So many mixed results

You might want to checkout Expediters Online. That is a website and forum dedicated to the expediting industry exclusively. The information there will be invaluable.

Expedited Trucking Owner Operator Careers and Truck Sales

 

Expediters online don't have a lot of hotshot info,

 

The industry is well oversaturated with trucks... Has nothing to do with selfish.

 

You are correct, the difference is the management determines the outcome. I am not aware of You Tubers doing hotshot but am aware of people being successful and others going out of business because of their choices. Nor is there one formula to ensure success. If I would have ask back in 2008 when i was trying to learn. “ How do I stay mostly in state and my surrounding states, And wait until someone calls me when they need me “ We’ll I probably would have been told “ it didn’t work that way “ however that is exactly what I now do. There are a lot of people on here that know a lot more than I do and I believe they work hard and learn as much as they can and treat people with respect is key to their longevity.

 

True, but the OP indicated expediting in his post, and TTR is not real big into that field.

 

It's all apples and oranges if you will be successful or fail.. there are so many variables that there is no way to tell you much of anything other than it "depends" or "maybe".. 1st off every single person will over estimate their own work ethics and their own value.. Very few people can really be honest with themselves or better yet have real experience in knowing what they are capable of.. Much less will they be honest with themselves about their capabilities..

Now on top of this you add in factors out of your control, like you can do everything 100% right 100% of the time and still fail. You can do #### wrong and get by.. You just never know because it's all the luck of the draw with things that are out of your control..

Now as far as what you've said in your post, I'd advise against just jumping right in.. You said you've worked at a factory job for 20 years.. This means you haven't been making your own decisions, you are not used to being your own boss but want to be. You have a set work schedule that your used to, but how will you do, when you find out that 1 day you might not start driving til 10am and finish at 12am but the next day you sit for 10hrs waiting on a load and can't start driving until 4pm and have to drive till 5am the next day the make the drop? Then another day you are getting up at 4am?

What happens when you can't get a load home for a important weekend you have planned with your wife or kids? Will your family accept you being gone a week or 2 at a time? Will they understand when you can't make it home when you planned because the shipper was late getting you loaded or someone mixed things up and they don't have a guy there who can unload you today so come back tomorrow? or hell maybe you got stuck on the highway for 3 hours because of a bad wreck making you late so you missed your appointment.

That's just the driving part.. if you are trying to be your own boss that means pulling your own authority.. That means doing lots of paper work, possibly billing unless you factor your loads, it means spending hours looking for loads and calling brokers who tell you.. oh we don't take hotshots.. Oh and lets not forget you are doing all this from the comfort of a pickup truck cab seat..

What I'm trying to get at, is from your own post you said you want to be your own boss, but you have no experience in doing that, much less no experience in this line of work. I'd warn against anyone simply jumping right in not have experience with both aspects.

Sure you can jump into trucking if you've worked for yourself and know what to expect running your own business but just need to learn trucking or vice versa you've driven trucks but now want to run your own business but not no experience at both fronts.

I'm not saying you can't do it or trying to tell you that you shouldn't, but you need to gain either experience in this industry 1st or gain experience in managing your own business.. The 2nd is a bit hard to do... but the 1st..

Well this IMO.. if it were me, I'd simply go get hired on one of the big trucking companies that train you. Go get your CDL through Prime, or Maverick or 1 of the other non "Swift" companies.. Do your year driving OTR in a big rig to cover your CDL training and get some experience on the road..

The advantage to doing it this way, you get a CDL, you get paid to make mistakes on some one elses dime... You are spending no money to get set up. Then if you are smart, you actually drag it out a bit so you have that CDL 2 years.. After 2 years, you get a pretty good break on insurance for your own DOT numbers because you have that experience..

For the record, this is the exact method I took.. I'm now set up with my own numbers (waiting on them to go active) but I'm starting with my own authority after having my CDL just over 2 years now. Now on the flip side I have run my own business before so I'm a bit versed in that area but I still opted to go get trained at a real trucking company before simply jumping in on my own..

It's not just about driving trucks or securing your freight.. You need to understand how freight works and learn shipping lanes ect.. all that stuff takes time and experience and just jumping in knowing nothing about any of it is a recipe to fail.

oh btw since you mention youtube.. check out south Georgia hotshot.. as he came in with out much experience, ran for someone else kinda got screwed over and ended up with his authority. He's had a hard time and a struggle at it as you can see in his vids.

Another is hotshot dave.. that guy started out in a single cab 1990's truck sleeping in the front seat and hauling a 1 car trailer. He struggled like hell and even just recently dropped his authority to lease on another company because his insurance was still too much after 3 years.

Don't just watch their new vids, go back and watch them through from their 1st so you can see all the struggles these guys went through and decide if you can do that as well. Also there is a absolute ton of info out there you just are not looking hard enough.. Youtube alone you could spend months watching videos on hotshots and the same here on this board you can spend months learning about the industry..

 

Yes your theory is a good one, you will be competing with everyone else having the same idea. I wish all the luck.