Finally got my own truck

Making $100,000 a year profit is not that hard if you run every single week. I ran 34 weeks and not all of them were great weeks. Just have to run hard.

I think I calculated 265 days away from home, for my per diem deduction. Maybe 4 of those weeks I didn't run for crap. So I made good money when I was running.

Just got burned out.

I ran 111,000 all miles. Some guys run more, some less.

 

Hey all, little update here.

I've been busy past couple of days.

So I found a team driver. A guy that lives 30 mins away, he's 48, single with 2 grown kids, got more experience than I do. His driving record isn't bad at all, and today I met with him, drove my truck up to the truck stop where he met me, and we talked for like 45 minutes. Seems really easy going, down to earth, says he likes to shower and keep truck tidy, says he is looking for long term stability, consistency, etc. He responded to my ad because I mentioned salary, and ample home time. He doesn't care a WHOLE lot about home time, but since we live relatively close, he'll get home when I get home. I offered him $1300/week salary, every week, and a $5000 retention bonus every 6 months. Gave him some paperwork to fill out from my CPA and also he's got to fill out the application. Our liability insurance already approved him, and so did my non-trucking insurance.

He was last driving for one of those "Chicago carriers" where he was running team miles as a solo. They'd book him a load to CA and have him deliver in 2 days. Sure he was making good money, but he was cheating badly. When they put the elog in, they STILL wanted him to cheat, told him to fill it out at the end of the day (as if that's even possible), or just tell the officer he's new and still trying to work with it, etc. So he basically told them to screw off, and he gave the truck back, and took a bus home. They are a prime example of how NOT to run a trucking company, and a prime example of the type that needs to be shut down and burned to the ground and sent back to that crap hole they came from. Name of the company is Alba Freight Lines.

So I met with a CPA and she says I should go S-Corp, so that's what she's doing now for me, going to form an S-Corps which I named WonderMove Transportation, Inc.

She says I'll have to get a new business bank account for the corp, but I have to get the EIN for it before I can get a new bank account, and my insurance agent says he needs the EIN in order to get workers comp. I'll be paying myself a salary of $50,000 which is what my CPA suggested, she said $30,000 and the IRS might think I'm trying to avoid employment taxes (SS, Medicare, etc) the half of the 15.3%. As an S-Corp, whatever the corp pays in wages, it has to pay half of that 15.3%. Anything that's left as net operating income does pass through to me as taxable income, but I won't have to pay half that 15.3% on that amount. So if I showed I paid myself $0, then the IRS will say "That's some BS, you gotta pay employment taxes on something for yourself", so I have to pay myself a salary that's reasonable.

Example, if my 1099 from my boss at the end of 2018 was $300,000 after his cut, fuel, trailer, insurance, etc anything he takes out of my settlement, then after that $300,000 I'll deduct other business expenses, like depreciation on my truck (which she says for 2017 I could depreciate half of it to reduce my tax burden for this year considerably), scales, tolls, maintenance and repair, my non-trucking insurance, and of course labor and labor related costs, etc, say I have $150,000 left, and I pay myself $50,000, the corp will pay half of the 15.3% and I'll pay half of the 15.3% (gets deducted from my paycheck), and the $100,000 that's left will be added to the $50,000 and will taxed for income tax, but the employment taxes won't be taken from the $100,000, so that will save $7,650 or something like that.

So I'll probably save like $5,000-$10,000 on taxes depending on how much I make this year, for 2018, and the CPA said her bill will be like $2,000 for the year, including the corp set up fee, etc. I know I can get it done cheaper online, same as payroll, but I want that crap out of my hair and I don't want anything to do with it as long as she just does it. She also takes those federal and state withholding from the paychecks and pays it every month. I want all that out of my hair. I'll save $1,500 by having an extra day to do another load and not having to do all that. Easy choice.

I also went to Verizon and got a 10" tablet to add to my unlimited plan, an extra $20/mo so I can put the elog app on there for myself and my driver (I wouldn't ask him to put the elog app on his person phone). And also a trucker GPS on there, I just downloaded the Co-Pilot app that was recommended in the RPMM Facebook group. I just need to figure out how I'm going to mount it on the dash somewhere. There's not a lot of room. I'll have to get creative.

As far as team driving, well rates are pretty good right now, but even still, I don't want to be out there solo and get a violation and a ticket because I can't find a place to park. It will be easier as a team and I think I can make some really good money. I don't think it's out of the question to gross $600,000 to the truck as a team dry van operation on 40 weeks out 12 weeks off, if the market keeps going the way it's going. I think $500,000 is minimum if done right. Especially since last year I learned the markets relatively well.

I still don't think someone could just buy a truck and jump in the pool and make that. They wouldn't know what they could get and where to go. Last year I did ok, I think I netted $65,000 before taxes. Not bad, but disappointing still. That elog really f*ed me up as far as running. Felt like I was in a straight jacket. But last year I'll chalk it up to training. Now I'm going to try and take this to the next level.

I won't be taking loads to CA or WA. Probably focus on loads 800-1200 miles and possibly longer on Fridays maybe a good load Chicago to AZ if it paid like $6-7k. The thing about team is that even if you're in a bad market, you can still get a decent daily revenue on miles.

Anyways, I've been home now for 3 weeks. Hoping my CPA will get that EIN number so I can get the bank account and the workers comp and get rolling. My guy is eager to get back running again and is looking forward to working with me. I think we're going to hit it off well. He's ran true team before, doesn't mind it, and he says he thinks we will get along great. I think we will, I think this year I'm gonna bank. We'll see.