Hauling with Personal Truck

Discussion in 'Motor Carrier Questions - The Inside Scoop' started by Stackable292, Oct 19, 2021.

  1. Stackable292

    Stackable292 Bobtail Member

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    Oct 19, 2021
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    Hello All,
    Surely this has been posted before, but can't seem to find it too easily, so here goes nothing. I'm looking to use my 15 Chevy Colorado to haul motorcycles, small cars, small boats as a side gig, maybe 1-2 times per month. From what I can figure out, I don't need any special certifications or licenses since I'll be under 10k gcvwr, am I right here?
    Now what's also hanging me up is insurance. Seems expensive for something I may not want to commit this much in resources to, any suggestions on these fronts would be much appreciated.
     
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  3. LimpyLegs

    LimpyLegs Medium Load Member

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    I've noticed a lot of the part time hotshot guys use sites like uship but I've also noticed a LOT of low balling on freight lines on that website because the lowest bid will win them the load.

    That's where my knowledge of this subject ends
     
  4. DRTDEVL

    DRTDEVL Road Train Member

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    As someone who has tried this before, you cannot survive part-time. You will be making part-time income with full-time expenses. As you noted, your insurance alone will completely destroy your operation. In addition, the wear and tear on your personal truck will leave you broke and with a worn out truck within a couple years.

    You either have to go full-time, or leave it alone.
     
    Grouch and Lonesome Thank this.
  5. Stackable292

    Stackable292 Bobtail Member

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    Oct 19, 2021
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    My full time job is Tues-Fri, so I'd like to pick up shorter, single day trips. Just boats and motorcycles, not a ton of miles, relatively speaking. Don't need a full time income, but a couple extra bucks each month would be nice. Just can't figure out the costs side of thing. Insurance quotes me at like $700 per month for commercial coverage
     
  6. DRTDEVL

    DRTDEVL Road Train Member

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    Commercial coverage does not make the distinction between part-time and full-time, you pay the full price. That is why you would not make any money part-time, because the expenses will still be full-time.
     
  7. Grouch

    Grouch Road Train Member

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    High insurance isn't the only reason to leave it alone. I know right here in Virginia once you use your personal vehicle for business, you lose the tax discount relief on personal property. I researched doing something to keep me a little busy( being retired) like Uber or Lyft, but after running the figures, I decided it is a losing venture.
     
  8. God prefers Diesels

    God prefers Diesels Road Train Member

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    If you have your house as your headquarters, you'll get nailed for business tax alongside property tax as well. At least that's how Texas does it. It's not terrible. For example, my property taxes are $7k per year, and the new business tax they tacked on is like $600.

    The more miles you run, the smaller your fixed costs are per mile. So if your insurance is $8,400 per year, and you only run 8,400 miles part time, then you need to make at least a dollar per mile just to cover insurance. If you manage 16,800 miles part time, then $0.50 per mile goes straight to insurance. But the rest goes to fuel, maintenance, etc. In the end, is there any money left over?

    So due to fixed costs, you have to run a certain number of miles just to break even.

    Figure out all your fixed costs. Divide that by how much you think you'll make per mile. The quotient will be the minimum number of miles you need to run to break even on fixed costs.

    Now figure out how much fuel will cost to run those miles. That number puts you back in the red, so you'll need to run even more miles to make up fuel cost. But as your running those extra miles, your fuel cost is going up even higher. That's because it's a variable cost.

    Fixed costs stay the same. Variable costs scale with mileage. Start by figuring out all your fixed costs. Of you can't puzzle through it, post up your numbers, and we can help nail down the minimum number of miles you'll need to run to break even on everything. Then you can decide if running even more miles for actual profit would be worth it.
     
  9. Stackable292

    Stackable292 Bobtail Member

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    The insurance is the one that kills me. Since my truck is small, I don't need a cdl or dot#. But at like $700 per month for insurance, my "1-2 weekend a month" side gig would just break even, not a great business.
    Are there any tricks or campiest that are more affordable?
    I rented an RV through rvshare over the summer and was able to get a policy on it for a few days, does this sort of "per trip" policy exist? So then I just buy the coverage for the day(s) when I line up a trip
     
  10. Stackable292

    Stackable292 Bobtail Member

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    Oct 19, 2021
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    Yeah the "full time" insurance which kills this idea to run part time. Oh well
     
  11. Stackable292

    Stackable292 Bobtail Member

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    Oct 19, 2021
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    Good old government, ruining everything...
     
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