Looking for Advice Stepping out on my own

New trailers are a good move, but:

1. Find the lowest finance interest rate possible.
2. Pay it as quickly as you can to reduce your interest cost.
3. Hold onto the equipment for at least 5 years. The longer, the cheaper your trailer cost will be. I think big fleets sell their trailers after 5-6 years of age.

If you plan on running in CA, your trailer must be CA compliant. All new reefer trailers are likely compliant, but some models may only be compliant for, say, 7 years. At that point, you can either sell it or upgrade the reefer to make it compliant once again. There are also reefers that do not expire in compliance, but they cost a few thousand dollars more, and that’s not including the likely additional maintenance cost.