no doubt if I could've done or not.

But as "mustanglover" said,,,

if you can keep driving your own and add another to start off, it will be a great beginning for yourself.

I know I will have some people coming back at me on this post. But life is like that.. if you cannot make it, doesn't mean someone else can't !!!!


sorry, the quick reply turned out to be long.. LoL

Andy

 

Andy is absolutely right. I've friends who are doing well, very well. They all started the same way. Drove forsomeone saved a few bucks or borrowed some to buy a truck. Saved some more bought another truck, put a driver in it and made a few bucks. One friend started with B&W then went to Roadway Express and I believe they were bought out by FedEx. Anyway, he has 6 trucks. Yes there are ones that complaned how hard it is but thats their nature. Even with all their complaing they are doing very well. A lot better then company drivers. But not all want the extra responsibility of being an O/O.

 

Quite a few did everything right and ran into bad luck, so they will be against anything that rhymes with "small business". That kind of misfortune happens a lot on a stringshoe budget but not necessarily. If you find a carrier that covers ALL your costs and leaves you even with 10-20 cpm profit why the heck would you not make money in the long run with a decent driver ?! It will translate into more than 10000 return from a 50000 investment(cost af a used truck and operating expenses). 20% return per year, not bad. If you do not take money out, you fleet should double in number every 4 years,paid cash for. Once another recession hits, fire all drivers and sell the trucks,wait till it gets better ,start again

 

We never got out of the last recession and now that capacity has caught up with supply rates are tanking. Even so, if you're willing to risk everything to make a few pennies a mile - do it. You'll always be one breakdown away from bankruptcy.

 

May your health return Go Getta.

If you were still able to drive the truck, then you would have a decision to make. However, since you claim you are not able/allowed to drive it, I believe that your hand is 'forced' - i.e., since you cannot drive the truck, there are only two realistic ways that you can make money from it: 1) sell it, and 2) attempt to have a driver run it.

To answer your question, yes, I can make it on $1.160/week. The question IS however, is your driver going to be happy on $720/week? How many hours is he working? How many weekend days is required? What condidtion is your truck in? That your freight is local is a big plus. How bad do the chickens smell? I bought a bag of 'chickie doo' from Menard's and I cannot store it in the garage because of the odor from the bag!

Also, is your diesel in Carolina less than $4.00/gallon there? It is at least that here: so 1.500 miles'/week divided by 5 mpg = 300 x $4.00 is more like $1,200 in fuel weekly.....I am just calculating...

 

There are trucks right now that average up to 9 mpg. Even locally I would want no less than 6 mpg, fuel efficiency is the only way to prosper, esp. in the beggining

 

Sorry, in doing some research this caught my attention. I maybe mistaken but you are providing a means and method? It says your to ONLY DIRECT the work.

 

If he said "Get the load to Charlotte by 3pm Sunday, using tractor #1234, via Interstate 40, US-321, Interstate 85." he would be satisfying the means / methods language, in my opinion.

 

Yes I understand your giving a direction, but if you simply provide the truck with no direction than you are providing the means and a method. You are to ONLY provide direction. If you have guys working on a site using your tools they're working for you, using your truck there working for you. The infos there to be interpreted how we would like. Thank you for providing it. Wecan agree to disagree. Have a good day.