Thinking Of Getting In To The Business

Just get a tractor and lease to Ceva. Not a bad gig.

 

Even if you have the cash to buy a trucking company, work as a W-2 driver for at least 4 seasons. It will let you se the business, or job, from the inside and the company will not shade the numbers you see with the aim of attracting you to be an owner op. You can learn the job with ZERO financial risk, your W-2 pay is all profit, no expense. 80-90% of new CDL drivers leave the industry before they work 12 months. Entering the industry with no experience as a driver, little or no business credit and connections, and not even a basic understanding of the pieces of the industry that must work together is almost exactly as foolish as buying a textbook on card counting and a plane ticket to Las Vegas and expecting to read on the plane and then make a million before coming home.

80-90% of new drivers, with NO FINANCIAL RISK for the truck, no need for picking good freight brokers, no need for picking competent and speedy repair shops, no need to run a drug testing and new-hire process, no need to pay $20k for insurance, etc are giving up and fleeing the industry. Everyone of them share the same "hurry up and just be successful" plan you are considering. Just liking that one long car trip you took as a kid or an adult tells you about as much about trucking as eating one meal prepares you to operate a restaurant. It doesn't. There are tons of very smart and experienced owner-ops on this board and they will tell you how to wisely enter the industry which increases your odds of making good money, not losing money and watching it all disappear down a hole.

 

Wait until SOME PART of the industry is showing a turnaround, not all of it still falling. You don't try to catch a falling knife.

 

Trucking is going to be about an 80-100 hour per week job for the driving and administrative duties. Lots of people putting in that time are only breaking even or losing money. EVERY newbie I have ever communicated with SEVERELY underestimates the number of hours per week they will be doing this job. They bring a 40 hour per week mindset into a job where 40 hours is part-time and half-hearted. Just the driving, no financial decisions, is at least 2 full-time jobs based on hours.

 

Your portion of a settlement before your insurance starts paying money will be crippling enough. I think you are dismissing/downplaying the seriousness of a very real situation that has bankrupted numerous established and large trucking companies. You are anticipating a much smaller company with smaller finances and unable to access the levels of insurance of an established trucking company.

IN THEORY every plan sounds possible, if not probable. Start running the numbers before you casually dismiss company-ending lawsuits.

 

not worth it especially now

 

When I drop a load I spend 10 minutes invoicing it when I stop driving that night. I spend half a day every quarter to file IFTA, New Mexico, Kentucky, New York and Oregon. I must be missing something.

 

Wow... Just wow. Ive been on this forum for about 5 years, and you are one of, if not the only, person I've seen come on to ask about going O/O that has actually done some serious feasibility research! KUDOS to you man. If anyone can jump in with both feet and make it a success, I'd say you might actually have a chance... And I NEVER recommend someone to jump right into trucking as an O/O.

Do your due diligence, and good luck.