New Company Needs Your Help

If your operation is east of California, the older trucks may be workable. California's emissions standards kick in at the end of this year (if you've already registered the truck). That's why you see so many older trucks with low prices right now. Might be worthwhile to pick up a few ex-fleet trucks that are being dumped on the market right now as long as you stay out of California.

 

I appreciate your desire to be a good employer. That is very rare. And once you are running a trucking company, you will find it is very hard to always be good. Sometimes you do have to be the bad guy, because at the end of the day you have to think of your company first. A functional company means a job for at least some. Running your company in the ground means no job for anyone. Some people on here are setting some pretty high standards of pay. Keep in mind that they do not represent the average. They probably represent the higher end more experienced. Your pay scale would come up much higher than any of them make and imo it would be too much to the driver. Until you have owned a trucking company you cannot understand how much costs is involved. If a company makes $2 per mile and pays a driver $0.50 per mile, I would say they are probably not coming out. Yes they are profiting, but then what about money put back to replace 3 tires $1100 or how about next week when the ac goes out $2700 etc etc. If you were starting next week, my suggestion would be to buy trucks around 06 or newer with fewer than 550,000 miles. I can say that is a good idea from experience. Now the next part is a suggestion I am guessing on. I would pay either cents or percentage per mile and not both. My drivers start out $0.34 per mile with deadhead. They get extra money for many different things including tarping, partials, and then detention pay after 2 hours when it is paid to us. Plus we haul a good bit wide and I pay a lot more for wide loads as we usually make a good bit more on them. My drivers bring in $800 to $1200 per week which depends on how many miles they are capable of doing in a day. I let them work at their own pace. Everybody in this world thinks that "the big man" is shady and mistreats them. I think so myself too sometimes. But when you get into trucking and you realize that $5000 does not go a long way, you will get a whole new perspective. Now on to your actual question, my one and only complaint from my drivers is home time. The more home time you can give a driver, the better. There are not many true over the road types left (and by George I sure do love one when I find him/her). Best wishes to you!

 

From a company point of view you need to do a lot more planning if you want to be successful. It's great you're looking out for the drivers but you do not want to do them an injustice by closing the doors after a couple of years. You've really got to know your contacts and gets some figures before you invest one dime. You need to know dollars per hour and cents per mile before the truck goes down the road. In other words what it cost you to operate that truck and what you'll have to pay the drivers. You need to know what every scheduled maintenance will cost, wear and tear, and the cost of every nut and bolt and when it needs to be replaced. You'll also need to know what it cost just to get the truck moving as far as insurance, permits, and all the other goodies.

You need to know what insurances you'll need for the drivers and the cost of the benefits you want to give. You'll need to set up a retirement plan, one that is attractive to drivers. I've never been an O/O but I have done some basic analytical reports for a company mostly dealing with gasoline. But it's basically the same. The better you plan the better the success. Good luck.

 

Levy, many carriers that require trucks to be 5 model-years old, or newer.

Since you apparently have a good mindset for business, you may have more success identifying brokers and/or shippers who have steady, consistent freight (ie dedicated runs), and working with them directly, instead of leasing to a larger carrier. This may allow you to capture the revenue that would otherwise go to paying the lease fees, trailer rental, and administrative fees charged by the lessor.

If you do lease on, make sure they pass all of the FSC through to your trucks.

 

This sounds like the makings of an idea that can grow into something...provided you do it right. However, I noticed you didn't mention what type of trucks, the commodity ( RCRA or NON-RCRA), trailer type, running lanes, fueling, detention pay.......some hands would be willing to give up some things for other things; by now I think we all know that you can not get it all and have a good paycheck. But I am listening though. And please, please, PLEASE TELL THE ###### TRUTH-THE WHOLE TRUTH-AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH! One of the biggest problems out there is outfits lieing to its employees and they start that #### right away in orientation....do not be like them. You will end up just like them-high turn over rate.

 

I have been driving for 30 years, an owner/operator for 10 years and had my own authority for 2 years! The profit sharing thing is good in my opinion however, the .31 cpm is not really a livable wage unless you pay out the profit sharing every payday. I am a company driver now, pulling flatbed and making .39 cpm plus tarp and stop pay and it is hard to get by some weeks when freight is slow.
I would like to be able to talk more about your ideas though, you are on the right track. if you want, email me at [email protected]!