Starting a small fleet

Maintenance costs will be atleast $10,000 a year, and that’s minimum. I know many guys who spend from $15,000 to $28,000 a year on the trucks slightly over 500k milage to keep them legal and running.

 

You are ####ed with a capital F. Im going to be bitterly honest and you can choose to listen or find out the hard way, because right now you dont know #### about ####.

That junkforce will bankrupt you. Ive driven for 2 different small co's who have more than enough funds to operated a successful multi-truck company and they have lost their ### running those piece of #### engines. My former employer had 3. He turned 1 into a parts truck for the other 2, and after running out of parts in just over a month, their both getting traded off. He's already bought another replacement truck and has another driver in a day cab currently.

You are not different. You arent ahead of the game, and you're severely lacking experience. Swallow your pride and realize it. It took me till my early 30's to do it.

 

I think that it's difficult for you to run several truck without actually Manning the operation.

I'll tell you what make sense. If you picked whichever truck was the better truck, less emission problems manual transmission easier to work on more dependable Less Miles whatever.

Sell the other truck off and make a profit. Take the truck that you're keeping and put a tag on it for non-commercial. The insurance won't be very expensive. Then you can take that truck and use it to haul in the cars you buy and that type of thing.

You want to keep the truck running you want to keep driving and keep it in motion because when it sets you'll run into all kinds of problems.

Keep doing what you're doing save your money and then when you're ready you can lease on to somebody or get your Authority and you already have a nice truck that you've been using and you know everything that it needs or what's wrong with it or what's right with it. You will have been working and saving money and if you decide to get your own authority the insurance will be cheaper and if you decide to lease on it'll be cheaper yet.

And if you find out in some way shape or form it's a lemon get rid of it you'll find another one. You'd be surprised what you find when you start using a truck regularly.

But what I'm suggesting to you is something that will give you time, money, the ability to feel the truck out and you can actually get started on your own when you're ready.

I realize that you had someone look at those trucks, but there are plenty of things that can happen that you just can't anticipate. The expensive running two trucks simultaneously and starting out that way that expense can be much larger than what you think.

Good luck.

 

Why don't you take one of the trucks and lease it on to Swift yourself? Why don't you drive one as an O/O for them? I'm not sure how Swift treats O/Os but you can get a feel for costs of being a fleet owner. Will they allow you to do this before your two years are up?

 

You seem to have the cash..... why not just get your own authority and get to experience first hand what it takes to be an owner operator.

 

Getting his in authority maybe too much too soon. I would use Swift to my advantage if I were him just as learning curve. It's so much to trucking that people don't know. The capital appears to be there. Now it's just learning the dark side. At least if he were to lease one on with Swift, he would have a proven powerhouse as support while he learns

 

That would make it a commercial truck. Just because it's not hired out doesn't mean it's not commercial. See "Private Fleet": for more information.

 

I found a dollar for You.
Come grab it.
Ahhh too slow.

 

I disagree with that.

If he buys a few cars a year in his own name he's fine to do that. If he gets pulled over he bought a personal car that's in his personal name that he's pulling home with his personal truck. No business or Commerce involved.

If he has a business name and his business is buying and selling and he's a dealer then yes. If he buys and sells hundreds of cars a year he has a problem.

But if he goes to an auction or wherever he gets the cars and he buys it in his own personal name and takes it from there to his home, he's fine.

I get what you're saying that it's ultimately for profit if he sells the cars, but if he has a full-time job and he's just doing a little on the side that is a difficult stretch to prove that he is a for-profit Enterprise.

There are plenty of people that sell their own private vehicles. I think Most states allow you to sell five or six without even blinking an eye. And even if he started to put them in his sister's name brother's name parents name, there's no law that you can't tow a car in for your sister or your brother. I've done that plenty of times.

The point is that if he keeps one of those trucks it should run and not sit.

 

FMSCA doesn't care. Heck they make hobby 1/4 mile dirt track drivers and trucks pulling horse trailes for their race horses (as long as the are over the weights, of course) register as a cmv.
They don't care if one makes money. Just that they try to. Heck, if they cared about making money all these l/o's would not be a cmv

You are correct in the fact if he doesn't register properly he will likely not get caught short of a wreck. I was just pointing out it's not legal though.