I'm kidding. Don't listen to a word bill hood says. Read up on here about farm 2 fleet. He rooked a lot of people out of money and is still trying to look like a stand up guy with no effort to correct his wrongs. When you start to look at trucking as a multiple truck operation you have to look at it as what rate of return can you reasonably expect to profit in this business. Looking at other companies it seems to shrink as % as number of trucks rises. If you are looking at 5-8% for example, would you fork out all that money and give your time to the operations while carrying the risk to earn that much? You might as well seek out other investments for example stock markets/etf/etc. Owning a fleet is like flying. Running your own authority is like running. Being an oo is jogging. Company driver is walking. No cdl yet is crawling. What stage are you at? Don't try to do it too fast. The failure rate in this industry is very high. There is nothing wrong with working at any job, collecting a check, living within your means and investing wisely. At the end of the day you need to have a goal. For me it is to make 75k per year with as few days worked as possible. As I continue contributing to my retirement accounts they are starting to roll on their own now. I might be able to get there faster with more trucks, but that's a risk I don't want to take on at this point in my life. I am happy with my work/ life balance. So, what's your goal..?
Honestly my realistic goal. (I hope that is realistic I should say) is to own a company with a good reputation that my customers can depend on. For my personal goal I would like to ease my way out of twisting wrenches its just not something I enjoy doing every day all day and really starts to take a toll on your body. After a couple years of running and twisting wrenches on my own trucks basically step away and let the company grow on its own.get job Security one way or another with the loads I haul or in the business in general and be able to live a comfortable life give my kids a comfortable life and hopefully pass on the business. Don't plan on being mega carrier big. As far as my stage I'm in the crawling stage hoping to learn the best way to learn to walk than jog than run than fly. I understand it takes time and I'm ok with that. As long as every step of the way I get closer to where I want to be.
And if I decide that this plan of mine is unrealistic than the tools I had acquired along the way still be beneficial to me.
Look dude, it isn't hard to learn how to run a business but it takes some work, it isn't where you can just read a book but have to get some people involved with answering your questions and guiding you. Taking a class is one step. But there are others, don't make excuses if you want to do this right, just do learn as much as you can. You want to know why people fail in this business? It is because they can't handle doing the most important part. Getting organized, staying organized and maintain the business by making good decisions. Most people look at money that they can make in a month or qaurter but those who look long term and make the decisions for long term seem to be successful.
Oh and don't do the Rutherford thing, spend the money on other things, his system is ok but I did not like it because of cost.
Get one truck be the driver find your on freight and learn the business that way. Trial and error is the best. Then add one unit at a time.
The one truck at a time was the route I was looking at it seems like the best way.starting out as a company driver I'm also thinking is a smart move. And I agree you cant learn everything from reading books I'm just trying to figure out how I can be best prepared
Honest question, what do you believe you have that will make you more dependable and of good reputation than the next guy with a fleet of 8 trucks, which in turn will make a shipper/broker want to do business with you, instead of the one's they are already using? This industry, like most businesses, is run on very tight margins. There is no way I would go out and start a neighborhood grocery store with plans to expand the business to 8 stores, unless I first worked in a grocery store and became privy to how one operates. You need experience behind the wheel, and the rigors of what that means, dealing with shippers/brokers etc, before you're even remotely ready to become an owner operator. There is no substitute for experience which is obtained over time, period.
I agree Scooter but because we all run on tight margins, there is a serious need to be business savvy and most are not. Some you learn as you go but the foundation has to be built, the discipline needs to be established and these skills can be used everywhere else once they are there. I am looking at another company that is really distressed, it has 15 trucks and I just signed the letter of intent/NDA to look at the books and operation. I talked with the owner a few times and every conversation I had with the guy was depressing. He knew nothing about business but made a go at it. another one who did really well then started to mismanage everything and it went down hill quickly.
So start as a company driver. If its what I crack it up to be ( which I agree I may realize different) after I get established with some experience try o/o if that proves to be successful after everything I had gained at that point if I have the same goal continue expanding which at that point probably wouldn't be a question any more. So my best plan of action regardless of the rest would be get my cdl and drive for a company. I have the maintenance back ground(not saying I know everything I'm far from that) next should be cdl and driving. Does that sound about on the right Track?
