No experience but getting Authority

I first started driving about 40 years ago. I have owned other businesses but don't regret starting a trucking business. The business has been good to me and my family. The stress level is less in this business than otehrs that I have owned. There have been bumps along the way. Like all businesses, we have had our ups and downs. I could still do other things, but I have a lot of flexibility the way I run my business at this point. Unless you have some experience running trucks, I would not recommend starting with more than one truck. Ideally, you should have enough in the bank to do an inframe. That can run from $10,000-18,000. In addition, you will need to have the funds for insurance, base plates and a truck and trailer. You really should also have at least 3-6 months operating expenses set aside if you plan on running your own authority. You should have enough put back to pay all of your bills and keep your business running smoothly until the money starts coming in.

Do you currently have a CDL? If so, how long have you driven? Have you ever owned a truck? Why do you want to buy two trucks starting out? What are your reasons for wanting to get into the business? Do you have a business plan? What is your background?

If you don't have any experience or very deep pockets, your chances of success in this business are very low. This is a very capital intensive industry. Most people look at us with dollar signs in their eyes. Sometimes, it seems like everyone has their hand out to pick our pockets. You can make money, but you need to understand what you are doing and watch your business very carefully. Thousands of owners go out of business each year. Most fail due to either a lack of capital, lack of experience, or both.

There have been some who have started on a shoestring and made it work. Many more have failed. Redforeman is not untypical of some who get into this business. He has spent a lot of money to get to this point. Had he not had the resources, he would have been out of business shortly after starting. If you don't have the cash, then you should make sure that you have a good line of credit or other means of financing your business. I prefer cash. Credit lines can be canceled at any time and without notice. Banks get into trouble and they will cut credit without a second thought, so it is best to have the cash on hand to handle most any emergency. When the recession hit in 2008, many banks closed or cut credit lines. It made things very difficult for those who relied on their lines of credit to get them through the slow time of year.

 

Mr. G/MAN I appreciate your insight. I understand that knowledge and experience are imperative to survive in any business. I am slowly working on the business plan as I learn more about the industry and gain experience. I plan to drive for some company for at least one year. Eventually I would like to start as an owner operator and have a second truck with an independently contracted driver. I feel that if can't manage to survive with two trucks than my dream of owning and operating a 10+ truck outfit would be an impossibility. I understand the general business end of it and am doing everything in my power to learn the particulars in the least amount of time possible. Your knowledge and experience is invaluable and may serve others well in their business endeavors in this industry. Have you ever considered consulting or teaching others. I would imagine that your time is very limited but even if you taught over a webcast or an online platform it would be very good. Perhaps a trucking business blog may proof beneficial to all involved. Thanks again and best regards.

 

I appreciate it, edrevlis. I have given seminars and consulted with businesses in the past. It was on a different topic. I worked with colleges and business organizations. I have been approached to write a book or to give seminars about how to become a successful owner operator. I am giving it some consideration. I don't know much about giving webinars. Seminars that I have given in the past have been done in person. I am looking at the general structure, pricing, etc., Right now, my time has been somewhat limited.

 

In for an update after a killer week. Killer in a "I'm beat" way not in a money way for one in a row LOL.

I've gotten through updating most of my carrier agreements with the corp status. Still a few one-nighters out there that I'm not really worried about. My regular customers are all set. Still more busy work coming up with doing quarterly taxes on two companies, but that's the last step. Then back to a more manageable office workload.

Since coming out of the major PM we've been doing really well. Since our authority hit six months old early last month, I'm getting calls on loads from customers that I wasn't getting before. In the last three weeks, I've gotten us running about a 2,500 mile loop that is so sweet that I just know it will fall apart next week now that I've bragged about it LOL. The past two weeks I have had the reloads running about 2-3 days in advance with little work. Which, coincidentally, has paid off last week.

So last week I completed my CDL refresher course. Just a recap, I held a CDL from 84-92 and let it lapse when the new at the time national CDL program came into effect. I don't plan to drive full time, but need to be able to move the equipment and have the option to do paying work if a driver takes time off.

What an eye-opener on a couple of fronts. I found a small company that offered a one week course at a reasonable rate. The goal was to become competent enough to pass the skills test at the DMV. I've managed to accomplish that and have my test scheduled for 10/13. The worst of it was a week of 18 hour work days. Up at 04:00 to get there on time, spend the day paying attention, a 1.5 hour commute back home, then another several hours handling business, and off to bed at 22:00. The (relatively) easy load hustling and handling daytime business was done from my car during breaks. If I had needed to work any harder to run my business last week, I would have substantially impacted my progress and practice time at school.

There was another guy there that already had his CDL and needed the refresher due to a lapse in employment. Wow. Where do I start. We were in with about 6 new trainees and basically had unlimited supervised range time, permitting a limited rotation of some of the other students, and a couple of road excursions. Not too much drama on the range. A few cones suffered and trailer and drive tires got shredded.

Out on the road was another matter. Many of the new trainees had never driven anything bigger than a Honda, nor had they ever used a manual transmission. And most were not getting it after a week on the range. After about 15 minutes with other students at the wheel I learned to sit back in the sleeper, keep my mouth shut, and hang on LOL. Oh My God is an understatement. Speaking of God, during a moment of calm (might have been on a freeway stretch, I had given up looking out the windshield while riding in back) I noticed there was a Bible back in the sleeper bunk where me and another guy were riding. If that's not a warning sign, I don't know what is LOL.

