truck driving business after college

by justin
(alabama, mississippi)

I am nineteen years old and really want to be a otr truck driver. First i want to know if there is anything I can do involving driving trucks right now and not waiting to I am 21. My goal to being a truck driving is to stay on the road so I can save up enough money to buy my own rigs. I want my own rigs so I can start my own truck driving company. I will be graduating from college with a business degree before I start driving since I have to wait to I am 21 or 22. How long will it take to accumulate that much money and what is the most miles I can expect to get a week if I stay on the road full time with no home time. thank you

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Jun 21, 2009
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Justin says "I'm ready for the trucking life"
by: Jimmy

Ok, Justin, here's a couple more things to think about. Work at a truck stop, work for a big rig tow company, work at a trucking company's dock, work at a big rig truck wash, work for a broker, work for a trucking company as a grunt. All these suggestions have you working near the 'action'. You are near the trucks, but just not driving them, with the exception of big rig towing. You could drive intrastate until you are 21. Just remember, 21 isn't always the magical number. Nowadays, it's 23 for insurance purposes.

See if any of your buddies know a trucker where you could do a ride along for a trip to see up close how you like it. Jimmy

Jun 17, 2009
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Part 2 truck driving business after college
by: Hervy

What you could do to cover whatever type of trucking job you decide to do is see if you can take transportation logistics, brokerage training, dispatching. Some brokerage training offers to let you be an agent for them after training. Learning all you can about the other aspects about trucking will help you to be able to make better business or strategic decisions as an owner operator.

I don’t know if you talking saving money now till you get 21 or how much you need to save once you get on the road but the answer if the same. Save as much as you can man.

What ever you save can be spent or put aside as emergency fund. Most owner operator don’t have enough emergency fund set aside when they start, (Including me! I didn’t either) which is ok as long as you understand the risk of doing that.

You are in an excellent position by having focus young and early. Don’t create any bills for yourself, live as cheap as possible so that you can pay for as much of the truck as you can. Work on building your credit while your at it so that you can get the cheapest rate on your truck.

If you can save $5,000 - $10,000 to put down on a 5 year old truck you will be doing good. However since you know already that you will be in it for the long haul you may want to get a nearly new truck and commit to keeping it for a loooonng time. (well some people like to keep a payment I don’t) Personal preference and tax strategy, you’ll learn enough about the with the business degree.

As far as miles, you will get a better idea calculating your miles by the month instead of by the week.

With a good company, if your hauling regular freight, staying out for weeks like your talking it should be easy to run minimum 12,000 per month legally no problem (a little more)

Beginning driver regular freight $35,000 minimum per year with good record at decent company. $45,000 2nd year, $55,000 third year. These are averages with decent record.

As owner operator after expenses with regular freight you can clear anywhere from $30,000 to $75,000 with regular freight depends on who you know and how you structure. (Always network)

Specializing you will make much more $50,000 up all depend on what you haul.

Jun 17, 2009
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I see a successful trucking company in the making
by: Hervy

What?s Good Justin? You really holding it down my friend, I see big things for you in the future simply by the way that you think with the questions that you are asking.

Since you already know you want trucks, go to where the money is. Specialize in moving, oversize hauling. These are to parts of the trucking industry where you have much higher profit margin and you don?t have to sweat maximum miles per week so much. The pay set structure makes it a non issue.

So if that?s what you decide you might want to do, right now, you probably can work as a driver helper with a moving company so that you can learn the business. With moving you can become an agent for a large company like Atlas, Allied, United, etc or you can start your own independent operations but even as just an owner op leased on to a moving company you with do well.

To prepare for specialized, I don?t know what you can do right now, but your first trucking job should be flat bed or go to a training school for heavy haul from jump.

continued in next post

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