From Point A to B. Help me with the how's

Want to travel the world and earn money?
sealiftcommand.com is a good outfit with good benefits for merchant seaman.

 

Reasonable is subjective

 

I like your ambition. You did happen to choose a tough way to make a living but by the sounds of things you'll do fine. Good luck.

 

I admire your grit. As a small start-up in trucking your biggest hurdles are going to be cash flow, overhead and volume.

As a small businessman you aren't going to be able run a credit check on every company offering a load. In any business I've worked at freight bills got paid last. On the one hand, you'll need cash TODAY to buy diesel, pay drivers and taxes, etc. On the other hand, if you bark too loudly because you haven't been paid in 90 days that $4.00/mi customer may never call you again.

A large trucking company with hundreds of drivers will have employees in sales, accounting, HR, maintenance and a number of other specialized fields. All of these support personnel have the earnings of hundreds of trucks to cover their salaries. If you only have three trucks, you can't cover dozens of salaries for overhead. You'll still need an office manager/dispatcher to do the paperwork for permits and hazmat, handle payroll, coordinate with customers ("Where's the truck that was supposed to be here two hours ago?", "We need to re-schedule our delivery"), dispatch drivers, pay your bills, pay your taxes, hire and fire drivers and schedule maintenance for your fleet. Finding someone who knows what they're doing won't be cheap, they'll be spread thin and still probably make mistakes every now and then. Over time as you add trucks the burden of their salary won't be as painful but the first year or two it's really going to hurt. If that person leaves with little or no notice things can get ugly fast.

You're going to need to find a freight broker you can work with. You aren't going to have much bargaining power with only a few trucks so you're looking at lower rates and fewer loads that the trucking companies the guy has been working with for years that have hundreds of trucks at their disposal. You're going to want to keep your trucks busy so they're earning money but there may not always be enough loads available for a company your size. Idle drivers quit, spikes in demand will drain your cash quickly and you may be waiting for months to see that cash come back. Finding a steady flow of loads at a reasonable rates from reliable customers who pay on time will be your largest challenge. Even if you find that broker over time as your fleet grows he may not be able to keep up with you and you're back to square one.

 

I'd say slow down, like really really slllowwww.don't get into debt or you'll eventually regret it. Run your tail off while you're young. Invest your profits in something with a better return than trucking. Over time you should have a nice nest egg . Buy your own truck with cash, forget lease deals exist. Invest, invest, invest.

 

Look at pulling for fed ex ground. Only tractors, no trailers needed, terminal to terminal runs.