I now have a crystal clear picture of what to do when I see a semi on the road with "Student Driver" plastered on it. I also now see the incredible abuse that the big carrier equipment is taking when they recruit these guys straight out of school. This experience has definitely shaped my decision criteria when I get to the point that I will buy another truck and hire a driver who is not a family member.

Turns out getting my skills brushed up and getting a certificate to wave at insurance companies has been the least of the benefit of doing this LOL.

 

Red, thanks for all of info...

 

I had 3 trucks drove one spent the rest of my time looking for a driver for the other 2trucks they either don't want to go hear their or tare ip your equipment. Now I have one truck I pound the ground for 29.5 days take a week off catch up on things at home and my bills are payed. Good luck chief

 

Aww Geez, you guys ran off my new employer
Thanks alot I was looking forward to .55cpm and and the beni's
I was workin him for home every night gig too
oh well back the drawing board I guess i gotta make money the old fashioned way ......EARN IT

 

Well time for another update in the no experience but climbing the hockey stick of knowledge curve thread. Mainly because I've been surfing the web avoiding a hard business call that I will need to make soon one way or the other. More on (or moron, your choice) that later.

Apparently the school I chose for a refresher course got the job done. I went down to the DMV range on 10/13 and passed the skills test without a hitch. Even drew the alley dock on the range maneuvers and only scored 2 points on the three moves that I had to do. During the road test, no curbs died, no railroad crossings were stopped upon, no stop lines were violated, and the examiner never once had a look of terror cross her face. So I are once again a legal class-A holder.

It paid right off this past weekend. It was a blessing not to have to impose on someone else to deal with my extra work and handle it on my own timetable. My son came thru with an option to do a 3-day weekend or load back out and chose to stay home. I told him have fun, I'll deal with the service. The good news bad news was that I immediately observed a performance loss on the way to get a trailer washout and PM done. Next day I BT into the repair shop (went to the FL dealer this time, not the guy I decided to stop using). The tech was a pro and found a blown out EGR hose that was venting turbo boost and fixed it. While I was there, I noticed the right front steer tire was worn down too much and decided to get those last two tires replaced. Those steers were the last crappy tires that were on the truck when we bought it. During that trip, the truck still didn't seem to be behaving right, but did have adequate power most times. My gut feeling is the variable turbo vanes aren't functioning right and that will probably end up being replaced. Maybe with that hose open some junk got sucked through and broke something. I loaded him out Monday feeling it would be ok short term, with a reminder on how to shut down a runaway if the turbo was worse than I thought and started pumping oil into the intake. And of course to tell me how it's going.

It's not going well. He's able to move but definitely not powering right. So the dilemma. I have the cash to add the planned second truck ahead of schedule, move the trailer with that, while getting the FL fixed back up. My gut is telling me that's a bad idea. Too much fixed cost being added, and right before the holiday season to boot. To add to the pressure, I found a 400k mile 387 that I can get right but will need some reconditioning. Right, as in a few thousand over my budget and a few thousand under what trucks with 200k more on the clock are asking.

Or, take the FL off the road for it to be fixed right, and continue with my plan and budget. Add another truck when I'm comfortable and ready for it.

Just now, calmer heads have prevailed. I've chosen the second option. I'm a little bummed about missing a deal, but there will be another one. Probably an even better one when I am shopping without additional pressure. Just before I made that decision, I walked my son through it over the phone and asked what he thought. In a stunning moment of maturity, he also suggested option number two despite the prospect of lost pay.

So a mixed bag this time, with another potentially big repair bill looming. I think we'll weather it ok and be in better shape on the other end versus choosing option one.

On the business front, the relationship with the very small group of brokers I like to talk with is steadily improving. They know a little more of what drives my rates and when they call it's getting better than 50/50 that I won't hang up on them right away. So that's a plus and makes for less stressful hunting.

Anywhoo.. dinner's ready so I'll wrap this one up for now.

 

Red, When shopping for a truck why not look for pre EGR or allow enought in the budget to remove the EGR on the truck you buy before you put it in service, save a lot of money and headaches in the long run.

 

I've been reading this thread, interesting stuff.

About Landstar, do you have to have your own truck, or can you lease a truck from Ryder or someone else and contract to Landstar?

With Landstar, they provide you with a trailer or do you have to pay a weekly fee for a trailer? Also, how much could I expect to pay per month or week leasing a truck from a leasing company?

I have more than a couple of years OTR experience and would like to go full authority one day. I think I have a good idea on expenses, like truck/trailer/insurance would probably be $1,000 a week, fuel $.65-$.80 per mile depending on fuel economy, so I figured expenses would be around $1.10 - $1.20 a mile based on 3,000 miles per week, not including my own pay. Is this a good estimate? I'm a single male with hardly any expenses, so I would live off of my profit, but I hope to make as much profit as I can.

I've been trying to get as much info as I can on what kind of rates I should expect to get. I see people mentioning they get +$2 a mile out of some places, others talk about $1.50 a mile, etc.

If you get a load from a broker and decide upon a flat fee, does that fee include the fuel surcharge or is that added on after the fact?

I'm really trying to gather as much info as I can, I'd appreciate some help with this. I hope no one thinks that another owner operator on the road, less business for you, but really, there is a shortage of trucks, so I hope that anyone can feel free to share their knowledge.

Thanks.