Purchasing truck and trailer from out of state without past experience.

Hello folks,
Hope everyone is doing well. Just a brief intro, we are in different business of manufacturing and retail. We have two warehouses, one on west coast and another on east coast. We also do import components from overseas which deliver to Ports of Miami and Los Angeles / Long Beach. With the rising ocean freight cost challenges and increased cost of domestic freight, it appears most efficient operation of our internal logistics is shipping everything to L.A. and having our own truck deliver goods to our east coast location. When we don't have need of it, we would have the truck operate under separate entity (own authority) and doing loads across the country.
I am looking at purchasing 2015-2016 Freightliner Cascadia with under 600k miles. Would prefer to purchase newer 53' dry van, which appears to be a challenge nowadays, so new trailer may be an option too. Plan is to wrap trailer with our brand so likely it would not be worth investing in expensive wrap job over a beater trailer.
My question is what are your suggestions or experience of purchasing used truck, cash purchase from out of state without having much experience in the field? Do dealers normally offer a delivery service, best practice to inspect, test and ensure truck does not have any undisclosed major issues. Are legitimate and reputable independent services such as inspection on site and delivery offered within the community?
Thanks in advance for your time!

 

@Ridgeline

 

Definitely have the truck you pick out inspected by a knowledgeable mechanic , have a rig dig report run. take the truck to a dealer and have them pull the trouble codes history in the computer, have the truck tested on a dyno,

there’s a thread on here somewhere started by someone who bought a truck sight unseen for cash and it wasn’t what the dealer said,
Do not buy a truck without personally inspecting it and having a knowledgeable mechanic inspect it while you’re there .
This will cost several hundred dollars and you will likely find that the first three or four trucks you look at will be lemons and the several hundred you spent getting it inspected is just a cost you will have to spend.

If the seller claims the engine was rebuilt etc but if they don’t have the paperwork , they are lying . And if they do have the paperwork, call the place that did the work and verify that the paperwork is legit.

 

You are setting yourself up to lose money. Just contract it out.

 

The reason used equipment is so difficult to get is because new equipment is nearly impossible to get. Fleets aren't willing to sell equipment they can't replace, plus they're having to tap the used market for fleet expansion, even if they'd prefer to buy new.

 

Also you might find it advantageous to leave the truck under the separate entity all the time, and contract your freight to that entity, rather than maintaining two DOT numbers and juggling the truck between them.

 

I almost agree with you, however let me elaborate a bit.
YoY ocean freight rates have increased from average $1500 to $15000 Shanghai - LA/LB and $2500-$3500 to $20,000+ Shanghai to Miami. Miami is not even an option right now.
Drayage from LA/LB to Las Vegas from average $1200-1500 to $2300-2800. Currently very few companies deliver (dray) from LA to Las Vegas unless at premium rates.
Domestic freight from Las Vegas to SE Florida right now for FTL is around $8000-9000.
We average 30 containers per year, 70% of which have final destination SE Florida.
Now if we had our own truck, we eliminate Miami port. Everything ships to LA/LB, Containers get pulled out of port to dray company local yard. Load gets transloaded to our truck, stops at Vegas warehouse loads up full and continues to SW FL. We also have at least several FTLoads west bound every year.
A rough math concludes having an in-house truck/trailer makes pretty reasonable sense, and it doesn't even account putting the truck to work through out the rest of the year. As a matter of fact if we park the truck most of the time, it would still solve huge amount of logistic and inventory planning difficulties we are facing with our prime business.
The challenges:
1. purchasing the right equipment (everything purchased cash)
2. Hiring the right driver
3. Getting into entirely new business

 

Put the truck and trailer in another business name so when the truck is involved in an accident the ambulance chasers will have a harder time sueing you and your company.
Every major company with their own trucks does this .

 

Truck will be registered and operate under different business entity, no question about it.
Back to my original question, I hope I find reputable member of the community here offering on site inspection and delivery as a paid service. Thanks again for all the inputs so far.

 

You need an inspection but you don’t need a delivery
You need to go meet with the mechanic while he is inspecting it and pick it up yourself .