"I am interested in starting a trucking business."

I was on the road 5 years before BJ and the Bear

 

Old Transport topics cartoon...

Trucking executive sitting at his desk.

Man facing desk with a briefcase saying DOT...

caption:

"I'm from the DOT; I'm here to find our how you can follow our rules and STILL make money"

This is the only business where a major, nation wide, customer gives you an award for being the Best of the Best" for another year and then calls up the next day saying XYZ Trucking just offered to do all your work for a minimum of 4% less BUT you can keep the business IF you match the lower prices.

Matlack had "Customer Centered Quality Management" with the business model that a major customer could be 'serviced' to the point where Matlack would be a partner and could expect a continuing relationship with increasing profits.

Rohm & Haas was touted as the pinnacle of this system. Central Dispatch would turn themselves inside out over maintaining the required pool of various compartmentalized tanks to maintain the service promised.

One day Trimac stole the whole business and Rohm & Haas demanded Matlack lease them those precious compartmetalized tanks until such time as Trimac could build a fleet of their own...

Until they went Bankrupt; Matlack probably made more renting those tanks and cleaning them, since Trimac did not have a cleaning rack, than they did when they actually had the account...

How to have a million dollars after a year in trucking; start with two...

Edit: I told both of my children, early on, that I would disown them if the went into this industry. I still think it was good advise!

 

Success in any business requires information. The less physical assets one needs to enter that business, the more coveted the information will be. The snake oil "educator" sells these 'insider secrets' which arent secrets at all if youre doing the job already, to the dreamer who thinks theyll fast track to the front of the line. If you didnt earn the pole position how can you keep it by parachuting in on someone else's merit?

If you want to build a successful trucking company, start at the bottom as a driver at a tiny company stretched thin on staff. The more responsibility you accept the more theyll let you take on. You get in, you learn as fast as possible then leverage your experience and work ethic. If its a dead end just give your notice and move on. College isnt pumping out people who can manage ifta or dispatch a fleet. Its an OJT world so train yourself and advance. The pay is compensation for skill, effort and responsibility so dont think you get more money for less work as you climb. The beauty is you get a taste of trucking ownership with limited risk. the worst you can do is get fired. Its a lot prettier than getting your 1 truck put OOS on a new MC and then losing your house to collateral liens on an MC with a 100% OOS rate that cant book any subsequent loads for insurance purposes.


I got my cdl in oct 2018. 2nd driving job, first i quit in 3 weeks over a bounced check. I dispatch myself now and work half as much as when i was told when where what to haul. I dont hear from base for a week at a time, its very peaceful. 400 miles a day on avg. These last 2 weeks have been the biggest checks ive ever made in trucking. Both weeks were a money load out and a paid partial back, thats all. Both weeks the excess space on the partial was MY OWN PROPERTY going 900 miles to my own house. It beat the pay of 6 days doing 2 loads per day which is more steam then i have to offer at this age.

The brokers ive hauled for want me to haul more, they call me out of the blue to ask if i have a truck at xyz tomorrow, forgetting im just a driver. The buddies ive made out on the road call me now just to BS and i get the info on routes, tolls, weather, fuel prices and DOT from experienced truckers instead of google earth. 2 different guys i met have MC and want me to get a truck to run under them. Sliding over into an O/O situation for me would be very easy at this point because of experience and information gathered in a short time at the bottom. If i never ate humble pie and took a crap job at a crap company id not have gotten this situation. My truck [that doesnt cost me one red cent] is posted for friday in a hotzone and the phone wont stop ringing. A relationship i developed a few days ago has multiple loads every week from home to the hot zone for $2.91 a mile no tarp 1pick1drop and wide windows at both ends down a lane i know well. You normally have to subsidize hauls to put a truck there from here. Proof that the relationships matter, so be likeable.

for you eager startups... less time searching and posting TTR, more time working, shaking hands, collecting numbers and completing BOL's. Always be polite, i dont care if they ask you to haul it for free, just say 'sorry i cant take that tarp load to a deadzone with 8 stops for nothing but goodluck and i appreciate your time.'

I failed my CDL test 3 times btw. So dont lose hope if youre struggling with the most elementary things at trucking school [i didnt go to any, first drive in a semi was a road test and 90 alley dock isnt easy with zero practice .] Today I drive in rush hour atlanta or boston, or billygoat rock quarry/logging roads up the cliffs of kentucky and tennessee and i secretly like the challenge of each extreme. Being a bad tester doesnt make you a bad driver. You just cant be a quitter. Be a man of your word, and do your best every day. This industry will love you to pieces if you dont make yourself completely unlovable.

 

I delivered today and the operator said, "You don't look like a truck driver". WTF, I said to myself. Actually, I was kinda' speechless.

Moral of the story, and to add to your post about being a man of your word and doing your best; dress like a professional. It does wonders when you're in a room with other folks who just don't care.

 

And bathe haha. Good point on the dress bit.

 

To be honest you don't need know how drive a truck run a trucking company. Sometimes it helps I guess start bottom but bottom line if you know the operating cost being or a baseline to average like fuel, repairs, toll passes if you let them on tolls there is a lot in general. I run a landscaping business never ran a trucking one I have had some teachings on some the cost from my uncles,father because at one point all them were former independent truckers some made a small company others had medical issues, and some just got out went into white collar work. I have journals and a ledger how it went all on there stuff which could be a blueprint how to be successful should I ever go that route. I personally don't want that I got rid of that landscaping company for a reason being I don't like being the leader plain and simple I can lead but chose my skills in being the grunt. I may one day decide I can no longer be the grunt due to medical reasons but that time is not now.

 

LOL...I was logging on to edit my post by saying a professional appearance means a clean truck as well.

 

I suspect social media is where some get the idea to get into trucking also. Stuff like this is probably why we see “I want to invest in a truck” starting to pop up on this site.

 

Thanks for posting that. I was wondering how to make real money. I go to work everyday like a chump just to pay my bills. Now I know that I can start a trucking company and not drive, or even deal with it at all to get rich lol.

 

Oh that’s awesome lol. What have you guys been doing wrong all these years?