Any of you guys that tow/haul for a living

[jbaal]

Im trying to get into the hauling buisness and was wondering how to go about it. What all do i need to get started? How should i go about getting buisnesses to use me to haul theyre stuff? Any special paperwork/licenses? I wanna know everything. Thanks in advance.

 

[96stacked&smoken]

Also interested.

 

[jbaal]

Guess noone wants to help

 

[TurboM700]

I think most guys that haul for a living are out hauling not sitting in front of a computer. That would be my guess.

 

[jbaal]

True

 

[Jason]

Good luck! Its gonna cost a good chunk of change to get going, and to operate on til checks start comibg in. It could be 15-30-45-60 days before checks come in. Lot of legal paperwork to go through, licrensing, insurance etc. To feel safe, after everything is set up and running business wise, i woukd want atleast $10-15k set aside in a account to work off of. This does not include home bills etc.

Best way to make a million dollars in truckung, is to start out with 2 million!

 

[Bigsexy]

I looked into hauling a while back and got some info but it was bad timing and some other stuff came up. When I was looking at star tranport they wanted your truck to be no more then 5 years old and nice size insurance policy. Id like to get some more info on hauling, but I don't know where to start anymore.

 

[jbaal]

Thats me i dont know where to start. I'd like to just tow campers and boats from the dealer to customers and cars from auction to dealers stuff like tha. I just dont know how to get it goin.

 

[Jason]

Boats and campers dont pay very good at all. Barely over $1.00 a mile. Id look more into specialized work..oilfield, car hauling etc. Ive been in transportation since 1998..and my info dont come cheap.

 

[jbaal]

no oilfields down here just boats campers and car dealers gotta work with whats around me. but im willin to pull whatever my truck will move.

 

[Bigsexy]

So what's your info going to cost?

 

[Jason]

I dont ask for money or anything like that as per the "cost". Basically, between the couple of powerstroke forums that I post on, I have responded to multiple towing/hauling for hire threads. I can reply with a very basic/general reply in 20 seconds. But, to key a guy in on what/what not to do, freight lanes to follow, etc...it would take me 2 hours to reply to. I have been mis-guided before, and even got a friend sucked into the same sham I did...when I post info, I am trying to keep another guy from the same deal happening. You need to know and understand operating expenses, cost per mile, fixed/variable expenses, how to run credit checks on customers (a MUST), factoring/if its worth it to you, etc. I shoukd hold classed lol.

 

[jbaal]

i've got 2 hours if you do

 

[jbaal]

do you need a cdl to be able to do this kind of work

 

[Jason]

Check with your state. Im going to tell you yes, but Florida may have some sort of weird clause around it. SERIOUSLY doubt thats the case though.

 

[JoeDaddy]

Actually $1 per mile in a F350 is excellent, the trouble is back hauls.

 

[Jason]

I wouldnt call it anywhere near excellent if hauling commercially. $3.50 a gallon diesel, insurance, maintenance, etc...of course, theres dumbasses running class 8 trucks for $1.00 a mile so the cheap freight mentality is everywhere.

 

[Jason]

For basic easy to understand math...at $1.00 a mile, lets run some quick numbers.

You get a 1,000 mile haul, which pays of course $1000.00. Now, lets say for this load you get 8mpg..which is reasonable. Over that run, you have used 125 gallons of diesel, or $437.50 at $3.59 a gallon. Lets say you have a payment on that 40ft gooseneck (about standard for hot shotting type work), lets say that trailer payment is $300 a month. Gotta have commercial insurance, one million coverage is pretty typical regardless of the breakdown on it. Typicall 20% down, say its gonna run you $8k a year...which roughly equates to $640 a month. (20% down leaves 6400 to pay out over 10 months). So...lets take those numbers, and those alone before we factor in any maintenance, oil changes, tires, brakes, fixed expenses at home, food, lodging, etc.

In my equation i broke the trailer payment and insurance into weekly payments, so as to be somewhat fair, and take 75 for the trailer payment and 160 for the insurance and subtract them from the equation. Without any other expenses factored in, so far you have $362.50 left over after this trip. Remember, you WILL want to set aside from each load for your expenses, and not wait til the end of the month or when bills are due to scratch the coin together for them. If you dont have a reserve fhnd set aside, you already dont have the funds to buy diesel to get back home. Loaded or empty. This is just a rough breakdown and im sure someone can nitpick it but its a good goddamn example of why you need to know your expenses before hand, and run for the money that will cover your costs AMD then some. If you ran for say....$1.75 a mile, thats an additiinal $750.00 to factor in with your expenses. See how much more that can put in your pocket for the same run?

