Heavy Duty Trucks

They dont burn gas, and we dont worry about MPG in the oilfield. If you have to ask these questions, you dont need to buy trucks. JMO.

 

Well OP, the thing is that you are asking for an answer that just doesn't exist.

Here is the questions that I need to ask to find out what you know.

Are you a driver right now?

And how long have you been a driver?

I will start with that.

OH and where are you at, put that in your profile.

 

OK I try to discourage people getting into this business because it has a very high failure rate.

Most of us have answered hundreds of times the same question and right now it seems that there is a lot of stupid (not your questions) being asked by people who see this as a money machine.

BUT that said, you asked so here is my take.

First you may need to stop worrying about the truck itself, there are thousands of trucks (literally) out there on the market, so finding a truck isn't hard, the buying process is. I will get into that a little bit later. BUT owning trucks require discipline on the financial end. Like the drivers ALWAYS get paid first, then the truck is taken care of after the driver. YOU build a maintenance column in you ledger and that comes right out after the driver, this can be based on hours or miles, but it has to accumulate. Then your insurance and fuel come out. If you can't make money with those components and your rate your charging, then something has to give and it should be your profit.

Second you need to look at your business structure and throw away some of the per-concieved notions you have about this industry. The one thing that may be an issue is the need of an Authority, you may need it to operate in two or more states for hire. I know here if I want to run Michigan and Ohio, I have to have register my business in both plus use an interstate authority to operate between the two states.

Third thing has to do with the second, you will have to have the right hiring policies, it isn't about just hiring someone with a cdl, but there are state/federal requirements that need to be met. For instance, every driver has to go through the same hiring process, has to have an annual disclosure of their driving record and so on.

Fourth is important, once you get your business structured to function within the industry, then you need to talk to the insurance brokers. If you have to have an authority and you have say three trucks, your insurance cost could approach $50k a year. If you have crap drivers, which is most likely what you will get starting up, then that cost could increase. As an authority, you have to have the insurance in place before you can get it approved, then you will also have a annual audit on top of that.

Fifth is how to purchase the truck. I will break this down with comments -

1 - a truck is not a car. I get you understand this but it has to be said.

2 - the truck brand is meaningless, Mack, Freightliner, KW, Pete, etc. ... no matter what others say are all the same.

3 - the most important thing on a truck is the drive train - the engine, trans and rear end ratios ... oh and the tires. Each truck is spec'd for a specific job, for sand hauling (not oil field) I had running for a bit we spec'd on the heavy duty side, dual frames and geared for lower road speed. I haven't been out in the oil fields for a while but I would venture to say that going out there and actually seeing what they are using is the best way to get the spec close to what you need.

4 - when you look at a used truck, you have the truck tested. It starts with a dyno and blowby test. A dyno will tell you how close the engine is to its specs - if it is less than 80%, pass on it. The blowby (which is only done under a load on a dyno) tells what condition the rings are in, the more blowby, the more worn the rings are. THEN if the truck passes, you get it inspected by a real mechanic and stress you want to know what is really wrong, worn and so on. At the same time, you put in time looking at the records from the owner, and having the dealer pull the records of the trucks warranted work. THIS is very important, you don't want a truck that is in the shop. YOU also have a complete ECM dump printed out, not a summary but one with every thing that is in the ECM, you compare the odometer and the records to see if there is any BS about it.

5 - mileage? budget for about 3 mpg.

Hope that helps.

By the way, I have a reason to say there is a high failure rate in this industry, I have bought a few distressed companies because the owner saw dollar signs and thought they would make a 30% (some thought they would clear 60% return) only to find they couldn't handle the variables in the industry. I have two packages from a bank that they are offering to recover their assets on my desk, one owner ran it into the ground in less than a year, his drivers screwed him so badly that he started to pull his retirement out to pay the bills. So failure rate is high in this industry.

 

More clear than this...impossible!