Going on my own

And you need a very skilled accountant.

 

I'll get to the point these guys are trying to convey to you.

When you start out,.. you dont just buy truck/s and then look for work. Guessing what revenue you should or could expect.

You need to have the work,.. know 'Exactly' how much your going to be making and where the money will be coming from. Knowing your operating costs is half the battle. You seem to have a decent head on your shoulders. But coming here and asking these types of questions leaves me to assume that you do not fully understand the business side of trucking. You need to focus more on how and where the money will come. How much you need to earn in order to stay profitable. How to negotiate rates and which lanes will prevail for your intended segment and the ever important for reefer,.. seasonal lanes for freight. When and where to be.

Running the spot market there is no guaranteed rate. $1.80 is chump change. Reefer should command well above $2.25mi to even $3+ mi for team runs. There is so much that could and will go wrong. Reefer breaks down, loads refused/rejected, damaged product, wait times for receivers counting on multi stop loads, fines for being late, lumper fees,.. it all adds up. I dont do reefer because of the head aches involved. But that doesnt mean you wont make money doing it. There is money to be made. Just that you would be better off working the business side first. Then start looking at truck and equipment once you know where you stand.

Dont make business decisions based on assumptions or hypothetical numbers or assertations from an internet trucking forum.

Hurst

 

I have edited some of my post. Please read through if you missed anything.

I am not posting this to discourage you or say you cant do it. We can all do it. I would rather see you start this with the knowledge that you know you can be successful with out the need to come ask questions that make you appear naive in your endeavor.

Have you considered leasing trucks onto an existing carriers authority before breaking out with your own? There are advantages to both sides.

Hurst

 

Stay away from those. Look/search/ask for companies that pay based on percentage. Lets say you find a carrier that has dedicated accounts with set gross rates that equate to $1.75 to $2.50mi depending on which lane/account your running at the time,.. back haul etc. You look at the runs and figure out how much time is involved to do the run, then base how much the truck needs to earn daily. If a run is going to take 2 days to complete,.. a good number would be $2000 - $2500 gross. Of that you will give up a percentage to the carrier. In return the carrier will cover your insurance costs, possibly more,.. offer fuel discounts as well as national accounts for tires and repairs. Plus steady freight. The money you give up to the carrier often more than negates the money you save by utilizing services and opportunities afforded to you.

I dont know of any reefer companies like this,.. but I know they exist. Some here may point you in the right direction,.. but dont be upset if guys with hold certain information they feel is privileged. Consider this a homework project for you to research. Take your time. The right opportunity will present itself to you when the time is right.

Hurst

 

Are you looking at doing brokered freight or having your own customer base? I would imagine with two trucks it would be rather difficult to find your own customer base, 2 trucks isn't very many, I'm not saying it can't be done, but I would figure you would have no choice, but to lease on to someone.

As long as you have your costs down, when I ran a small town car/ limousine business with my friend, I had costs of
*Insurance
*Tires
*Maintenance
*Fuel
*License Plates
*Taxes
*Wages
and out of that I tried to figure how much each car needed to make a day.

With a big truck you have
*Taxes
*Tires
*Maintenance
*Road and Permit Fee's
*Fuel
*Insurance
*Pay for drivers
*Health Insurance if you offer your drivers benefits
*Broker Fee's

It's hard to figure how busy you are going to be, these big trucks every now and then do break down LOL! Well you know what some are better then others, the truck I drive for work, as far as drives goes it drives fine, but when ever it goes in for maintenance every quarter it's usually some kind of nickle and dime expense.

Having your own customers would be cool, if there was like a produce company or local food distributor that had loads for you and needed you to back haul product to there warehouse from far away for them.

 

It was easier to run one truck myself.

 

You need to account for your empty miles. That will probably be around 20%. So you'll need your loaded miles to pay about 2.05 to make your all miles avg around 1.75. Also just start with one truck. If you do it right you can add later. It'll be too much of a learning curve to start out with two. Plus you'll be able to enjoy your time off, instead of fixing problems. That second truck never earns as much as the first. I also think your cost per mile will be signifigantly higher tha .80 or .90 cpm. Plan on it being closer to 1.35.