Have 80K to invest and want to start a trucking company looking for advice

I think everyone on this thread has a good point some are little negative but majority is all correct I think what you need to do is to go through all the comments make notes and make sure you have all these areas covered

 

A lot on here are telling you to do it and a lot are telling you not to. Fact is even starting with 1 truck and yourself as the driver can be difficult. It's your money do as you please. Anything CAN be done and anything can fail. It is very obvious though that if you do it you have a lot of homework to do. Forget what you think you know and just seek knowledge. I personally don't think it is wise to get into a business that you know nothing about. You have a little nest egg now and when I was in the military I would have thought I was rich if I had that much. Out here, trying to run 2 trucks it can be gone in a hurry. Think hard and long before you get into it as just an owner. Some will tell you it is just a business like any other but that isn't so. Very few survive as compared to those that start. And most don't start as a two truck fleet. Just remember that a fool and his money will soon be parted.

 

I think you can make it the transportation industry,just take your time with truck & trailer purchase. Both must be inspected and road ready. Also i would start off with 1 and once the profits start coming in then duplication take place. Must continue to reinvest in your company,so working the VA job is great. So my first investment would be in the truck & trailer. Let the profits buy the second and so on..

 

I'm 25 years old and own a trucking company since I was 23. I started out with one truck. Last year I got my CDL and worked for a company as a company driver, while I still had a 2 drivers driving my other 2 trucks. I drove another companys' truck as a company driver for 2 months. Currently, I don't do anything but dispatch my two trucks. Now I am looking into buying another truck. One advantage I had was my whole entire family had been in the trucking industry for a while. My dad's been an owner op for the last 22 years and my uncle has owned a company for the last 7 years. Those are some of the advantages I had. You have to also consider that I know a lot of people within the trucking field pulling different type of trailers for different types of work. I've been around trucks. I knew about trucks, engines, ifta, irp before I started my company. When I first filed for my DOT # (authority) I can carry on a conversation with you about trucks. At that time, my favorite truck, and still is: Peterbilt 379 with CAT C-15 6NZ single turbo engine. Although, business wise, that is not a such a smart decision if your going to be doing OTR, pulling reefer.

One main thing that can make a company or break a small company, is THE DRIVER, believe it or not.
Bad drivers will put you out of business real fast.

My advice to you would be to get your CDL and become a company driver for some time, if not partner up with someone else. You can burn 80k real fast with this industry if you don't look at all of your expenses. Heck, I personally know someone who burned 250k, I was 15 years old at that time though.

In conclusion, IT CAN BE DONE. You do need first hand knowledge or experience.

 

buy a house with that money, and be a company driver. if you already own a house or someone already suggested this then disregard

 

Best chance you have is to find some owners and pay them percentage. Sounds like you have experience dispatching. If you can score some good paying freight you ll be able to grow.

 

80k-30k for truck-10k for trailer leaves 50k. figure a few thousand just to get insurance, authority, HUT, irp, ifta etc say 5k now your down to 45k. 2500 miles per week X 4 weeks =10k miles per month which equates to about 10k dollars just to keep fuel in your truck and a driver in the seat. Another 1k per month for insuarance, couple more for maint fund, tires scale tickets etc etc etc. ATRI estimates cost of trucking $1.63 per mile so use that as a guide. Based on those estimates if you buy 1 truck 1 trailer and have 45k left over you can operate for almost three months if nothing goes wrong like loose engine, trans etc. Good luck sir.

 

Not following your math.....
80,000
-30,000 for truck
_______
50,000
-10,000 for tailer
_______
40,000
-5,000
______
35,000

 

you are correct sir, left out the 10k for the trailer. means he ahs about 2 months of operating time with no problems.

 

looks like this thred kinda died on the vine. I would love to hear what the OP is planning/thinking. Look forward to hearing the outcome.