What are we doing wrong?! This is long but the backstory is necessary :)

Welcome to Trucking.

There have been a lot of posts here that have truths in them. Some you have not liked. We’ll get a thick skin. You fully admitted that you did not know what you are doing. Now you want to”The Magic Answer” well some of it is here. It’s not just one thing. @Ridgeline knows what he speaks, so do some of the others.

You put yourself in this predicament. Now you have to get out of it. You have a lot of work ahead of you. Lots of decisions to make. Here is one truth. Being your own boss and owning a business is only a half days work, which 12 hours is up to you.

 

Ridgeline knows what he is talking about, I'd heed his advise.

I was a small fleet owner, I had 2 F550 trucks with 40 foot trailers and contracted dedicated freight in the oilfield that kept them busy. My wife drove one of these, a driver in the other.

Then had 2 semis, 53 foot flat deck trailers. Majority of the freight was contract freight, with some freight found for backhauls if we didn't have anything from our regular customers to bring back. We rarely ran empty,

We never used brokers, spent alot of time knocking on doors to get direct customers.

Most importantly, this was what our job was - building a successful business-we didn't run it as an investment or a second business.

If you want this business to be successful, get direct customers, stop using brokers and spot market leftovers. Reduce you unloaded miles significantly. Take a full hands on approach to running the business every day.

We also had a lawyer on retainer, an accountant, a financial advisor and for awhile a business development advisor who helped us navigate what things we didn't know about building and running a business.

 

A lot of things I'm mentioning have been posted already but just to drive home some points. The margins are too thin in trucking for a 1 truck operation to outsource finding loads and hiring a driver while working off leftover spot market loads. You have to run a tight ship even in good times on spot freight. At the end of the day spot freight is a huge money pit for the vast majority of people who attempt it and he ones like you that are so "hands off" never succeed. All your profit (and then some) is going to a dispatcher and driver who both profit regardless what you do.

But beyond that your biggest problem is you are not filling any sort of niche in transportation. So no matter what business numbers you pencil out you're never going to dig yourself out of the rut you're in. And if you're willing to run at a loss for years on end the sharks in this business will be happy to oblige you. There's a massive excess of trucks and drivers willing to work out here hauling freight from point A to B. You need an exit strategy if you're unwilling to get more hands on with the business and find more profitable/consistent freight to haul. Don't let this thing bring you to ruin.

 

I'm going to say something to you and I truly hope that you will listen.

You are a person that came into this industry with zero experience. I'm not knocking you at all, but you have to realize with zero experience no matter what you do the mistakes are going to cost you money.

Now admittedly, you are a person that has zero experience except for what you just went through and it was costly.

The problem is that the people on this site have experience in this business like no one else. You think they're being mean, but they're telling you the fact of the way this business works.

@wichris has more experience in this business than you could ever imagine. You have no idea the kind of a company that he runs.

My suggestion to you, is to forget your own ego and to forget your own desire to do things the way that you want to do them.

The most intelligent thing that you can do is to ask questions and sincerely listen, because you honestly factually don't know what you're talking about. And that's not being mean, I'm telling you you have people here with experience, LISTEN TO THEM.

And again it's not mean or rude or anything else, but you come on to a forum where the people that you're discussing have decades and decades and even generations of experience in this business, and you apparently are fighting them on everything they're telling you.

Stop fighting and listen, because you're going to learn something and if you do the right thing you will be successful.

In my opinion, I didn't read this whole thread, but you owe @wichris a real apology.

If he wanted to, he could probably be a consultant and charge you hundreds of dollars an hour to answer your questions.

And it's not just him, you have no idea who these people are that are answering you. Many of these people have huge companies that they've run for decades or Generations and they know everything about this business that you wish you knew.

Right here on this site is all of the knowledge that you will ever need to be successful in trucking.

You have no idea who you're talking to, and my advice is for you to quiet down and listen.

Why in the world would you have zero experience, and then come on to a site with people that have eons of experience, and then fight them and not listen?

 

That is a good self reflection. I was the one that asked the question as well on this. I would be dispatching it myself at the bare min. 5 percent of 20K a month is $1000 bucks and maybe make you break even right now. Do you have any money being put back for maintenance or are you running at a loss plus that issue?

 

Last year you averaged $777 per week for fuel? You should be doing great if your revenue is $5,000 per week. I get a huge discount, and still fuel is $1,440.

 

I can't believe so many people skimmed over this. That's $28,860/yr in insurance. There is so much wrong with this one thing alone it makes my head spin.

It's not 'it is what it is'. It's a situation where if a cost of business prevents you from being in business then you aren't in business. You have a very expensive hobby.

I'll spare the OP any more piling on but will reiterate that you are still in a place where you want people to tell you what you want to hear, and we aren't going to do that. I'll also reiterate that you are missing good advice from some very successful people.

 

Dude, you gotta sell that hood. I average about $500 per week in fuel. Granted I don't run hard but if I set my sights on $5k a week, which I haven't in awhile, it might be $600.

 

that was actually less than my insurance last year…

 

Wow. For the rig in your sig? Hauling general freight?