Can you make money with a daycab, running local?

I've known O/O guys (through professional contacts of mine) that do nothing but container hauling out of the ports or railheads with day cab trucks. They go home every night just like a regular job. The truck is strictly their "office". $300-500 daily revenue sounds realistic from what I saw these guys doing on a typical day.

 

If this was the case there would be a heck of a lot more of us home everymight instead of on the road. Unless your refering to gross revenue.

 

$300 to $500 a day is a quick way to go broke, thats why most container haulers run junk, no money in it.

 

There's definitely not a *lot* of money in container hauling if you're just a guy running your own truck, which is probably why many of them run clunkers that they likely paid cash for. That's what the old guy I knew did anyway...paid $7500 I think he said for a 10 year old Freightliner with a busted tranny but low(ish) miles on it, put a rebuilt tranny in it and had himself a running truck with no payment. The brokers also take a cut of the revenue. The broker guy I've known for years told me he pays his O/O's 80% + FSC and takes his 20% cut for providing the freight and the rail authority to haul for Union Pacific and CSX Intermodal.

Optimistically if a truck made $500/day after the broker took his cut, that's $10,000/mo if you only worked M-F. Assuming you had no truck payment, I think you could make an okay living after covering fuel and insurance. Honestly I have no idea what fuel would run per month on a work schedule like this. At ~$3.50/gal, 200 gal of diesel would set you back about $700 at today's prices, and that will get you maybe 1000 mi at 5 mpg (???). Seems like you could easily blow through $3,000-4,000/mo in fuel. Deduct insurance and maintenance account for your clunky old rig (which I'm sure would break at some point even if you're nice to it), that would leave you with what? $5k/mo maybe? (ie; $60k/yr). Not sure what the tax implications are. I assume all fuel and maintenance costs are tax deductible at the end of the year right?

 

How about hauling construction equipment with a daycab running local?

 

It would be great if you can get into it. Easier said than done. I run local with a day cab pulling a flat bed. It can be done and make money but you have to find the right job and they are few a far between.

 

TRy looking into some frac companies and some of this gas well work, its out there for step decks and flatbeds.

 

Logan76 has made a good suggestion.
Hydraulic Fracturing Companies

• 697 N 16th Street, Otsego MI
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Recovering Hydraulics Inc
  
  
  4552 Whiteside Street, Memphis TN
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Universal Well Service Inc
  
  
  114 Universal Drive, Punxsutawney PA
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Universal Well Service Inc
  
  
  RR 5, Buckhannon WV
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Universal Well Service Inc
  
  
  2489 Baumen Road, Wooster OH
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Universal Well Service Inc
  
  
  5165 Key Route 1428, Allen KY
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  
• 
  Universal Well Services, Inc
  
  
  201 Arch Street # 2, Meadville PA
  Oil and Gas Field Services, NEC
  

U might contact the above and see if the are doing anything in your area.

 

Lemme help

Appalachian well services
BJ services
FMC technologies
Nicholson construction

Star Iron (big run PA, had decent rates last I heard, I would call them theyre a small mom & pop pipe company)

Print up some business cards and start beating on doors of local companies large and small, dont be afraid to put "hotshot" down on your list of capabilities, some less than load rates are decent if they want it bad enough. I wish you all nothing but the best, Wish I had the capital to get a cheap older daycab with a steel stepdeck.

P.S. make sure you hit up all your local machine shops, they need freigh moved and picked up. There's more out there than meets the eye.

 

I think you can. Place I work pays their owner ops $55/hr flat rate to pick up and deliver ltl. Although most is just a matter of picking up and dropping spotted trailers. Only within city limits, average 50km - 150km a day, 10 - 14 hours days. They're not starving by any means.