Business Plan/ Mentor Needed

So you intend to pay for fuel and maintenance on $18 per hour?
And somehow your business acquired a truck without having to pay for it?

 

You are going in the hole the more you operate that truck for 18/hour .....
Just because it is paid for does not mean you will never have to buy another one...
You are losing money while you drive, even if you are getting 10 mpg you will burn 6 gallons per hour even with cheap fuel you are burning all of your $18 per hour....at least .....and then when you need to change the oil or fix anything or buy tires .... where's that money going to come from .... you would be further ahead to park that truck...

 

Well, every day you continue to operate under that carrier for 37/hour it is costing you money. You might scrape some money IF you drive from a terminal to a customer a very short distance and wait around all day and the driver does not idle the truck and if he does not run over a nail. IF IF IF IF IF = high chance to LOSE $$$

When you start on your own people want to know how much you will do the load for. They don't want to hear "well, if it takes this much time, or this or that" blah blah blah is all they hear. HOW MUCH WILL YOU DO THE LOAD FOR? You will need to learn which customers will be slow to load and unload and you negotiate your rates accordingly. You can't be afraid to FIRE the bad customers. This is also why you need to know what lanes pay what rates in what directions. A "good load" you might look at something and think Hey that is a great rate! ...then discover after you unload there are no next load options worth your effort. It is a game of averages anymore. You have quite the learning curve ahead of you. And we haven't even started on operating capital while waiting to be paid....with multiple trucks and drivers.

Goooooood luck dude.

 

Sometimes... LTL is an animal of its own.. sometimes it's a half load, quarter load, 12 feet of trailer, 3 skid spots, etc. Really all over the place. The way I do LTL when I rarely do it is expensive for the first skid and additional money for each skid thereafter. If they have a half load I give them a rate for 3/4 of what a full load pays. More than half load = full load rate. There is no set way to rate LTL. It can be very lucrative if you can put it together efficiently. It can be bad if it takes you a week to do a 500 mile move you may have gotten 2500$ for it but your customers wanted their stuff now it's late and your time costs add up against you.

Lots to think about.

 

Do you have your CVOR and insurance going yet? When will you be hitting the road?