And so the journey begins.....jumping off the cliff

Just wanted to introduce myself and maybe gain some advice. Been lurking here off and on for about a year. Not new to forums just new to trucking forums.Maybe someone will to talk me out of this. If things go as planned, I will try to keep this thread going.

A little Background
A little about myself. 37 years old. Driving since I was 19. Couldn't even drive out of the state when I got my cdl. Started out working for Coca-Cola fresh out of high school at the age of 18. Man I new a lot back then. I did know enough that they were offering for me to train and get my cdl, no contract necessary and nothing owed to them, and that alone was valuable enough to do it. Went thru their Driving training program. Started driving. Enjoyed the driving, not so much the delivery and hand truck part of it. . Local routes. 8-14 hours a day. Money was ok, not great. Gave them a total of 8 years. Would probably still be there, if they had not closed up the small warehouse 5 minutes from my house. This was after I spent 6 years trying to get transferred to this location. Had to go back to my original location, in Atlanta mind you. Left there shortly after going back. By this time you probably understand the username. Georgia boy. Born and raised.

Decided to chase dollar bills and put my body thru hell. Went to work for Sysco. Man, do not let anyone lie to you. Those guys earn their money. Every penny. That ramp will put a beating on you. Not to count the 20k to 35k pound loads with 12-20 stops and its you and your hand truck. Nothing like coming in at 4am rolling up the back door, only to have a half a pallet of product fall out on the dock, re-stack it and do it all over again at the first stop. That side door is no joke either. 6 pallets of freezer and at least 4 are coming out the side door depending on how many stops you have. Ran mostly local. Started running a little bit of regional at the end of driving. Best year there as a driver grossed 120k dollars. Didn't take upper management long to realize I wasn't the only one. They started jacking with the pay. So much so I decided to get into management and try and find out why they had to jack with pay or what the disconnect was. Spent the last 4 years that I was there in management. Learned a lot. I will leave it at that.

Perfect file as a driver and in management. Got shown the door. This was after the union vote. Whole different thread. Won't get off on that tangent here. Hope I am not given myself totally away. Sure somebody will be able to figure out exactly who I am.lol

Took a couple months off to gather my thoughts. Almost went back to driving. Almost bought a truck. Funds weren't quite right on buying a truck at the time. Was a day away from starting training hauling fuel. Local routes. Nights. Got a call from a former mentor. Wanted me to come work for him again. Transportation manager at a medium to mid size fleet. Not a direct competitor to sysco but something similar. We sale product wholesale and then deliver to our customer. I got a decent group of drivers. The 20-80 rule applies. A bit burnt out on the 20. Also a bit burnt out on how "corporate" it has become. I still have decent amount of freedom to manage and get what we need, but sometimes I wonder where they come up with the rules. Some of them make since. They really do. But they didn't weigh out the consequences of said rules. I could go in detail but not here. I will just say, I am making decent to good money, but I don't enjoy it anymore. I am walking away. Even if I have to go drive a dump truck part time. Its no longer about the money to me. I want to have something of my own. I want to be able to leave a legacy to my kids. Not just money.

The Plan
So hear I am. Still about 4-6 months out from putting it all into action. I considered getting my own numbers. I am shying away from that right now just due to the start up funds. I found a small carrier. Really good guys. About 25 company trucks. 10 or so owner ops and then a couple of two truck fleet owners. Initially hauling refer but once I get my feet wet and get some training, will run on the flatbed side. Not going to throw the percentage out just yet. Its really fair. Better than 90% of what I have found out there. I will be able to run with their freight, or use their board logins to find what I want. They have a dispatcher that I can use as well.

I have 65K to get it off the ground and get to work. I am trying to stack another 3k away between now and the time I pull the trigger. I have a couple of other assets(hot rods) that I can dump if things go south. No credit card debt. No car payments. Both kids are about to be out of high school and into college. Luckily with lots of scholarships. Looking to spend 25-40k on a truck. I am going to rent the refer unit for at least the first year. I know this is not the best idea, but I don't want to be stuck with a refer when ultimately I want to get into flat bed and then a couple years down the road into heavy haul, hopefully under my own numbers. Mainly going refer right now because that's what I know and I want to get my feet wet without having the anxiety of learning a different freight at the same time.

