60k to start a trucking company in california. Any advice?

Biggest piece of advice- don't start in California. This state put me out of business before I could even start. I hauled ONE load and had to close upon shop. Flawless driving record and good credit with a new authority, the cheapest insurance I could get was $46K per year. Just wait & save your coins. If you have any relatives out of state (No Florida) see if you can use their address to incorporate and get insurance.

Otherwise, stay out of the golden state; It's just not worth it!

 

ONE MORE THING. JUST MY OPINION. IF YOU ARE OPENING YOUR TRUCKING BUSINESS, BE 100% INDEPENDENT. OTHERWISE , STAY AS A DRIVER.

 

60k small cash? I bought a 13k tractor headed for scrap. 1.5 years later put 30k in motor. Ten years in currently. Still running my junkyard truck. Thought I was fancy. 1970 dad bought a 1963ish Gas daycab transtar, 1953 Brown tandem, 5,000 bucks. Ran Carolinas to Midwest, slept in the truck.
Edit, Load Star, not trans if I recall.


Everyone should give thier balls a Tug.

Lot of people are afraid to work.

 

Did you do all of that while living in California? That's what the OP is talking about, and you can't just throw a crate motor in an old truck in CA unless it's a newer model engine with all of the smog equipment on it. At least not if you want to register it here and drive into the state regularly.

 

No, but we all agree that's his biggest issue. You can buy a 30k compliant truck all day long. Better have some wrenches, and desire to work. It will not be easy by any means.

I don't plan on trucking, or visiting CA. You do make a great point. But 60k cash, you can get into Trucking. Most do ot with less.

 

You don’t have to run your truck through California due to the laws and make sure you have a incredible dispatcher because that’s one of the toughest decisions because it will keep you fed

 

A $30k EPA compliant truck, if such is to be found would likely put him out of business faster than the payment on brand new one. If CA is non-negotiable, you want a solid truck that will keep you working steady and (probably) won't start giving you trouble right from jump street. That first couple of years you need some breathing room to help weather the other bad news of high insurance premiums and not knowing what you're doing quite well enough. You throw an unreliable horse in on top of that with big shop bills and downtime and forget it. Old pre-emission trucks are great if you have the tools and facilities and inclination to wrench on one and understand there is always a trade off there. Unfortunately nobody is paying you for your time and aggravation to keep your old truck road-worthy but if you would rather put up with that than a payment, that is something you have to decide on.

 

I agree, but it's possible. While I'm not "paid" to work on my old scrap, but I do t pay anyone to work on it either.

You don't need to be a master mechanic to be a owner op, but a grease gun and grease is cheap insurance if your willing to get your hands dirty. If not, might as well drive a company truck.