Starting up business..need help on questions

Another failure in the works.

This is not what you think. We still have too much capacity and don’t need more.

 

You can buy any used truck that allows you to make enough to replace the engine by the time the warranty ends.

 

Its not everything to look at mileage.

IF you examine the ECM of a truck you are interested in and it's 4 years old, has 30,000 miles on it and well over 10,000 hours on the engine, somethings wrong with it. Its a example. You also are interested in the full history of said truck if at all possible.

You do not just want any truck. If you asked me to sit and pick a truck, I start with engine, work down through the transmission, rear ends ratio, fuel tank capacity, apu, tires size and type, wheel type and 1000 other specifications that will affect how that truck handles a load.

I don't value any load any where any day type of lassez faire trucking. You will experience feast and famine.

I generally stay in pharmacy loads in my day because it's very straightforward and eliminates many things I hate about trucking as a company driver. The small 50 truck fleet I was with then was under contract to McKesson, some teams, some shuttles to and from Memphis and in those days a occasional reward trip with Yakima WA Apples to Safeway in GA round trip, load out and back to the Little Rock Empty as a break and keeps our west coast teams out and rolling.

You are going to see expenses every day. Take the fuel bill; if you have good drivers then the trucks will do well on fuel. If you had bad drivers or worse bad trucks with runt engines gulping fuel all day you will be driven to tears in the end.

Just because you have one truck or 1000 trucks, you cannot be attached to them. At some point when it costs way too much to maintain them you dispose of them. And get another.

Permits, Registrations, Inspections and tags plus registrations for the trailers is a swamp. All of which has to be current all the time. With someone paying attention to renewing those which are expiring soon. If you get caught with one truck OOS because it's not properly documented 2000 miles away with tickets and other problems to come, it could destroy your ability to do more loads for a account impacted by it.

You might have drivers employed. Say 10 drivers, 100 drivers or even 1000 someday. ALL of them have something. For example there is maybe 10% that cannot really be relied on, but they can be given little jobs and seem content not to really do really important loads. You might have the 5% you keep on hand for truly big time important make or break delivereis, you call one of those top hands first. Never the bottom lazies. And there is a majority who are in the middle.

You track which of them are late, find out why. Fire the ones who are selfishly late causing you to endure fines by customers who have had enough of your trucks being late again.

On and on and on.

Its nice to want a trucking company. But you will make a small fortune out of a large one. You sure picked a hell of a industry to make a dollar in.

 

Will this be a full time job for either one of you or a part time job?

Are you or your friend prepared to lose the friendship if and when things go sideways?

What experience do you both have in finding good paying freight?


Finding and buying the truck will seem like a cake walk compared to making sure the driver is paid and insurance/fuel are covered. What little is left will goto your wages and then profit if anything.

Can you pull this off? It's possible but it will be a tough learning curve for this to be successful.

 

here you go, start here

 

I'd buy Volvo's with automatic transmissions.
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Here's one place to look for used trucks.
TruckPaper.com | Over The Road and Commercial Truck ...
https://www.truckpaper.com

 

TruckPaper.com | Over The Road and Commercial Truck ...
https://www.truckpaper.com