HotShots
 

How many folks do we have here doing Hotshot work?


Who do you pull for?


What equipment do you run?

I thought "hot shots" were the duallys transporting small light yellow iron or the like. Kinda like these guys : Hot Shot Logistics, LLC.-Hot Shot Services, Hot Shot Trucking Companies, Hot Shot Trucking, Hot Shot Truck, Hot Shot Freight
Never knew they were people jumping from job to job.

Umm, what are YOU trying to say?

I was looking at their job listing, what do you think they mean by "No Company forced Physical Damage required"?

your not required to use their ins.. as in you can use your own ins.

I'm really leaning HARD towards ACME truck lines. The have over 1000 O/O's

ok, well....

Hotshots are usually either the pick-up guys, Sprinter vans, or the 6-wheelers like FedEx Custom Critical, Express-1 and the likes. You are using the wrong term so i have no idea what you are talking about or asking......


The only ACME I have seen are those in Texas around Houston.... all mexicans and all hauling pipe loads.

I have a friend and his wife who drives for FedEx CC and they just got put into a 2010 T-660 with a ICT sleeper set-up. They love it, tho they stay on the road for 2-3months at a time but get to go all over in a brand new rig and make a damn good earning.

You got it, I'm stepping out of the W900 and into a 05 Ram 3500.
Acme has everything from a 1 ton flatbed up to class 8 trucks.

Sounds like a plan.... I was going to do this here in NW Indiana since I live 30min from all the travel trailer manufactures but I am not sure I want to DH all the way back from where-ever I deliver the trailers

Yea, I checked into that to.. not so good...

Think about this.. $2/mile, in a 1 ton...

And getting the same MPG as a big truck if not better!

currently loaded we get 14ish mpg with a back hoe

Parts wear out on them fast. Your better off with like a FL70 or something.

doin a FL70, there goes the BIG mpg advantage.. and the weight being pulled won't warrant that big of a truck. I'm trying to stay small.

Not trying to push this off topic but food for thought. I looked into that a short time ago and I'm still chewing on it. If you could limit your runs to places down south you could drop your MH, rent a car and using craigslist find a couple of nice old perfect condition vehicles to return with. A 90s pickup or minivan towing an early 90s Miata or CSX maybe. Michigan limits you to selling 6 cars a year without a license though and I checked into the license and it's more trouble than it's worth. Maybe other states are easier or maybe there's a way to team up with a dealer so you'd be working off his license. It'd be easier and a whole lot more fun than trucking I guarantee ya.

The term Hotshot is oilfield slang, nothing to do with todays expediters. Started in the oil patch to run parts to rigs back in the late sixties. There are many hotshot companies in south Texas, ACME uses a lot of small trucks, serving both on and off shore drilling.

That's why I wanted to go with ACME. Not to mention, they hire me as a driver and lease the truck from me. This will help me come tax time...

If I was going to do it, I was going to run a 1 ton pick-up and maybe a 3 place trailer. That way i could pull cars back to the chicago area maybe. My cousin did the Motor coach transport. He'd drive them to FL and out west then fly home. He did it for 3 years till diesel went to $3+ per gallon. Now he is a union millright making twice the money.

Here's another way to do it that's got me wondering

TruckNet® Drivers RoundTable • View topic - car hauling in a dock height van trailer (found thru google - don't shoot the messenger lol)

I hauled 3 cars one time in a van trailer all they did was block the wheels front and back with wood. I had no idea they were cars. The bills simply said 3 Nissan tidas, we hauled them from either El passo or some other border cross to Nissan in Michigan. The receiver ended up being their crash test facility which had crashed cars everywhere, that was cool!

Back in 2005 I hauled a Ford GT from the plan in Romeo, MI to Auburn, IN where they were auctioning it off for charity. I was with Schneider at the time and they had to remove the mirrors cuz it was too wide for the trailer, then they figured out that once they got it on the trailer, they couldn't get the driver out. It was funny, and they decided to deliver it a different way LOL

the REV didn't tie down that CRX in the right spots, but if it works good for him.

Old thread, but I've been thinking of checking into doing HotShot freight.

Anyway, I remember years ago seeing custom conversion vans that had basically 1/2 of the van's body on a 1-ton frame. All of the ones I saw were pulling huge 5th wheel campers. A setup like that would be pretty decent - back seat is a couch, that makes into a bed. So, you wouldn't have to be in a motel every night. I googled around looking for something "modern", but really didn't find anything out there. In fact, the ones that did come up were from the mid-80's.

Here's a photo of the one I could find:

TheDieselStop.Com Photo Hosting - 1986 Ford E-350 Cabriolet

Some more photos (bunches of em): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...7&l=5c3c2626ad

Don't do it man! Just don't do it! Unless of course.....You plan on moving to Deep South Texas.

Probably won't. I just thought of it and remembered those 1/2 van-1/2 truck things.

"Hotshot" used to be really decent money. But there are so many people out there doing it, that it is just Cheap Freight now. You can wear a new pickup out in less than 2 years....and still have three years payments on it.

I remember those half van, half pick up trucks. I believe Dodge built one, too.

I was sitting at a service plaza in Maryland and saw a Mercedes (Freightliner/Dodge) Sprinter van sitting there. This one is set up as a bus, but that chassis would make a great 1/2-van setup. That thing is huge. With the one I saw, where you would split the body, you could almost have the same size "sleeper" as a Volvo 780.