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Join Date: Oct 2012
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OK So You Want To Own A Truck
Well first of all you must be a good businessman, you need to be able to keep very good financial records,,you must be able to do a lot of your own maintenance,
When you figure your cost you need to figure worst case. I see many post where someone figures on 6 MPG or 7MPG,,,believe me that may best under the best conditons but in real life you will be lucky to get 5 1/2 MPG over all. When you buy a truck that has 500,000 miles or more you better figure to Put into your tire and maintence cookie jar at least 20 cents per mile for oil changes, tires and future mainentnece and an overhaul,,Onece you reach 500,000 miles you can go to over 1 million miles before you need an engine overhaul or could need one at 500,001 miles,,
When you buy a used truck buy a truck that you can sell a week later or 5 years later, you do not know what a truck cost you to own untill you sell it. Freightliners and Volvos are generally big fleet trucks,,the used truck market is flooded with these used big fleet trucks and the resale value is much lower than Peterbilts and Kenworth, Do not buy a used truck and plan to get the computer reprogramed to a higher horsepower..Sure you can turn the motor up but the problem is the rest of the drive train, transmission and drive shaft are not spece'd for the higher horse power or torque, THEY WILL FAIL IF NOT SPEC'D FOR THE HIGHER HORSEPOWER OR TORQUE!
Not a good idea to buy an used truck from a big fleet with 400,000 or more miles, Big fleets with lots of rookie drivers have trucks that get a lot of abuse, they generally go 20,000 miles or a lot more before oil changes and service, afriend who drives for Heartland tells me he sometimes goes over 50,000 miles before oil changes,They run the crap out of a truck and get rid of them before they have to start paying big money for repairs, You can buy a new truck, never change the oil and run it for 500,000 miles and only have to put one set of brakes on it and relace the tires once , Buying a used truck from a leasing company generally is better because the lease icludes a maintence fee in the lease and the leaseing compompany does the maintenance at their shop not a truckstop. They will have all the mainteneace records too.
Now for you cost,,figure your cost based on 100,000 miles per year,,if you drive more your cost will be lower, figure your meals on the road,,all your business expenses ,, fuel taxes ,, accounting fees to do your taxes, depreciation on your equipment, as a self employed person you must pay your own health insurance , you will pay 15 1/2% self employment tax,(social security)
You best start out with enough money in the bank to pay ALL YOUR HOME AND BUSINESS BILLS AND EXPENSES for at least the first 60 days or more when you start,, You best in the first 6-9 months save up enough money about $10-15,000 to cover any major breakdown or cost to repair your truck if you have an accident no matter whose fault. If you have an accident that is the other guys fault you are out of business untill you get paid and even if the other party has insurance it may not be enough to pay your out of pocket cost, It could take years to collect if they don't want to pay. Remember the other party at fault has to have insurance but if they do not want to pay then you have to sue and hire a lawyer.
No matter how good a driver you are, not matter how good a chef you are, no matter how good a mechanic you are, if you do not know any thing about running a business and are not a good business person you will fail,,Trucking has one of the highest failure rates in business, especialy for first time truck owners,,Good luck and remember this, if you buy a truck be ready to work harder than you ever worked in your life. Be ready to work yourself the same as you would work a driver employee,,because you will be an employee of your company.Pay yourself the same pay that you would get working for a company por what you would pay a driver you hired,,,put the of your earnings in the bank because you WILL NEED IT THE NEXT YEAR OR TWO OR THREE..
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