business loan or microloan?

Was told long time ago if you don't have enough money in the bank to rebuild motor on first trip,you don't have enough set back to be a o/o. The way things are I would hate to start out owing anyone.

 

i agree if you have to borrow to start out it is going to be almost impossible to make it, its hard enough when you have start up funds

 

getting a bank to loan money for a trucking business is hard to do. they normally like to see accounts and income and growth before loaning money. and starting out in the negative with out a single contact for freight. you will have alot of trouble keeping the business going. back when i did it. I had a few things going for me. I had the capitol on hand for the investment. i knew all the accounts and brokers, i had about 20 tears of experience prior. fuel at the time was running between .76 pg to $1.30 pg. nationwide . when i bought the company i worked for. they trucks were already working and had good experienced drivers that worked hard. I also got the use of the company name for 3 years in the purchase of the company. that's about all i had going for me. what i wasn't ready for. the 2 a.m. calls. having upset customers, d.ot. audits, a huge fuel bill that blew up in 2003. having to replace equipment, trying to find money to run the business on all the time. finding freight to keep 15 trucks busy every day. trying to make payroll every week. the 3 to 4 hours a day of sleep i got. the never ending pile of paper work. it turns out that holding the wheel is just a duty. having to handle everything on your own with little to no help. is very stressfull. and it's all you can do to hope there are no accidents with your trucks on the road. the little sane i use to say before i went to bed at midnight. there were no wrecks so today is a good day. I wouldn't start another trucking company in this age of trucking.

 

Even being leased on its tough,I'm leased to small co and do as much work on truck as possible.but there are times when that's not possible. Do you have repair shops lined up to do you're work. Have seen labor rates lately. Not saying you can't make but have seen so many fail

 

At bigtex07, i say go for it man,its something you really wanna do,da heck with it bro...do it.i finda lot of drivers/ owner ops on here have that NEGATIVE factor..bottom line its about your BOTTOM LINE..YOU RAN THE NUMBERS N NUMBERS DONT LIE BROTHER,long as u have a CUSHION TO SIT ON YOUR 1ST MONTH OR TWO UNTIL YOUR CHECKS START ROLLING IN U WILL BE FINE..JUST DONT DOG YOUR TRUCK OR TRY N KEEP UP W SUM OF THESE FOOLS THATS RUNNIN 85 N DA HAMMER LANE ONLY TO PULL UP N SHUT DOWN at same T.A AT ALMOST DA SAME Time WITH THEM...KEEP IT AT 60-65 N YOULL SAVE Money by that ALONE,KEEP ALL RECEIPTS NO MATTER HOW LITTLE. WHEN SOMETHING BREAKS FIX IT..ON THESE TRUCKS ONE SMALL THING CAN LEAD TO.SOMETHING MAJOR ..GREASE HER UP REGUARLY,CHANGE OIL,KEEP.HER CLEAN ,TREAT HER LIKE YA NEWBORN,N DONT SPEND THEM CHECKS UNTIL U HAVE ENUFF.TO BUY U A NEW TRUCK..PAY YOURSELF MINIMUM salary starting off because things will brake ..and SO WHAT IF SOMETHING BREAKS,ITS MECHANICAL,ITS MAN MADE IT WAS CREATED TO BRAKE ANYTHING MAN MADE IS DESTrucTABLE, SET UP A ESCROW ACCOUNT STRICTLYBFOR YOUR TRUCK N DONT TOUCH IT (UNLESS SOMETHING BREAKS) HAVE MECHANICS N SHOPS NUMBERS,FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH LABOR RATES THEY CHARGE IN YOUR AREA..DA MORE U WORK ON YOUR TRUCK ,DA MORE U SAVE,PRE TRIP EVERYMORNING N EVENING...U MITE CATCH SOMETHING THATLL SAVE U TIME N MONEY BEFORE U LEAVE DA TRUCKSTOP,DA HELL WITH IT BRO GO AFTER YO DREAM,,I TOO BROUGHT ME A TRUCK,HEARD ALOT OF NAYSAYERS SAY I COULDNT DO IT..ITS ALL A BUNCH OF CRAP..THERE SCARED OF U LEARNING THE BUSINESS AND COMING TO TAKE THERE LOADS,IMA 3RD GENERATION O\O YES IT WAS A BIT INTIMIDATING STARTING OUT ,BUT IM DOIN IT AND MAKING DAM GOOD MONEY .... i went from 32k a year ### a company driver to 100k n thats after fuel n expense paid for my truck CASHMONEY ..IF I WANNA PARK IT.I PARK IT...IF I WANNA WORK I WORK..CANT NO F-N BODY TELL ME WHAT TO DO...GOT TIRED OF MY SUPERVISOR THREATING US AT DA SO CALLED SAFETY COMPANY MEETINGS..SO DONT CARE WHAT N E OF THESE NEGATIVE PEOPLE SAY OR HOW THEY Try N SPIN IT...if they wasnt making MONEY .N IF IT WAS SO DARN BAD ..THEY WOULDNT B DOING it...PERIOD...I DONT CARE WHAT NO ONE SAYS....IF U FAIL WELL ATLEAST YOU TRIED...U CAN ALWAYS REGROUP AND REORGANIZE....DONT EAT DA B+LL$-IT SOUP..... SEE U DOWN DA ROAD DRIVER HONK! Honk

 

Well said...sorta. Indeed be positive about things and absolutely run your truck like a business. Get an accountant that works for themselves and write everything you can off. Learn the business side of things. Use all the tax breaks you can get. All the people who failed at owning their own truck just didn't do things right, you can easily make 6 digits a year if you know how.