Thinking about getting into End Dump

First get your license. You may say you want to drive, until you actually do it day in day out. You have to be the smartest person on the road and read minds everyday/second. You say you rode along so you’ve seen what it’s like. But doing it, way different. I’d tell you learn how to dump with someone else’s equipment first. You don’t wanna break or put your own dump on its side. I know most places will ask for driving experience. Its protocol. I ain’t gonna train no one if they don’t show they wanna learn. But I’m sure if you’re well mannered mature someone will teach you. It’s not rocket science, but it ain’t 1 plus 1 either. You gotta know your ground, what your hauling, when does it break? Does it flow out or come out one time? Know the weather. Which way the wind is blowing? He’ll be a weather man also. I’m just covering your basic dumping scenarios.
Most guys I hire I want them to be a little knowledgeable about there equipment. Don’t call me and tell me “truck go boom”. what doesn’t work? What happened? Can you temp fix it to get back to the yard? Can you get it out the way of everyone? I don’t like other people callin me sayin “hey miles your truck is on the side. Driver just sitting there scratching his head.” Or lost his shaft on the scale now the truck is just sitting in the way. Pullin 80k constantly will put a strain on engine/trans/driveline and tires. Are you competent enough to not break any of that? I got guys who tell me they’ve got a million miles under there belt, then leave the clutch brake sittin there in the yard in its stall cause they never learned how to properly engage one.
Don’t feel attacked. I’m sorry if I come across that way. I grew up in this industry and have heard many stories and seen super stars fade quick. While I may sound like an ### saying I’m in this business to make me money first. The first rule in life is no employer will make you rich. So kudos to you that you want to be self employed. On that same note you are now competition so don’t think guys will give you too many trade secrets. Once you know your way around the biz. Getting work is all about public relations and who you know. Not many brokers out there for this line of work. So the area you are determines how business is done. Here in Vegas it’s a brokered town with a whole bunch of owner operators leasing there equipment to the 3 brokers of the city. But back in Oregon you could still haul for the smaller quarries and even some of the national names as a 1 man operation. If you could get on the dispatchers call list. See where the “it’s not who you know, but who knows you” comes to play.
I work for a union outfit here in vegas as a driver/dispatcher. But also own my own super 18 and lease it to the company I work for as they are the bigger of the 3 brokers in the city. I have my own driver who’s my brother in it. I get a union wage and benefits while I pay him an hourly and take care of his benefits. Let me tell you fuel and insurance always want there money. Fuel depends on how much you run per day. Insurance is constant and something you can’t not have. Then comes your state/fed/fuel taxes per quarter. Most quarries and anyone you haul for wants the minimum 1million dollar coverage. I run my LLC off of my parents company Which is Incorporated so that’s how my insurance cost are lower due to long standing history. I am NOT the sole proprietor of my LLC. Our home base/company is still based out of Hawaii. There is a lot of legal stuff you’ll need to learn before going out on your own.
You say your thinking 100k worth of equipment. That means you’ll need 150k to start up minimum. Equipment cost plus running cost. I won’t break it down to you as of yet cause you won’t know what I’m breaking down per day/hour of running cost. But you will not see you first check for atleast 30 days when your first starting off. I know of places holdin 90 days worth of checks before cutting them. Aggregate/construction is cut throat. Don’t think what someone is getting paid you will get paid. Lots of envelopes with no name being passed around. I always tell people it’s a lifestyle. You gotta be ready to take the job when called. Do you have capital for the slow months/days? Can you sell the equipment your buying? I wouldn’t wanna buy 100k worth of stuff I can’t get my money back from. Do you know of anyone with 100k worth of work at the moment?
do you know the difference between peagravel and 3/4 round rock? How well do you know your aggregates. Can you eyeball your tonnage. Know the difference in how much rock is to sand? I only ask this question as I don’t work anyone who doesn’t know there way around the pits here locally. Yes I know not everyone knows it and I shouldn’t expect them to if it’s there first go round. But will you learn it by the second time I send you? I can’t have guys who don’t get it. Every day/hour is money I need to make so I can pay you. If you ain’t haulin. I ain’t makin money either. That’s why i say go work for someone first. You wouldn’t wanna have to learn on your own dime. Learn on a POS. If you can dump that and survive. You can dump anything. Do you know the feeling before something goes over? I don’t need guys who call me saying they can’t dump an area cause it’s not good. And when I get there it’s straight in my eyes. Everyone sees this industry different and has there own ways/style. You’ll have to learn it before you say you wanna make this your business. I wish you luck out there. Don’t be discouraged by what I say. It’s my way of life and I’ll tell people how I feel it is. It ain’t easy and be ready to lose friends over business. That’s just business. But I wouldn’t live any other way.