The questions
With the additonal expenses such as the irp plates, 2290's, bobtail, etc... If I spend 40k on a truck that should leave me with about 20k in the bank. I will receive settlements weekly. I will have access their fuel card, and it has a pretty decent savings. Am I leaving my self enough to fall back on? The plan is to pay myself 800-1000 a week. The rest goes to the truck/business. Am I thinking right on this? Or should I plan to myself a percentage instead?

As far as trucks, open to anything really but was really searching for a early to mid 2000 with a 12.7 detriot. Am I limiting myself? Should I be looking for something else?

Thoughts about the refer unit. Should I bite the bullet and buy a used one? or is renting a good way to go with my plan on getting into flats?>

The ultimate goal is to own 3-5 trucks withing the next 8 years. Don't see myself getting more than 5 trucks. I have managed a fleet of 150 trucks, 200 drivers and now a smaller fleet of 20. I think 5 is a good number. I have 5 guys I would love to pay good to work for me. If I do good where I am leasing on at, there is a possibility of adding trucks on there. Ultimately I would like to have my own authority. Should I just bite the bullet and start my own authority? I have broker connections as well as potential direct customers. Or am I doing it the right way?

My son is going to hit the road with me some between summers of high school and college and some during the year as he goes to a private school and has the flexibility of doing the home school when he wants. He did it last year and loves it. My wife will hit the road with me in about another year, at least that is the plan for now.

Thoughts? I am sure there is something that I haven thought out but didn't put here. I am sure there is something I haven't thought about. Fire away! Oh and I hope the details don't give me away just yet, I am still two months away from discussing with my mentor/Boss! lol

 

Ha. Never thought of my style as impeccable, although I do enjoy writing, and have enjoyed being around forums for a long time. Thank you for the compliment.

As far as advice, I didn't get where I am by not listening to what others have to say! While I do somewhat know the business from a management side, and know a lot about management, I know there are guys here doing it own there on, driving and managing a business. Plus there is a large part of the business that I don't have as much experience dealing with, such as brokers etc. Also There have been many times I avoided a mistake by just getting advice from a mentor, because that mentor already went thru with it and may have done things different with hindsight!

While my exact business plan is not posted here, the general outline is there. Maybe someone tried to start up along those same lines. Maybe they would have done it a little different. Maybe someone else started with the same funding but took a different approach that I am not thinking about.

But I also started this thread to document this venture, good or bad! Things are moving slowly right now. A little slower than I had hoped but I also believe all things happen for a reason so I am not to stressed about it.

Thanks for the interest! Hope to hear from others as well!

 

That is awesome loudtom. Glad to hear it is working for you. We have set our finances up where she can just be passenger, although I tried to talk her into getting her cdl. Maybe she will. It will be about a year before she goes with me full time. My daughter graduates this year and my son next year. My daughter is going to college already(dual enrollment) and will stay local. She will be the one taking care of the house while we are on the road. We have set ourselves up to only have the house as debt by that time, and it is more of an asset, as we are not under water with it.

It appears you are running under your own authority. Are you mostly working off load boards and the spot market or have you found dedicated customers yet? I ask myself am i playing it to safe by just leasing on, although it is a fair deal, I still question myself and know I could make it work on my own.

 

Great concern Brandt. This is one of the main reasons I am leasing on where I am to start with. He has some pretty decent dedicated freight and they have a few brokers they work with that they are getting good rates from. One of the guys that used to work with me is working there under another owner op on the flat bed side. He gets to see the gross as he works off a percentage and they don't hide anything. If I can get my truck to average close to what his truck is averaging for all miles, I will be able to make it work quite well.

I know there is cheap freight out there, but it I also believe there is some good freight out there. I also think this time next year, there won't be enough trucks to keep up with freight demands. I can see patterns in the business that I am currently in that support my thoughts. And, I absolutely believe the economy will be a freight train a year from now. I could be wrong. But that's the risk.

 

Thanks loudtom. The company I am leasing on to has some pretty decent dedicated freight. They also have a brokerage side that is doing good. The owner is pretty much giving me free reign on where I get my work from whether it be his freight, the brokerage freight or accounts I bring on. He even said if I bring a dedicated customer on, I can take them with me when I go out on my own authority . Knowing myself, I will have second thoughts about taking them with me when and if I do go on my own, but that is down the road and nothing to worry about right now.