Why did you downsize or end your fleet?

I was running around 25 trucks 10 leases the rest owned, about a year and half ago and I lost my biggest customer and my work cut in half by another huge customer within the span of a week. Man it was slow for about a month and half. Had enough work for about 15 trucks to be running full time but had payments on 25. After about six weeks of busting my ### trying to get new customers and not getting anywhere I was about to throw in the towel and had a meeting set up with the lease company to take the trucks back. The day before my meeting I got a call from a huge customer I had been working on from about a year before and they wanted me to handle all their transportation but it would not start fir another 5 months. So I went to lease company worked out a deal to delay payments for a few months and signed a lease on a few more units and it all worked out.

 

Why should we be ashamed of ourselves?

It still is the land of opportunity, one reason why we have people coming here and starting businesses that are successful. I feel people don't want to start at the bottom but expect something for their education or their CDL that they have been told to expect.

I have a small fleet (5 trucks now) and I don't worry about over regulation nor the mega carriers. I made it a point that I will learn this business not from the driver's seat but from every aspect of the work that I can and then select the area of this industry to go into before I put money into a business.

I am doing well, I don't worry if things goes south because everything is paid for. I don't compete with the megas (no one should) instead I use them to make money.

Like I said, it is what you make it.

My uncle had a large trucking company in Texas and he went under just after deregulation took place. His problem I learned wasn't about the competition but keeping control of the costs. He didn't understand how to budget things right, which I think it a major cause of so many failures. People look at what their salary is going to be before putting the first pallet on the floor and this is just plain wrong.

 

Awesome post Ridgeline.

Being in business requires a lot of hard work and sacrifice. On the other hand, applying a lot of hard work and sacrifice doesn't automatically entitle you to be successful.

 

I was told a long time ago: "Don"t even bother trying to make any money in the field if you are just going to lose it in the office". Translation, poor business decisions.

 

How to make $1,000,000 in trucking:

Step 1: Start with $2,000,000

Step 2: HAUL CHEAP FREIGHT!

 

Making a million is easy, it is done by a lot of people in a lot of different ways but keeping a million is really really hard.

 

Ridgeline nailed it. Small business competing with megas will always lose. There will always be special customer needs in any market and money to be made even in an economic depression. First and foremost driving is the most insignificant business factor of truck ownership that most can never see beyond constructs like "if the wheels ain't turning". That is a shortsighted-ness that'll trap them into competing with megas. You do what others can't or won't do and reap the rewards. Megas cannot meet every need and will always have their own shortcomings. Where you and a large majority can see nothing but "woe is us" a few see unfulfilled potential and opportunity.

 

We used to run several tri axle dump trucks and three road trucks. As drivers quit I sold his truck. The quality of driver that is the norm will break you, and the rates falling we decided to sell before forced. At least we kept a little money that we made. We still have two road trucks and a spare but no drivers just me and my son. It still pretty tight but doable.

 

A lot of O/O's here are complaining but I wonder if it is because you want to make $100,000+ net profit per year? I see a ton of oo on the road everywhere I look so it cannot be that bad.