Besides, hauling with a pickup commercially will wear it out in short order....if youre going big trailer, amd legitimate lease to a freight company, move to a medium duty truck...your fuel difference will not differ much consumption wise, its safer, better suspension, brakes, colling system etc.

I have hauled cattle with my pickup...charged $2.75 a mile and did damn good like that. 2 days a week, about 800 miles covered in those two days, it was good supplemental income.

 

[jbaal]

thanks for the info i do appreciate it. Whats a good size for a trailer to start out with

 

[TrailerHauler]

For basic easy to understand math...at $1.00 a mile, lets run some quick numbers.

You get a 1,000 mile haul, which pays of course $1000.00. Now, lets say for this load you get 8mpg..which is reasonable. Over that run, you have used 125 gallons of diesel, or $437.50 at $3.59 a gallon. Lets say you have a payment on that 40ft gooseneck (about standard for hot shotting type work), lets say that trailer payment is $300 a month. Gotta have commercial insurance, one million coverage is pretty typical regardless of the breakdown on it. Typicall 20% down, say its gonna run you $8k a year...which roughly equates to $640 a month. (20% down leaves 6400 to pay out over 10 months). So...lets take those numbers, and those alone before we factor in any maintenance, oil changes, tires, brakes, fixed expenses at home, food, lodging, etc.

In my equation i broke the trailer payment and insurance into weekly payments, so as to be somewhat fair, and take 75 for the trailer payment and 160 for the insurance and subtract them from the equation. Without any other expenses factored in, so far you have $362.50 left over after this trip. Remember, you WILL want to set aside from each load for your expenses, and not wait til the end of the month or when bills are due to scratch the coin together for them. If you dont have a reserve fhnd set aside, you already dont have the funds to buy diesel to get back home. Loaded or empty. This is just a rough breakdown and im sure someone can nitpick it but its a good goddamn example of why you need to know your expenses before hand, and run for the money that will cover your costs AMD then some. If you ran for say....$1.75 a mile, thats an additiinal $750.00 to factor in with your expenses. See how much more that can put in your pocket for the same run?

Besides, hauling with a pickup commercially will wear it out in short order....if youre going big trailer, amd legitimate lease to a freight company, move to a medium duty truck...your fuel difference will not differ much consumption wise, its safer, better suspension, brakes, colling system etc.

I have hauled cattle with my pickup...charged $2.75 a mile and did damn good like that. 2 days a week, about 800 miles covered in those two days, it was good supplemental income.

Well put, this isn't something nearly as easy to become involved in as a lot of folks on these forums will make it sound.

thanks for the info i do appreciate it. Whats a good size for a trailer to start out with

If you have a SRW superduty, your already at a huge dis advantage in my opinion. To make money moving boats or cars you need to be able to move a few at a time. That way since a lot of cars seem to pay $1 per mile, if you can move three of those $1 per mile cars now your making $3 per loaded mile. Three cars, and a trailer will probably be a little much for a single rear wheel superduty. Three cars on a wedge, or a 45' lowboy with flip outs behind a one ton dually is probably the bare minimum. Lots of people haul cars with wedge style trailers behind one ton duallys and don't have to many problems, but like I said that's the bare minimum tow vehicle in my book. And that dually is going to get worked pretty hard, and go through wear parts faster than normal.
Now if your going to be moving oilfield equipment or freight and get yourself into something like a 40' deckover gooseneck, again pulling that with a one ton dually is pushing the limits of the truck. Most 40' deckover goosenecks weight upwards of 9,000#'s by themselves, and with the weight of the truck your already around 18k#.
Like Jason said, a med. duty truck, or even a single axle tractor (since the tractors are cheaper to purchase sometimes) is the ideal tow vehicle for hotshotting freight or cars. However most people use a 450, or 550 size truck and do just fine. And since truck cost is always a factor, I don't see any reason a 550 wouldn't do most hotshot work and stay within or near the limits of the truck. That is if someone was going to be shopping for a vehicle to get into this line of work.