How much seed money????

I came back to trucking in March 2012.

In July of 2012, I bought my truck and trailer.



I started with $4000 cash of my own.
I got a $7500 SBA loan for the truck/trailer downpayment.
I financed my truck/trailer through a separate equipment lease company.
I leased my truck to Farm2Fleet and used their fuel card.

In Feb 2013, I left F2F and moved to another company.
I worked with my finance company and traded my dry van off on a reefer.

I have much better paying work around the area now than I ever did with my van.

When I went to the new company, I had $2000 fuel money to start with. I also had a Trucker's Advantage FleetOne card I got on my own from OOIDA. That has an automatic ACH draw of $2000 every Tuesday.

I was also putting from $1800-3000 per month into equipment repairs from Sept to May. Since I put the wiring harness in, I have been saving $1000+ just in fuel expenses alone. I should have those maintenance expenses break-even for me by fall now.
http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...2292-battle-mileage-2007-century-14l-egr.html

I was hit with a $2600 maintenance bill for steers, kingpins and an alignment 12 days after buying my truck. Once I got past that, I realized I would do just fine.

July 2013 is my 1 year mark. I have all my finances in Quicken and I am finally seeing my bank account grow now from the maintenance finally being under control if you can call it that.

 

My example was just one of many, and as you see from MN's and others' examples, it can vary greatly. Some of the variables like if you're leased or independent can make a difference, too. Also, the condition of your equipment to begin with... if you buy a truck that has low mileage and a good dyno, you probably won't have to worry about rebuilding it soon. A question you should ask yourself about becoming an O/O independent, is "Do I have freight sources already lined up?" if not, you might want to look really hard at leasing onto a decent carrier. Lease ops can make as much, or sometimes more than independents can, and many times can rely on their carrier to help out if they have problems, like financing a rebuild, or getting advances for fuel money, etc. No, there's not as much freedom, but it can be a good tradeoff for a lot of owners. I prefer to build my business and look to the day when I can sell it for a nice profit, or turn it over to my boys when I retire.

Like I said, you may not need $43k +/- based on the variables you are dealing with. Most importantly, make sure you have a good freight source to go independent, otherwise you could go broke really fast trying to survive 100% on the spot market, as a new carrier.

 

The biggest thing that will hurt you is your location. If you are not in a good freight lane, then it's going to be tough getting home-time.

Past that, just accept that any truck on the road is your competitor and no one is looking out for you but you.

Why is everyone so focused on mega's too? They didn't create this world. One truck shops did.

 

I started with 250.00 and a need to drive. I think the need to drive is more important. I don't make a lot.
It got better over time.