Trying to expand a small fleet of trucks - Tons of questions?

ooida.com

thats where I would start

 

What do you mean cut out the middle man? You will have to knock on doors and make calls to shippers to cut the brokers out.

 

Good advice; check the website.

 

The business structure for a small fleet is much different from being o/o. Your overhead will be much higher for hiring drivers w/having to carry insurance for those drivers. I'm not sure what you mean by cutting out the middleman? Do you mean picking up direct shipper so you don't have to pay broker percentage? If that's the case I would say that's a good idea b/c your gonna need the extra income to support company expansion along with changing your business model. It's difficult to start and operate a small fleet especially in the first two years of operation, you'll need a decent amount of capital to get in running smoothly.

 

Thanks for the info. I was considering doing the same- to buy a used truck and work with my brother as a driver. I was wondering about what you consider to be sufficient capital to run it smooth. Could 10K? 20K? be sufficient? Would it be better to buy a 2006 or older truck? Thanks.

 

MommaBear1010 you can become a freight broker. You will need to find a direct shipper then you can broker that freight to drivers. I am a freight broker, there are some legal aspects you will need to set-up. Some aspects are very simple, some aspects are difficult. One of the biggest things you need to put together is your $75,000 bond. You cannot touch that money, it's put into a government account so that if you decided to not pay the truckers you hire. The bond was 10,000$ but a lot of brokers were screwing over trucking companies and not paying them. 10,000$ was not enough to compensate for these wrong doings so they raised the bond rate to 75,000$. You can get a loan for the 75k but since your not a current broker with a good history it will be very difficult for you to find a bank that will hand over 75k Cash. There are other overhead expenses that I can review with you, but coming up with 75,000$ cash seems to be the biggest hurdle for you that I can see.

 

Yes there is a website that will outline what you will need to do step by step. I do not know the exact site. When I became a freight broker the Internet was not invented yet, lol gives you an idea how long ago I set-up that company. The site is a government driven site, so it ends with .Gov. You may just want to use the site as a guide b/c recent brokers I have spoke with say they were unsuccessful using the site. It has a high rejection percentage, they had more luck using the old fax and mailing system. Before you submit your application it is very important to work out the particulars on your 75k brokers bond. I know I've expressed this to you in an earlier post, but they are very stern with this new law. I think b/c of us previously established brokers fighting the law during legislation.
I have to ask, what are you looking to do with your new brokerage company? What are your expectations for a yearly net income. I only ask b/c I don't want you to get into this under false pretenses. If your not committed to getting this company off the ground you can really put you and your family into a large hole. I'm not saying it's a bad business to get into, if it wasn't good I wouldn't be doing it. But it creates certain challenges and will consume much of your time. not trying to talk you out of it, I think you should def do your research before entering and investing in a business like this.