I Want to Start an LLC and Buy a New Truck, but...

^^^^ THIS^^^^^^

 

You ever get tired of having to repeat this to folks? Hell if I had half the money saved up that some of these folks do who just want to blindly jump into the industry I'd be alright when it came time to buy. Oh well. Hell why not invest into rental properties or something similar? I've got a buddy who saved up, bought his first rental property and he's doing great. Actually has 35 properties now.

 

So spot on, if I had the monies I’ve peed away on this racket, I would have 35 or more rental properties myself. I can measure twice and cut once, much more fun than this crap.

 

2nd worst people.

 

I don't think that you offended anybody and I hope nobody offended you. I don't think anybody is purposely out to do that .
But you have to understand the way that this works. Someone such as yourself looks at the numbers and says oh my God I need a truck I'm going to get rich what an easy way to make money. Then they run to the nearest dealer and buy a truck as fast as they can.

Then they have a problem. Then they have another problem- they didn't realize that. Then they have another problem then they have another problem then they have another problem. Because they didn't realize that part of it. Every problem that you have in this business costs money. A lot of money.

So you have guys working for you and they want to keep working so you pick up whatever loads close to you- hey go over there that's close pick that load up get that one will get the next one will keep rolling we're making money! You must be making money because money is coming in and going into the bank right?

So you keep going maybe your drivers quit maybe you have a string of breakdowns maybe you have a string of colossal dot fines maybe you have drivers taking advantage of you and you have no idea because you know nothing about what you're doing.

So finally the truck gets repossessed or your case you just sell it at a huge loss and move on.

But for us that are in the industry someone like you coming into and crashing and burning does several things.

First of all guys that don't understand this business or know what it cost to run a truck don't know what rates they should be getting. Just like you looked at those rates and thought that was outstanding, so do so many other guys.

So that drives rates down for the guys that are actually in the business that know what they're doing. And it makes the Brokers think that they can take advantage of everyone the way they took advantage of the guys that don't know what they're doing because they always find a sucker somewhere to haul their Freight for super cheap without TONU or detention and with all the stuff that they put into the Rate con.

Guys that come into this business that don't know what they're doing is the reason that there's such a high turnover rate and such a colossal rate for failure in this business.

Do you know what that means? It means that Banks don't want to finance anyone for Trucking because it's such a high risk because it has such a high percentage of failure. So a guy that knows what he's doing has it difficult at a bank because so many guys that did not know what they were doing started up and made the failure rate so high.

And by the way whether it's guys that financed money or did not Finance money, it's the fact that such a high percentage fail in and of itself makes financing in general much more problematic. What's the risk in lending to someone when most people will fail?

Next is insurance. Insurance companies can't even have a steady amount of clientele because Guys start up and quit constantly. In addition to that guys that have no experience or little experience are much certainly a higher risk which means that if many new businesses are at higher risk guess what happens to the rates. They climb higher and higher and higher because of guys that don't know what the hell they're doing and end up going out of business in the first year or two.

And who ends up cleaning up the mess and paying the higher rates? Yes that's right the guys that know what they're doing.

It even affects repair shops. When they see enough guys that don't know the difference between a def filter and oil filter a noise filter or a lug nut they can charge you whatever you want. How the hell would you even know?

So just like the Brokers, the owner operators are a bunch of ######### that don't know anything about their own stuff let's rape them and charge them whatever we feel like because they don't know any better. And who suffers for that? The guys that know what they're doing.

Then you have guys they can't make any money because they're working for cheap rates so they just stay out on the road and they don't shower and they don't service their truck and when they go down the road dot nabs them and all of their bad safety issues goes right into their system and they say see? The owner operators we have to be more strict on because we have all these people that are illegal running the road and their trucks are junk and they're working over there hours. So now let's make more strict regulations. And who suffers for that? The guys that know what they're doing.

So you really didn't offend anyone and it's good that you came and asked the question. But you have to understand that all of the guys that do this cause a problem for everyone else that knows what the hell they're doing.

So please, take the constructive criticism and go work somewhere and learn what you're doing or completely do something different.

 

I encourage you to search for my previous posts on Start-up Capital and associated fees. Its too much to retype. If I can find it, I'll tag you. Bottomline, $150k later Im still not driving....

 

To clarify that driver talking 70cpm or so, that's what @Ridgeline didn't cover. You've got "two" options, 1099 and cheat the driver and the tax man (while paying 70 cpm), or pay W2 and cover unemployment and other taxes along with the driver and end up paying 70 cpm total while the driver makes 45 cpm. The more you pay/the better the benefits, the better drivers you're likely to keep, but our company hiring manager likes to say you get 1 keeper out of 5 drivers. And that's an established carrier.

 

Just to piggy back off this thread, we are looking to do the same. The difference is that I have 8 years experience as a broker (a good one). I have access to and know what a "good load" is, wary of deadhead, and getting to the operational part, have no reservations finding good freight to keep my one (or possibly two) trucks moving.

My biggest concern is finding savvy drivers. I look on the ads that are out there, they're all the same: "home time, competitive pay, your a name not a number, etc". What is MOST attractive to drivers looking to make a change? Where do they look to find their next company? What can we offer that will set us apart? Is it better to pay a % of the load or by the mile? I am thinking 27-30% of the load but then how do I navigate the opinion of what load is better? We'll have a bottom line, and in order to pay a % of the load we'll have to hit certain rpm targets - what is most driver's response? Home time more important that load amount?

Right now we are looking at full service lease programs, I love it. Insurance will be a bear, we were quoted $20k, fine, but I think we can do better (maybe).

Looking at the info I have available to me now (my current role as a brokerage manager), and understanding the volitility of certain parts of the US / Canada, I am confident we can string together loads = $5k / week in revenue for a single driver. Tell me if I'm way off.