Small fleet

Smaller the fleet the higher percentage of profit you need per truck. Larger fleets can under cut you. You can't compete with mega's on cost as you don't buy in volume. Fuel is higher. If a driver gets sick a large percentage of your company is out of order. All the economics of size work against you.

But when you die, there is a chance you won't burn in hell like the owners of the Mega's will.

 

Love that last part haha

 

I watch guys around me as close as I can to learn all that I can. My observations are that guys with one truck are doing ok. the guys with 2-9 trucks pull their hair out and struggle with stress more than the single trucks. Guys that have 10 or more trucks do not have nearly the stress or workload.

If you have 5 trucks and one goes down then you loose 20% of your income but if you have 10 you only lose 10%. It still hurts but not as much.

 

there are advantages that a 5 truck company has, and if you're gonna run a 5 truck company, you need to leverage those advantages. I own a 5 truck HHG company and because we're small we can deliver GREAT customer service. But because we're more than one truck, we do have the resources to handle some downtime here and there. I wouldn't even think about running loadboard freight with a 5 truck company. With a single O/O I can see it, or with a large company I can see it. Middle of the road, squish like grape. Something more specialized where you can really put that small company awesomeness to work is doable.

 

With my trucks I choose to partner with companies rather than run my own Authority. That Authority gets expensive and time consuming. Partnering or leasing on allows me to make a profit while mitigating risk. When I get an in-house broker I may pick my Authority back up. But I like getting paid every Friday and not having to dispatch. And I got a lot of time back from not having to do IFTA. Plus, the fuel discount is better. So, if you are looking to start a fleet ask who can you partner with and how beneficial can that partnership be.