Hotshot I don't get it.

Gonzo your perception about the hotshot is correct. What I think you are missing or unaware of is experience. A lot of people will go under before gaining it. Some people will lease on to a company. The idea behind that is the company is successful and takes part of the profits and the O/O keeps his percentage of the gross. Another way is to get with a company that specializes in finding loads while you maintain your authority. In both cases you are drawing on other people’s experiences. I know people who have been taken advantage and lost money in both examples. Sometimes the gut feeling pays dividends in minimizing loses. Your experience in life starting out is a great factor. ( knowing when to roll th dice or not ) I have used both examples. Starting out I was leased to a guy starting out. He was in business for only a couple of years. IMO his business model for his O/O was not profitable. The time he started 2007 was a terrible to start a business. The next 8 years not so good either. I got my authority in 2009 and shortly after l paired up with a guy who was starting up a dispatch service in the town I live in. He had tried hotshot and went under, so he had experience. He had spent years in Sales a plus. And since he needed someone to start with he was really inexpensive. We had opportunity to learn together. After a couple of years his contacts and O/O expanded. At this point I knew it was time I needed to do everything myself. And with technology I could do this ( searching for loads anywhere getting loaded , getting oil change, eating ) During the next few years coming to the realization that staying local could be more profitable. Then comes Dec 18th and looking finding out I will not need he ELD. This is not what most people think or will tell you about hotshot, because they don’t know or it’s not how they do it.

 

I'll never understand the lure to live in the
back seat of a pick up truck getting 2 or 3 showers
a week because that's all you can afford,for low pay.
Your better off getting 10/11 bucks an hour at home.
Get your 40 hours and enjoy your weekends.

 

I don’t understand a lot of things people do. I shower at the house. If it is winter and I am on the road I shower in the motel. If it is in the heat of summer and I am out I get a room. I could not do that first with someone else calling the shots. I was not able to justify it.

 

I see a lot of these guys sleeping at truck stops.
And there not pumping no where near enough fuel
To get all the benefits.

 

Two of the truck stops will give 1/2 shower credit for 25gal. most likely will run enough miles to earn a shower.

 

I have never run hot shot, nor was I ever interested in doing so. Yes you can spend less to get started, than class 8. But you just can’t earn as much as a full size TT. Judging by the condition of hot shot rigs I see on the road, it doesn’t look like they’re making money.

I think the exception is a hot shot fleet owned by a factory, which make things that are compatible with a light weight truck. Pickup truck caps and canoes come to mind. And with their specialized trailers, no opportunity for a back haul. So rather low pay, for a truck that costs almost as much as a class 8 to run. Remember when the cost of entry is low, you will have competition that runs cheap, just to make the payment every month. And hot shot companies that watch out for their profits, before yours.

I’ve also seen trucks that weren’t built to haul commercial loads, and repairs can be very expensive when it comes to lightweight diesels and transmissions running at close to their capacities.

My main reason for never considering hot shots is safety. Trailers swaying down the road, loads that look too heavy, long trailers, that seem just too big for the pickup trucks pulling them. I do understand that the ratings say you’re good to go, but the reality on the roads is a lot more that a ratings label.

My motto “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

 

Gonzo, what you’re talking about has been a problem in the trucking industry from day one. MOST people who have a good thing going will either be tight lipped about it, or talk what they’re doing down to people entertaining the idea of getting into it. They’ll tell you things like, they’re going broke, how miserable it is, etc.

And then you have others in the industry that are looking for people to use who will tell you it’s better than it actually is to get you signed up or leased on.

There’s very few straight shooters in the trucking industry. It’s been that way since the beginning.

I ran semi trucks most of my life and after running Hotshot trucks now for 15/16 yrs I’ll never go back to semi trucks. Here’s the thing though, it’s my experience running semi trucks for many years that allows me to see the benefit of running a hotshot truck. Most new guys to trucking, they just aren’t able to see the benefits. And here’s the thing, there’s a lot of guys out there that will never do very well in either type of trucks. Trucking isn’t for everybody, it never has been.

I know it can be very difficult for somebody that’s never been a Owner Operator but you have to do the math comparing both trucks. The problem you’re faced with is, who are you going to trust to give you the straight truth with regards to load rates, and operating costs on both types of rigs? And even if you have those figures, will you be able to replicate the same figures running your own truck? Maybe, maybe not. Trucking can be a very tough business, even for guys who have been at it for years.

How are you going to find the right people to get accurate information from? Anyone that you’ve talked with, who you feel is a straight shooter. They will likely have a history of giving solid advice. Read through some of their old posts going as far back as you can. There’s a handful of guys here in the Hotshot part of this forum that have a long history of being a straight shooter. Lite bug is one of those guys.