Budget advice for owner operator hotshots/expediting?

My best advice is save up a bunch of money first. Enough to pay cash for your truck and trailer and still have 6-12 months of living expenses put away.

This business is very unpredictable. Most new hot shot ventures won't last two years. Look at Craigslist and see how many 40' trailers there are for sale.

 

Hotshot usually pays way - way more than $1.23 a mile. More like north of $3 a mile. I know fellows that grossed over $30,000 a month with a one ton truck plus trailer when the boom was still on in Alberta. But they were some of the first to suffer when things slowed down.
The problem was getting paid in a timely manner. A lot of oil patch companies pay 90 days, some even 120 days. That's a lot of fuel and expenses to carry. So you'll need enough money to keep from starving for a while.

 

We don't know if he plans on running oil field or not. Yes, oil field hotshot typically pays more than traditonal freight. The oil field hotshot business is very saturated right now and those loads paying high rates are far and few between.

If he plans on running general freight all over the US the majority of his runs will not be $3/mile.

 

@Midwest1 is right on about having enough cash to buy the truck and trailer outright, that $750 is a heavy burden to carry each month. Don't forget to take in account for the cost of registration for both units, as for fuel right now the cost of diesel is high and I'm sure according to what I've seen and paid it's gonna climb. Right now I'm running around $2000 to $2200 a month (using a Ram 2500) and only running the eastern seaboard. Oil change depending on the truck you buy is a bit low. I pay $150 just for the oil not including filters, and labor charge (prolly save if you do self maint.) Hotels I think is a little high. I stay in hotels at least 5 or 6 times a month this last week I stayed in 3 days in a row, I didn't even pay that much the whole 2016 year. I'm not staying in slum hotels either, but I use rewards cards that are free to help out. Places like Days Inn and Comfort Inn are reasonable. Also with regards to Maint. if your getting a new model year truck you will be replacing fuel filters more frequently and that can be costly. I'm averaging once a month at around $200 just in parts. Food at $7.00 unless your at a Subway I would love to know where I can get decent food for that price. Hell two hot dogs a bag of chips and a couple sodas at Loves is more than that Just saying. Tire fund is about the same as what I do as well. You didn't however include your taxes, IFTA and some state required tax permits, such as NY HUT and others, there are also tolls as well. You should also include equipment expenses like straps, ratchets, binders, spare parts, and other start up and routine maint equip you should carry. The don't forget the ELD mandate your gonna need to pay for that and most have a monthly service fee associated with that as well.
To put it simply my monthly operating costs for the past 17 months have averaged $8500-$9000 and I own my truck and trailer outright. Not trying to depress you or say it will be the same for you, but when I started over a year ago, I asked the same question and did the same research and was told by some very smart and experienced guys here that I was way off and had to take in account for more expenses and they were 100% right. Also I'm not running freight at the moment only autos and it can be done if you want it bad enough. I wish you all the best in your future hoping a year from now you are still on here saying your a success.
Stay Safe, God Bless

 

I have two newer freightliner cascadia day cab trucks. I own both of them, I'm looking for some good company's to get on in either ND orTX. I do not have tankers so I would have to rent or lease from the company's . Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

 

I know next to nothing about expedite so I have a basic question, where do guys sleep if not in a hotel? There is no way I could sleep in a pick up more than one night.
Thanks,

 

Pickup or hotel your choice. Some guys will add sleepers to there trucks.

 

My company puts us in a hotel every night. You might want to check into Corporate Lodging (CLC). It's a hotel discount program that a lot of companies use. You typically get a 15-30% discount off the lowest published rates. You have to have a credit or debit card that the charges pass thru to. You charge the room night on your CLC card and when the hotel processes the stay, the charge appears on your credit card as a charge from Corporate Lodging.

They have a pretty good app that lets's you find hotels with truck parking. I usually look for ones that list "refrigerated truck parking" - that usually means they have a designated truck parking lot far enough away from the hotel that the sound of a reefer won't bother guests. Some that simply say "truck parking" - that often means they have just enough parking in their main lot for a U-Haul or two. But the app will let you go straight from the hotel's listing to Google Maps - I usually check out the parking situation that way before I commit to stopping there.

Now that being said, the app will also let you know to the penny what that night's stay will cost you with all the taxes and service fees included. I will check that out and when I go to check in I will tell the clerk what the stay will cost me and if they can beat that price I will pay them directly with a credit card. As the hotel has to pay CLC a fee as well, occasionally I will get a hotelier that will give me a better deal than I could get with CLC if I just put the room on my company AMEX card.