[Brown67]

Does anyone run more than one truck? How do you do it? Load boards or lease on with a company? What kind of money do make or not make? :lol:

[GMAN]

I have more than one truck. I have leased them to a carrier and did fairly well with them. I run my own authority and do better. I have my own customers and use the load boards. I also have several brokers with whom I do business. I use my customers first, then brokers with whom I am familiar, then the load boards.

[rank]

3 trucks with authority here.

One acts soley as a private carrier and the other two are private carriers outbound and use brokers for backhauls. Still use load boards quite a bit but starting to get more repeat business from brokers calling me.

For me, there is a few ways to measure how much money I'm making but the one that I think best suits my situation is what I call "extra profit". Basically all the revenue from the backhaul is extra profit (except for the extra cost I incur for permits and out of route miles).

For the 6 month period ending April 30, 35 backhauls were responsible for $58,000 in revenue. We drove 16,000 extra miles and bought $1,600 in OD permits for a total extra cost of $23,000. Extra profit is $58,000 - $23,000 = $35,000 before tax.

Obviously, being a private carrier is different than being a carrier for hire so, for the sake of the discussion (and possibly criticism) that will undoubtedly insue regarding my "extra profit" metric, all backhaul miles for the same period were 33,000 (includes dead to/loaded/dead back to the yard).

No way anybody can operate more than one truck exclusively off load boards and make enough money to support a family, buy and maintain a house and fund retirement. I doubt that it's even possible with one truck.

[tootie04]

Been there done that got the T-shirt.....NEVER again!!

tootie

The only drivers that are not idiots (for the most part) already have thier own trucks

tootie

[marylandkw]

Originally Posted by tootie04

The only drivers that are not idiots (for the most part) already have thier own trucks tootie

AMEN!

The biggest mistake I ever made with a truck was to think a hired driver would be willing to work as hard as I am. At one point I had 3 trucks, now I have one.

[GMAN]

I have several friends who have owned several trucks. One had about 30 at one time. All but one of them is down to a single truck that they drive themselves. The last one has 4 and is trying to get rid of all of them but the one he drives. As you consider building a fleet, you may want to consider why so many fleet owners have gotten rid of all of their fleet except for the one they drive themselves.

[allan5oh]

Sounds like a full time job to me.

I could see a guy doing maybe 8-10 trucks and doing all the work yourself.

You might be able to make it then, but I'd want to stay home that's for sure.

[pepe4158]

I might get a second, but only if the wifes brother wants to drive it, he is from a third world country and thinks were all rich..... ;-p
So would be doing it just to help him.

[coastie]

Originally Posted by pepe4158

I might get a second, but only if the wifes brother wants to drive it, he is from a third world country and thinks were all rich..... ;-p
So would be doing it just to help him.

Pepe, You better make sure he knows he has to stop at Stop signs and redlights, unlike how they do it there where he is from.....

[pepe4158]

Hmmm there is actually only one traffic light in the whole town, doubt he even notices it :twisted:...0 stop signs