Dipping my toes in…

Step 1: get your class a cdl. You only need a B for dump truck, but getting a class A isn't much more work.

Step 1A: read these threads

• No experience but getting Authority
  
• All for nothing
  
• Picking my own freight baby! My journey to & of being on Schneider choice, the Adventure & Numbers!

Step 2: talk to local dump truck or ltl carriers about casual employment. Run as a company guy so you learn by tearing up their stuff, not your own.

Step 3: pretend that company truck is yours. Track ALL expenses, try and gauge revenue levels and sources.

Step 4: figure out how much you're willing to lose. Understand that the first 2 years of running your own truck is very tight financially. Lots of guys make the first 6 months okay, then breath a sigh of relief. At some point reality kicks in and they lose it all. The hardest part of any investment is knowing when to cut your loses and having the willpower to do it. When I invest in a company, I start with the assumption that it will go belly up. If I am not willing to lose my stake, I should probably rethink my strategy.

 

@abyliks
@Cat sdp

 

The dopes in Washington won’t get a real bill out. I used to think rebuilding America would create all kinds of work , now I have my doubts…..

Almost Everyone works directly up here. Rates are not great 4 axle is like $85 an hour. 6 axle is like $115 and hour. Some pay a little more some less…..

You can use an aluminum body , but steel is the way to go on a dump truck. Aluminum on a trailer….

Salt kinda blows……no storms no salt. And a million guys on the list. Pays about the same as dirt not great….

If you must I’d get a 3 axle belt trailer for asphalt (unless you want to work in CT) and a tractor with small sleeper and a flatbed……

then you can do almost everything.

 

Also most guys with the big paving out fits have 2 drivers per truck and run them day and night may - October ish……

Most won’t let you double shift unless you got 2 guys…..

I don’t see where leasing the truck to someone else is gonna work . Hire a driver or two (if you can)

 

Pay heed to what Roger says. He's a trainer. He's smart.

Well, except for when he's talkin politics. But other than that, he's smart.

 

Why in the world would a guy need a week to get truck back to work and a week to park it?

But I would agree it can be difficult to find steady work when you can't work steady. Meaning if you get on a good job and then have to leave for a few months it may be hard to get back on that job

 

He can't start scheduling work until he's home and I don't know about you, but if I'm leaving home for 3 months, I don't want to spend the last week working my second job. Finishing the "honey do list", packing, etc. He also needs tine to park the truck - wash, disconnect the battery, etc.

I also plan for the worst, especially when it comes to revenue generation.

 

You don’t need authority for a dump truck 99% of it is exempt commodity

Do you own a big pile of dirt? do you have another business where you need a truck and want to piss some money away rather then send it to Uncle Sam? If you answered no, then It’s not going to work, especially for one truck, depending on where you and who is around you I would either look at back hoes to go with a dump truck and start a small construction company (even bigger $) or look into a tractor with a small sleeper IF this is where you want to go as you can still run a dump and anything else you may need to hook to, a flat bed would be a good second buy for moving blocks/barriers steel for some of the companies you may be subbed to.

i hate my reefer trailer, but I will hook back up to it before I EVER put a load of salt on the truck, if I was running a 10 wheeler (legal for 73k in both RI and MA) or triaxle (77k) I’d be limited to what I can do, then I would still have to compete with the old timers that have everything locked up, and then the ###### who walk into the office with 2 cases of beer and tell the super that they will work $10 an hour cheaper then everyone else if they take all x amount of their trucks and put them at the front of the line. $90ish is about the rate for a straight dump (you really only need a pusher axle for CT to get 76,500 gross) and $120ish an hour for a trailer (legal gross in RI is 104k, MA is 99k on 5 axles)

watch your billing cycles too, I’ll trim a little off for a check every 7-14 days, there are several companies that are 60, 90, and one that regularly goes over 120 days before you get a check so they can put YOUR money in a high interest CD for 90 days and make money off of YOUR money BEFORE paying you….

I’ll be right out front and tell you one of the reasons I’m hauling for the small company I am right now is because my grandmother and the owners wife have been friends since they were kids, ~60 years ago, and another friend who usually does it didn’t have a driver for his truck/trailer, it’s 187 miles a day and I usually burn about 30 gallons of fuel in 9-10 hours. Occasionally after hours I drop the dump and hook to the flat bed and go set barriers on a highway job, that’s 4 hours to show up and anything over 4 becomes 8, I don’t remember how many miles it is back and forth to the yard, maybe 25 but I usually spend more time in the bunk then in the drivers seat, and is one of the reasons I absolutely hate day cabs, I don’t care how close to home you want to stay, sleeping over a steering wheel sucks anywhere, for any amount of money. Also unless you are established and know what you are doing, or can afford to let the truck sit, starting out you need to go where the money goes, and if that involves spending time out in the truck so be it