whats the bottom line?

Wow most single family homes cost way more than 100k. Tenant(s) you say? I'm guessing you knew they didn't have much money when they moved in!

It's the same on a larger scale though too. Our complex is huge, there's a lot of empties, and many more struggling to pay. My neighbor is being evicted here shortly.

I don't know that trucking is a good answer. It may provide an income, but it won't save both businesses.

 

OMG...... never thought I'd say this to someone with just 2 posts, but I like you.

 

JahB already lined out a pretty good format....

Have you ever SEEN a CPM spreadsheet? Do you understand what it's telling you? Have you any idea what freight you would haul? How much will you spend on your truck? How much cash do you have in reserve? What's your tax situation? Your credit any good? How many miles will you run a week? A month? A year? What's the freight you think you're going to run? Is it constant or seasonal? Who are your customers? Do you have any? Are you leasing on with a mega carrier? What's their pay plan? What pay plans are offered by which carriers? This could go on....simply, it's more complex than you seem to comprehend. Not impossible to do, just not as easy as you seem to wish it was. Sorry to be all REAL and stuff.

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I'll bite on that, because I find his aproach to information gathering pretty accurate and complete. I understand a CPM spreadsheet fairly well, but I am no CPA, I didn't do extremely well in accounting but I did gather that everything must balance at the end of the year, and that black is good and red is dead. I'd like to haul refer/dry as a first choice, I'd do flatbed if necessary but it would be a distant second. I'd probably spend no more than $100K on my truck, and would pay for it outright, disqualifying myself for alot of lease programs, but reducing the number 1 or 2 expense along with fuel that I would have to tackle before earning a profit. I've seen a Volvo 780 in about 80% new condition for around $70K off the lot, that would make a good vehicle, I'd then pocket the remaining $30K for expense. I owe no tax, am recently married but have no children, and credit is top tier. I do however owe around $15K credit card debt but no payments are delinquent and my interest is all at 7.9% so it's very workable. Do not have a customer or broker base, and know of no one other than JR Schumer for ownership truck brokering who would offer insurance and lease style benefits to owned trucks, but then I know very little about this...hence my post (it's quite obvious) I have heard that they deadhead drivers of owned trucks at .88cpm, which sounds quite low depending on where you are having to go with your van, current flatbed deadhead is .95cpm I believe. Any advice, am I even in left field with the information I've provided? I'm not planning on going O/O anytime soon, but I have a healthy curiosity about this that lends well to discussion, if I can learn or help someone else learn anything, all the better.

P.S.- I noticed that I didn't specify time out/miles at all...a bad oversight. I'd like to stay out 40-48 weeks per year, I'd average 2000-2500 miles where able weekly. I've seen this written in yearly service % I'd like to shoot for 90%+ in service...that might be around 46weeks. Thanks again.

 

It's a start, bug. but it's a LOT more detailed than that. I didn't look to see if you have any driving experience, but I'll start out by saying this: Don't even think about O/O until you've proven yourself as a driver for somebody else for a good while, and know it's something you're willing to devote your life to, cause it will take all that and more. I'm feeling generous tonite, and not much to do at the moment, so I'll do a little brain dump for you to consider. Anyone who knows what the hell they are talking about, (unlike me, who is just trying to figure stuff out myself) feel free to shoot my little Dear Abby column full of holes. I'm ok with that, just that the guy is looking for advice and info, and I'm in the right frame of mind.

You're going to have to make some basic high level decisions about what kind of work you want to be doing, before you start evaluating. As you'll see, there are a lot more choices to consider than dry van, reefer, or flatbed. You'll want to use your CPM spreadsheet as a template, with enough copy worksheets for each of the options you'll want to consider, and multiple copies of them for each alternative within the options you're going to consider. You'll need them to evaluate ANY alternative you consider, and it needs to allow for the variables that can be different, depending on the one(s) you choose to look into in detail. Things like plates, insurance(s), tolls, EZ Pass, Fuel Surcharges, maintenance and fuel discounts, and facilites, on the road repairs, their trailer(s) your own trailer(s), rent or own a trailer, etc., etc., etc. it goes on and on and on. You need to know ALL of this stuff for each option you consider. That said, if you want to be an O/O, (and I'm not trying to pass myself off as an expert, but I know something about evaluating options) you're gonna have a few basic options, and then some:

