Owning multiple Trailers

Besides, if someone has a reefer already to add a van (might as well be a good used one) is not such big a deal. Not so much the other way.
Woops! it was about the hopper...

 

Own 3 trailers don't regret it. With 3 trailers you can follow the money.

 

That's a common assumption that is wrong. Most times, but NOT ALWAYS, a load that is OK to go into a van or reefer is a cheap commodity you don't want to haul anyways.

Like for example bottled water. Once in a while demand is high for bottled water and somebody might be willing to pay $2,500 for a van or a reefer to move a load of it 500 miles. But more often than not that loads gonna pay $800+/-.

Probably 99% of the most lucrative dry van loads I haul will never load on a reefer. And 100% of the lucrative reefer loads I haul will never go in a van...

Just because you have a reefer doesn't give you flexibility to haul EVERY van load out here. It gives you the flexibility to haul cheap #### that can also go in a van. But you won't ever be hauling any time critical open checkbook loads into a production plant in a reefer.

I started out hauling spot freight 6 years ago in a van. The profit from 2014 paid for a brand new van trailer in January of 2015. I didn't hook to a reefer until last summer. I've seen enough of both to know. And I can tell you my most profitable runs are with the van. Although to be fair it doesn't move as much or as consistently as the reefer. But what i'm hauling in the van for the most part is van only, no reefers...

It's worth it to have both. I know that kind of goes against conventional thinking but I will never be without both options as long as I am trucking. I know it is win, win.

 

If it's 2 years away don't get fixated on one kind of trailer now. Make contacts, figure out what avenue will work the best for you. Start with what you can use and build from there.

 

Knowing what I know now if I was starting from square one I'd get a reefer first. But what works for me and makes perfect sense to my way of operating and thinking does not mean it is right for everyone.

 

Man, you must have had someone really pushing you to try that reefer work out

 

Maybe a little but I was about to be starving through the typical summer drop off in van freight. So I thought I'd give it a try as the reefer trailer was offered up to me several weeks before that and otherwise I wouldn't be working much anyway. I'm glad I did. There was a time I swore I'd never pull a reefer and piss my life away at grocery DC's. What's crazy is I actually like it a lot now lol. The weird hours. All of it..