 

Sounds like you already have made your mind up. But seriously your getting way ahead of yourself. Search around, look at other options. I found a small local company. Home some nights and weekends. 70-80k a year. And anything wrong with the truck it’s the shops job. I’ve trained 2 drivers that was green as grass. Only have 8 drivers so any problem occurs, where a phone call away and help each other.

 

You are in over your head.

Pay for CDL school aprox. 2k-3500 and get your class A.

Find a local or regional job and get atleast 1-2 accident free years under your belt as a company driver.

Make it through those steps and then you'd have a lot better idea of how to proceed.

No way in hell would I invest 100k let alone 10k into a business that I know nothing about and have zero experience in.

 

Everybody's thinks there going to get rich buying a truck.

 

Oh boy where to start.....

I’ll start with insurance, I am in my first year of running my own truck, my truck is a 97 and my reefer is a 2011, it’s $2317 per month, dump and trash are usually a little higher due to roll over risk

And yes I run a 97 truck every day, I spent almost two years rebuilding it while I held my company job to keep a paycheck while doing it, it’s all rebuildable, but just cause a truck is local with low miles doesn’t mean it wasn’t rode hard and pit up wet, more then a truck with a million + on it. It’s going to cost you 100k to get up and running your first year, never mind spending it on a truck. I spent $15 on my truck, and minus paint, threw another 10k into it mechanically, I would buy a cheaper ~20-25k trailer to dump as they flop easy especially if your just starting out

Oh and the reason My truck pulls a reefer now but I’m in the dump section? I pulled a bucket for over ten years, my uncle has been doing this since the 70s so I learned a bit from him but am at the point id rather slam my head in the tail gate then ever look at another one in my mirror again, it’s non stop, hourly the customer doesn’t want you to stop for anything, if you have to ####, hold it until the end of the day and #### on your own time, but most of it is by the ton, so you can #### on your own time, but you still have to hold it because stopping for 10 minutes will miss you that last load and your out x amount for the day, if your on the longer hauls you may have a few minutes to stop, but most places only load or let you dump between 7-3, so you will be up 1-2 am and run until 3-4-5 in the afternoon. By the ton you will also have to run heavy to make money, and I don’t mean a hundred pounds, I mean thousands, 10k+, all that running and weight is extra wear and tear on your equipment, hopefully it will make it the 30, 60, 90 or more days until you get your first check, but your only getting the one, because joe blow from then next town just came in and slashed your rate because he wanted the work, now you can go back to sitting at home until you find something else.....

get your license, get a job driving someone else’s truck for a little while, go from there

 

Regional dump work is the easiest work I’ve done in 17 years, I can only speak from the company driver stand point, but I’m never up at 1 am, other than to roll over and go back to sleep. We have a pretty dedicated customer base that I’ve been delivering to and picking up from for years, so there’s leniency in delivery and pick up hours.

If you’re interested in being an O/O right out of the gate my advice would be get a good tractor and go to Oakley and learn the business, they offer a guaranteed CPM on loaded and empty miles, provide the trailer and offer financing for PTO installation.

 

Oakley was like $1.86 a mile, I could barely thank the nice gentleman for his time before I hung up I was laughing so hard, I actually looked real hard at page out of NY, Us bulk was another but I didn’t talk to them, but I wasn’t about to take all that money and time I just spent rebuilding the truck and put it into a landfill, I ran north east regional for a few companies, my SHORTEST day’s, was with the company that I was dispatched down to 13 hr and 59 minutes..... one handed me the dvir book along with the elog book and told me once I was under 100 miles I was local and to just log out and drive, that didn’t last long.

 

I don’t think a guaranteed CPM of almost 1.90 per mile, in an up and down industry is anything to laugh at, especially for new O/O’s, but I’m not here to argue my points either. Best of luck to the OP in whatever decision you make.

 

Well I’ve done the O/O thing for 5 yrs back around 05. I succeeded paid truck off and was doing pretty good. But had a lot sleepless nights, stayed worried and stressed till last payment. I sold out when fuel was like $5 a gallon

 

Our end dumps work mostly local and the majority of the work is hourly. I wish there was more of it.