Starting a small fleet

Omg what a great business model for the mechanic I will give you free maxforce engines and a labor dicount if you use me as your primary service provider.....omfg I hope he hired lots of extra mechanics

 

All of that crap you listed owning or doing is meaningless.

By the way the reason why the trucks you bought are considered junk is because the engines are cheaply made, have a track record of being unreliable and are not on the top five for fleet owners to use for OTR/Specialized freight.

Advice is sell the trucks.

 

Dude honestly your best bet to limit your risk is to hire Owner Operators. That covers your ### paying them on a 1099 because they are truly IC's with their own equipment. If they wanna leave and go somewhere else it's a "Good luck to you" handshake departure. No losses. But if your paying them by percentage and letting them pick their own freight and your paying their factoring/Load Boards (with the percentage your keeping for yourself), filing their IFTA for them and a couple of other small perks they shouldn't want to leave. There are plenty of Owner Ops out there that want the freedom but don't want the headache of having their own authority. They are praying that they find small "Mom and Pop" companies that pay an awesome percentage and have good back office perks because that's where the moneys at. But again the thing thats working against you is your lack of experience. You would have to have an "Aged" authority to do what I explained. You would need the age of your authority and your years of driving experience to be a couple of years so you can get a good premium for your insurance. Because now your talking about a new driver with no experience with an already high premium looking to hire on other drivers. Your talking big money bro. Personally I would jump in one of those trucks myself and sign on to Rafa Trans myself and run with them for at least 3 years. Rafa isn't a bad company a friend of mine has his truck signed on with them and he makes good money and has nothing bad to say about them. He pulls a Flatbed. This way you can get time working in your favor, you can learn lanes, average rates for those lanes and learn how to follow them and monitor them so you have negotiation power with these brokers, learn how to calculate your overhead for these trucks and break it down to cpm so you know your break even point and all the other basics and necessities to be profitable and successful out here. Efficiency is everything in this business man. You gotta use your head or your gonna lose your pants. Think of how you want to structure your business before you move. Play it like a game of Chess. Be patient and get time and experience in your corner.

 

This guy posted back in August. Where are you now?

 

Filing for BK on Momday is my bet.

 

Now now not all owner operators do it wrong. They told me it couldn't be done, so I told them to shove it. Now I been in business for over a year I have my own authority and I'm fixing to purchase a 2nd truck soon, so it can be done. You just gotta have the experience and CREDIT

 

10-4 Driver. How long were you driving before you got your own authority?

 

10 years driver

 

Exactly. This guy was pulling the trigger a little too early. If he just put like 3 years OTR in he'd be good to go. He seemed like a pretty smart guy so I think he would have realized what was going on in that 3 year period. But most importantly he could go to the insurance company with 3 years under his belt. As a new authority he would still get raped but they would lube it first because he had a little driving experience. Lmao!!!!!