Starting a business

Actually I retract that, you could, but you'd be CR England.

 

What does any of that statement have to do with the topic at hand ????
And why would you say something like that in the first place? I'm lost!
You have no idea about my Business let alone make a comment like that.... But cheers tip one back for wile your at it......

 

Your right.....
But taking the time to file your credentials with the state and feds , and starting a business with some form and organization...and not just owning a truck. Now that is a whole different ball game. Wanna Be LOL .. That's just to funny.... Man your just so comical sometimes ... LOL Oh and BTW my computer goes everywhere with me!

 

You two remind me of Family Guy where Peter is fighting the big yellow chicken.

Just crashing into different rooms clobbering each other randomly lol

 

I hope you weren't referring to me in the hostility?? LOL

Anway, even if so, when you can defend your plan, to TRUCKERS, it's a good one.

 

Hire LogsRus to handle the log books

 

Here's a basic template for developing a trucking company business plan (been there done that ).

Start by assuming you are going to begin from square one with at least 10 trucks and 20 trailers. Here are only a few reasons why:

1.This will generate enough start-up cash flow so that you can hire 1 or 2 full-time office employees.

2. With 10 trucks, you can "run the numbers" in your head easily. Multipliying and dividing by 10 can be done quickly without a calculator when comparing cost/revenue per truck with total costs and revenue.

3. With a minimum of 10 trucks, you can offer a service to shippers that the 2-3 truck shoestring operations can't. It sets you apart from them. The two most frequent questions I get from traffic managers is "can you drop trailers?" and "do you have 24 hour dispatch?", followed by "Can you re-power the trailer if a truck breaks down?". If you start with the above, you can answer Yes to those questions.


Copy the big boys by dividing your company into two divisions. Sales and Operations. The Sales division should be a wholey owned subsidiary, under a different LLC and trade name. You should apply for Brokerage Authority under that LLC. Keep it separate from your MC authority for the Operations side.

This will offer you much more flexibility. You can hire a savvy freight agent (on commission, of course) who can make sales calls without violating the No-Solicit contracts you might have with brokers you do business with on the carrier/operations side. You can also outsource your surplus freight through your sales division to your brokerage.


Work up your descriptions, projected costs and revenues and drop them into a Standard Business Plan Outline that can be found here:

http://articles.bplans.com/index.ph...usiness-plan/A-Standard-Business-Plan-Outline


And, I highly recommend this-

There is a non-profit organization called SCORE.
SCORE has offices nationwide and offers free advice from retired businessmen and entrepeneurs to young start-up companies. They will match you up with a "mentor" who will go over your business plan and offer advice on how to improve it. But, work up your initial business plan first before you contact them.

More information here:

http://www.score.org/



I don't want to sound discouraging, but what you've laid out in this thread does not look like a successful plan. You cannot base you business on just one shipper and a "broker who is a friend". It needs to be able to stand on it's own.
In my opinion, the days of customer loyalty are quickly ending, especially in trucking. You can run 2 or 3 trucks for a while with a shipper you think you have a good relationship with. And, one day, CH Robinson comes in and underbids you by 30%. Your shipper may have financial problems you are unware of. Not unusual in this economy. And then POOF. You send your drivers in to pick up their loads and the gates are locked. Your stuck for a couple hundred thousand in receivables that you will never see. What do you do now? Your operation has little structure, and no flexibility. So you start hauling internet loadboard freight until your cash-flow dwindles to nothing.


This post, hopefully, will help you develop a solid plan and think through what your longterm goals should be before you put good money into something that has a high probability of failing.

 

Great post.Very well put.I try and put things into words on this dumm computer and can't.But you said a huge mouthful..Now i hope people will listen to the sad reality of this thing they call ''trucking business'.

It should be called ''trucking cut throat''...or ''no loyality INC.''...LMAO

 

They want to make money not go broke...