1. Lease on with a company, large, medium or small, there are advantages and disadvantages to each.
2. Run off the load boards or with a broker or two or three (not such a great plan, as you'll see when you look into the rates they will pay) They are best used to get back hauls to get you back to where your regular freight is. You CAN find a good broker who will keep you running, but you don't just drop out of the sky and find that guy, and you'll probably find a lot of the worst before you find any good ones.
3. A company like Landstar or National, where you work from their load boards, but you have some advantages of working with a larger company with lots more freight, and better money more regularly, and you run more like a regular O/O than when you're leased onto a larger carrier.
4. Find your own shipper(s) and negotiate the rates with them. You compete with the big dogs in this case, and you will have to be better, cheaper, or better looking than the rest, or date the owner's ugly daughter to compete.
5. Lease YOUR truck on (NOT lease FROM!!) a mega carrier. Easiest plan for starting out, and there are some good benefits like taxes, tags, insurance, etc for doing that. It varies from company to company. Some are good, some are not so good. Lots of variables. You can also consider leasing your truck from an outside leasing company, instead of buying it (there are good reasons to do this) and lease yourself and the truck on with the mega carrier, or other trucking co.
6. Pick and run what you know, or have someone to hold your hand while you learn what you really need to know for any of these options.

There's more reefer freight, but it requires considerably more of you than dry van, with greater risks. If you pay $100K for your first truck out of the gate, you increase your risk. A LOT. Buy it cash around 70K and keep 30K in the bank for maintenance, tires, other expenses? Good idea, but you should be filling that account back up mile by mile (part of your CPM calculations). A brand new or near new truck is a luxury that even experienced hands aren't all that keen to take on right now, unless all the stars are perfectly aligned. a newbie O/O? um. no probably not. Some will tell you to spend as little as possible to start. My dad was a logger, and never drove any older than a 2 year old cornbinder or Western Star, but he knew where every dime was coming from, and where it was going.

As far as whether to do flatbed, reefer, or dry van, it depends on the deal you have an opportunity to do. Could be a LOT of other, different things too, hopper trucks, belly dumps, logs, swinging beef, step decks/heavy haul, livestock, whatever. It all depends on what you want to do, and what you can get close enough to to get a job doing it. If you can find yourself a mentor to help you into one of those specialized areas, that's a pretty good plan.

This is all well and good, but until you know what you're going to do, shopping is the last thing you need to concentrate on. It's good to know about it, and have a grasp of the costs involved, but beyond that, there are too many variables that will do a lot of your decision making for you. That deal about Schumer, is like the National Lease and Landstar...you'll have to do your own comparison shopping when the time comes. Everything changes all the time.

You're somewhere near the park. As you can probably see, there are lots of variables, and once you get that far, there are variables within variables within variables..lots to learn.

Don't get ahead of yourself. That sounds ok, generally, for evaluating the thing overall, running the CPM spreadsheet out to monthly and annual, to see how it looks, but as I said, there are variables within variables within variables..lots to learn. I'd suggest the OOIDA spreadsheet as a good starting point for a decent CPM spreadsheet, but even that won't necessarily cover all the possible costs and so on.

Go drive, keep reading, keep thinking, Good luck.

 

Thank you sir, you have been highly informative and shared a little of the information so coveted by most. After speaking with another fleet owner this week, he confirmed how many variables and concerns an owner or fleet operator has to deal with constantly. He didn't get rich by being foolhearty or lucky, he put in the work and time to build a solid foundational business plan and find the right mentor(s). He said self benefits such as equipment and time off are the last things I'd need to concern myself with when I decided to begin. Thanks again for all the assistance and providing me with ideas and points to consider before that time comes. Be safe out there, and best of luck to you sir.

-MB