flatbed vs. dry van

Thanks for the clarification. that makes total sense and sounds realistic to me now that you've said that.

 

I only count 5 days a week. "vast resources" is an overstatement. I do earn a very good living, but I have what I have because of being in a successful little small business and the ability and maybe wisdom to invest in income properties, as a landlord.

Most people would not do anything else if they had my situation. I recognize that I don't need to go into trucking and maybe I shouldn't, given that I could have an easier life by just showing up to my office and enjoying my freedom of time. It's difficult for people who truck to make ends meet to see why anybody would go into driving who doesn't need to and I do understand. Sometimes I make decisions for myself that don't make sense to others and logically, just don't make a lot of sense, period...

My motivation isn't only money, although I won't do it if, before I start in the next few months,I determine it really is throwing good money after bad. On the other hand, I am a bit unusual and am somewhat of an adventurer and calculated risk taker. I feel its something in my system, I want to do. If you knew me well, you would understand why I do what I do. I am unsettled, I suppose. I like challenges and I've always been drawn to things that take me away from my reality and occupy my thoughts.

It's unfortunate that most people who go into trucking are under capitalized for what they want to do. I won't have that problem, starting with one truck and a good income stream from outside. Some people as why. I ask, why not?

 

The part about working for someone else comes up often. I've answered that in earlier posts. I have no doubt I can handle learning the ropes OJT using my 55 years of skills and common sense. Others may disagree. It's not brain surgery, but care has to be taken for certain.

As for buying out a small fleet, its not a terrible idea, but I've bought other small businesses in the past. I think I've bought 4 of them. In 1 case, it was a print shop / sign business, and customer of mine who was going out of business for retirement. I knew the owner and she was going to close shop and basically just abandon what she had built over many years. I offered her 30k cash if she would sell me her business and stay on for a (rather low) wage to teach me the buisness for a few months. The only reason I can look at it as a success is because I bought it really cheap. As time went on I didn't like that business, enough to retool and spend big bucks to evolve with the changing digital environment ( a whole story by itself). I got my money out of operating it for about two years as I let natural attrition take its course.

The other three businesses were all in the interest of adding to my existing "copier and service" business. I simply bought the customer list at a steeply undervalued price that I offered. Those folks were going on of business or moving on in one way or the other. They all worked out because I knew precisely what I was getting. Even then, some disappointments ensued, which is another story also.

I've learned over many years that buying someone else's business, doesn't come with a fresh slate. While that can be good, It is a sword that cuts both ways. In terms of trucking, the value derived from buying an existing business, would be presumed {to be} the value of the assets, aka trucks and trailors, the customer base and any existing infrastructure (employees, drivers, dispatchers, etc..).
Anybody understanding this would want to consider the cost of buying "the business" vs. the cost of building a similar business and taking into account the time it would take. After all, time has a dollar value to most of us. Then, that must be considered in the context of personal goals and objectives versus the risks of buying someones business, the existing market conditions and how that business in its current form fits into that market. Using rental property vernacular. is the business a fixer upper or one that will make money as it is, without pouring more money into it. It is possible to buy someones problem ridden business that has been window dressed to look very appealing. For instance, the trucks could have had a lack of maintenance, do to an economic (within that business) down turn or the owner's realization that he could defer maintenance to the next guy who owned the trucks. It is entirely possible that the customer contracts are riddled with problems and are either not profitable for the present market, are not going to stay around, or were born out of great relationships with the owner, such that when he or she is gone, those customers will also go away. These are just a few of the challenges of buying someone else's business.

Don't get me wrong, buying an existing business can be very good, particularly if the buyer knows the industry particularly well. That said, The circumstances under which I would consider buying someone else's business, would be this; I would analyze three years tax returns for the business. I would never consider anything that wasn't on the tax return as the truth. I would want to see ELD logs simply to verify answers to some of the questions I had answered. Much can be learned from down time. I would want to see maintenance logs to determine any trends that exist, validate maintenance costs per mile of the fleet per records, read contracts (without names of course and after signing a non-disclosure agreement with the seller), call a few customers, with the sellers permission, to determine the likelihood of future business, future additional loads or the possibility of a decline in loads.

There is so much to consider when doing due diligence in consideration for buying a business. Given that and the certainty that I would have assume more financial risk than I am willing to, that is not my preferred way to enter the trucking business. I would consider it, if I felt the upside far outweighed the downside (given my abilities to run a business), and risk of an expensive mistake. The question of an exit strategy would come into play for me. At 55, I'm no longer looking at a 10 year or even a 5 year plan, necessarily. I'm thinking more in terms of a commitment of at least a year, and hopefully enough satisfaction from trucking that it becomes a long term thing. Yet, whatever I do, I want to have a plan in place for getting out when its time, whether in a year from when I begin or 7 years down the road.

 

I really hope I develop a love for it.