Business Plan/ Mentor Needed

Discussion in 'Freight Broker Forum' started by haider99, Jan 17, 2016.

  1. haider99

    haider99 Medium Load Member

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    Hey Guys,

    I hope to get good discussion in this thread so that it's helpful to fellow newbies who want to start out a trucking business.

    About myself:
    I am a 25 year old part-time accountant and a student. I am very passionate about businesses and have been around my fathers trucks for past 7-8 years. I am getting my training for a semi-truck license here in Toronto, Canada. I have been on this forum and read many posts for past few years and also made some of my own threads.

    My father has been in this business for around 10 years... as of now we have 5 tractors with sleepers leased on to carriers. Currently, we are getting an average of CAD$1.35 cpm from which we have to pay 4% insurance, fuel, drivers pay (average $0.44cpm). Trucks are paid off and they run to Montreal and U.S dedicated, average 3000 Miles per week. Two of the trucks are parked due to shortage of drivers willing to run the route.

    Now, my father has been out of service due to health and I want to restructure this business and get some more money out of it. Because I believe its the time to take a big step.

    Here is my plan:

    1. I want to renew our authority.
    2. Get a trailer or maybe rent once I get some loads
    3. Contact loadboard brokers ( I believe a good Canadian one is Transcore LoadLink)
    4. Use the 2 trucks that are parked and get load from the brokers using loadboard.
    5. One of the trucks can start the running and the other could be a backup if the running one breaks down.
    6. I would want to run mainly within Ontario/Quebec and plan ahead. For example, book a road to Montreal and return from Montreal for next week so that the driver does not have to wait much. Also, do some local runs.
    7. I would pay the driver a Hourly (if local) or cpm plus a percentage based on after fuel income. Pay to Incorporation.
    8. Somewhere down the road, make a list of shippers in my area, and visit/contact them for some contracts.

    Now my questions are:

    1. What are some good loadboards for Canadians?
    2. Now with carriers, we are getting average of $1.35cpm from which we have to pay for insurance at 4%, fuel, drivers pay, maintenance. With loadboards would I make more on average even after the extra costs of being independent?
    3. What would be the best approach to getting and retaining drivers?
    4. Are return loads a big problem and involve a lot of waiting?
    5. What are some good lanes to run that will get me returns load without a problem?
    6. Do same loads show up on loads boards like say every week, so that the driver can go the same route everyday/week or are they just one time loads?
    - is the possible to get the same load going to same place (dedicated) and FTL?
    7. Once with brokers and loadboards, how likely is it for someone to get contracted to the shipper with broker getting a commission?

    Any other advice or something I should really consider will be greatly appreciated. Please guys I desperately need a mentor/ connections from someone who would get me started at this venture. A lot of hard work, tears, sweat and blood has been went into these trucks and I really need to see some good return. I would really appreciate if anyone can lead me and we make this happen. Maybe if there are brokers on this forum who need their loads moved, that can help me out.

    Thanks everyone... lets get the discussion started.
     
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  3. spyder7723

    spyder7723 Road Train Member

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    1.35 a mile is complete garbage. Fire that carrier and find a new one asap. Then once you are with a good carrier, getting decent rates, reevaluate the situation. You may find getting your own authority to not be worth it once you have good rates coming from a good carrier.
     
    shortcut Thanks this.
  4. blairandgretchen

    blairandgretchen Road Train Member

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    I'll leave more experienced hands to this one.
     
  5. haider99

    haider99 Medium Load Member

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    Mar 19, 2014
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    Thanks for the reply: $1.35 -$1.40average (depending on fuel cost) is the rate we are getting for U.S runs. Montreal runs is even lower.
    Carriers in Canada do not pay anything more than this.... $1.37 is somewhat of any attractive rate here.
     
  6. d o g

    d o g Trucker Forum STAFF Staff Member

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    Sep 20, 2010
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    I hope that the brokers on this forum know that if they try to conduct business on this site, their accounts will be permanently banned. This site is for discussion only - we don't function as a load board. If we permitted the soliciting of trucks by brokers, or the soliciting of loads by truckers, we couldn't have discussions because of all of the advertising.
     
  7. haider99

    haider99 Medium Load Member

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    Mar 19, 2014
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    Thats right, good to know.
     
    mp4694330 Thanks this.
  8. spyder7723

    spyder7723 Road Train Member

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    sarasota, fl
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    My carrier does. So does landstar.
     
  9. haider99

    haider99 Medium Load Member

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    Mar 19, 2014
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    Your carrier is in Canada?
     
  10. spyder7723

    spyder7723 Road Train Member

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    sarasota, fl
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    They have agents in Canada.
     
  11. glockwise

    glockwise Light Load Member

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    Apr 24, 2014
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    I would concentrate on getting the horse in front of the cart first. You have 2 (maybe 3 with your father?) empty trucks due to lack of drivers. That's 50 % of your fleet of 5 trucks you stated were paid for, ie must have made enough money leased to carrier to remain in business and pay off equipment?

    1. The numbers you provided say you're making about .40 cpm before taxes per truck or $2400/ week on 2 trucks while leaving $3600/week on the table by having empty trucks.
    2. You don't own any trailers
    3. I believe you stated in another post that the business hasn't been saving much money. Reads like "we have no working capital" ends up like "I took dad's hard work and made a bad decision"

    New business plan

    1. Stop taking any money from company
    2. find 3 drivers
    3. run for 10 months
    4. Create a rolling 13 week cash flow forecast model including income, expenses, and asset depreciation schedules (I'm not an IFRS guy, I'm old school GAAP, so I'm not familiar with Canadian tax laws)
    6. Take the $240,000 you saved, create a real business plan, and give your company a chance
     
    Last edited: Jan 20, 2016
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