Question

Does he have any kind of business plan? Like, what kind of hauling does he intend to do, what lanes will he want to run, what kind of gross income he's looking for, and do either of you have any contacts in the trucking business yet?
Have you taken a good look at start-up costs? Insurance? Regulatory compliance? Permits and licensing?
What about maintenance?
Look, buying a truck is the easy part. Any fool can buy a truck. Unless you have a real good idea from day one what you're going to do to make that truck pay it's way you and your friend are better off investing in something more forgiving.

 

Okay, sounds like you've done some prep work and that's good. Having insider contacts is valuable.
Give it a shot. Let us know how things work out for you. There are always a lot of people on TTR thinking about doing what you're doing. Your experience might help them.

 

I have read on here people saying insurance is $20,000 a year for new trucking company. Their is radio show on satellite radio all about making money for trucker on SirusXm 11am -2pm 5 days a week. Channel 146. Some people like his ideas some don't, might be worth listening to.

Repairs on these new emissions trucks can be crazy high. Plus the downtime can easy be a week for repairs. Their are some horror stories on here of trucks being in shops weeks and still not fixed. Trucking is not easy business. If someone can build small trucking company. They have the same problem everyone has, that's finding good drivers

 

Buying one single truck is basically like a coin flip whether or not it's going to be a problem and in the shop 50% of the time. Being in the shop once isn't even the problem though because the mechanics on these trucks know nothing about the electronics. They just tell you that they fixed the problem, your software just needed an update! Then you have the same problem for months, every week. Like my current truck.

This is why I choose to drive a company truck and just be done whenever I want and still get paid when the truck is broken down.

 

Anytime glad to help

 

Can you afford to sit for a week for them to finally get around to your truck and then have them charge you 150$/ hour at 8 hours and 1500 in parts for something a smaller capable mechanic could have fixed in 3 hours at 85$/hour and 200$ in parts?

I know which i prefer

 

This would be the biggest red flag for me... No way in hell id put my and my families financial well being on the line to drive for a brand new company with ZERO trucking experience... Especially from day 1 of said companies existence.

Start up costs for a 1 truck out fit are ridiculous... Truck, trailer, ifta, permits, lisence, registration, insurance, maintenance fund, 60 to 90 days of operating cash.... And the list goes on and on.

Insurance alone can run $20,000 to $30,000 a year for new companies. Then consider the fuel bill, it's several thousand dollars a month in fuel alone. 4th quarter last year (2020) I ran 4040.156 gallons of fuel at a cost of $10,296.11 through the truck. And that doesnt take into consideration DEF or Reefer fuel. And fuel was relatively cheap then as well. 4th quarter of 2019 when fuel was at a more "normal" cost it was $15,454.65 for 4863.042 gallons of fuel.

Just figured I'd throw a few real world numbers out there... I would be very, VERY, nervous about jumping into something like that with a complete rookie to the trucking industry at the helm. Just my 2 cents.

 

The profit margin in trucking is very low. The megas make up for it by volume. As somebody else pointed out, down time on a single truck operation can be a killer.