Starting soon......all input wanted

[NYExpedite]

Hello All,

I am planning on starting an expedite business soon. I have experience with straight truck driving in the past at past jobs. I currently work at a brokerage and we have a lot of cargo van/straight truck freight. I know the business pretty well but have wanted to start my own business for a while, i have been working on a business plan the last couple of weeks and am having some trouble figuring out some things:

Where do cargo van owner operators find freight? I have tried getting on with Sylectus but they have strict requirements that seem impossible to get around.
Where is a good place to get a cargo insurance quote from, and what types of insurance do I need exactly?


Any and all input would be helpful. I plan on being the driver for a while, until I can start making enough money to potentially justify hiring someone or adding another van.

 

[brokcanadian]

Just to save you the surprise, I doubt anyone will have anything positive to say. It's a tough business without a company to find you freight.

I think nearly every driver here is with a company. We value our sanity

(Hint: "where do you find freight" there's the little detail that should be worked out before starting. We'd all like to know)




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[jcoppman]

LMFAO

Hello All,

I am planning on starting an expedite business soon. I have experience with straight truck driving in the past at past jobs. I currently work at a brokerage and we have a lot of cargo van/straight truck freight. I know the business pretty well but have wanted to start my own business for a while, i have been working on a business plan the last couple of weeks and am having some trouble figuring out some things:

Where do cargo van owner operators find freight? I have tried getting on with Sylectus but they have strict requirements that seem impossible to get around.
Where is a good place to get a cargo insurance quote from, and what types of insurance do I need exactly?


Any and all input would be helpful. I plan on being the driver for a while, until I can start making enough money to potentially justify hiring someone or adding another van.

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[Moot]

Where do cargo van owner operators find freight?

I currently work at a brokerage and we have a lot of cargo van/straight truck freight.

I think you answered your own question.

 

[NYExpedite]

Just to save you the surprise, I doubt anyone will have anything positive to say. It's a tough business without a company to find you freight.

I think nearly every driver here is with a company. We value our sanity

(Hint: "where do you find freight" there's the little detail that should be worked out before starting. We'd all like to know)




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I talk to truck drivers and other brokers every single day, if my feelings were easily hurt, I wouldn't be in this business. I guess more or less what I meant was is there a dedicated cargo van/ straight truck load board that owner ops use?

 

[brokcanadian]

For expediters? Yep, sylectus

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[Turtle]

The load board that I use is called Load One Dispatch.

 

[NYExpedite]

For expediters? Yep, sylectus

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But from what i know about sylectus, you have to have 5 vehicles in your fleet and maintain common authority for over a year.

Not something I can really utilize right away.

Let me ask you this, what kind of rates do companies give to expedite owner ops?

 

[Turtle]

He was kidding about Sylectus. Sylectus isn't really a viable solution as a primary load board. Carriers post loads there because they can't get them covered, either because they don't have a truck available, or they're so crappy that they can't get anyone to run it.

The vast majority of expedite, especially cargo van expedite, is done via email or phone calls. No one is going to post an expedite load that needs to be picked up right now on a load board where every questionably reliable Tom, Dick and Harriet can bid on it.

Unless you already know where you can get freight, your best bet is to lease on with a reliable carrier.

As for what carriers pay their independent contractors, it varies wildly, from 58% to 80%, with about 62% being the most common.

 

[Moot]

Let me ask you this, what kind of rates do companies give to expedite owner ops?

As for what carriers pay their independent contractors, it varies wildly, from 58% to 80%, with about 62% being the most common.

In addition to percentage pay some carriers have a fixed per mile rate, regardless of what the carrier is actually makes on the load. What exactly is your position at this brokerage company? If you are privy to brokered loads then you should have a fairly accurate idea of what van loads go for. At least the dollar amount your company proffers a load at. Once it goes beyond your company, deduct 10-20% or more every time the load changes hands.

 

[NYExpedite]

He was kidding about Sylectus. Sylectus isn't really a viable solution as a primary load board. Carriers post loads there because they can't get them covered, either because they don't have a truck available, or they're so crappy that they can't get anyone to run it.

The vast majority of expedite, especially cargo van expedite, is done via email or phone calls. No one is going to post an expedite load that needs to be picked up right now on a load board where every questionably reliable Tom, Dick and Harriet can bid on it.

Unless you already know where you can get freight, your best bet is to lease on with a reliable carrier.

As for what carriers pay their independent contractors, it varies wildly, from 58% to 80%, with about 62% being the most common.

Fair enough. I know what certain van loads go for, I know from what our cargo van loads go for, depending upon distance. I wouldn't mind leasing on to a reliable carrier in the beginning, but my main goal is to completely do my own thing and not have to pay a middle man to just get a load for me.

On the sylectus topic, the brokerage I work at posts on sylectus for expedite stuff quite often and we get good carriers I would say probably 90% of the time.

But this is all good information and I definitely appreciate it. I know that a lot of load brokers tend to not use companies with new authority, pretty standard time frame I hear is 6 months. Is leasing on to a reliable carrier for that time frame a smart idea?

 

[brokcanadian]

this is all good information and I definitely appreciate it. I know that a lot of load brokers tend to not use companies with new authority, pretty standard time frame I hear is 6 months. Is leasing on to a reliable carrier for that time frame a smart idea?

You could be the first owner in history to understand what it's like behind the wheel

You didn't mention how you'll finance this endeavor...

 

[Moot]

Fair enough. I know what certain van loads go for, I know from what our cargo van loads go for, depending upon distance. I wouldn't mind leasing on to a reliable carrier in the beginning, but my main goal is to completely do my own thing and not have to pay a middle man to just get a load for me.

I know that a lot of load brokers tend to not use companies with new authority, pretty standard time frame I hear is 6 months. Is leasing on to a reliable carrier for that time frame a smart idea?

Leasing to a carrier for 6 months or whatever is a smart idea if you want to learn the business from the driver's seat.

 

[NYExpedite]

You could be the first owner in history to understand what it's like behind the wheel

You didn't mention how you'll finance this endeavor...

Was that first comment sarcasm?

I have some money in the bank, and a pretty solid credit history so I don't see a small business loan being a big issue.

I fully understand that this WILL be a struggle, at least in the beginning. I just needed some input from people who have been doing it a while that it is possible to make a decent or more than decent living....

 

[brokcanadian]

If you search on here, there's somebody who runs a pretty "large" small fleet. You might want to look it up...

TLDR from memory he made over $100k dispatching his vans.

There was a comment on how his drivers must have felt, but that's the way this business is

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[brokcanadian]

Oh, and since you're the first I know of, to ask this age old question since Coronavirus popped up - have you taken a look around lately?

Slight possibility we might have, a ....recession or something coming up

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[brokcanadian]

possible to make a decent or more than decent living....

Decent to More than Decent requires you to live in your van. I dabble with More than Decent when I can; but if you have ties to home, that cuts into driving every waking hour for 2 weeks straight

It's possible but not probable, like the lottery. 14 years in, and I have no idea what next month will look like.

 

[NYExpedite]

Decent to More than Decent requires you to live in your van. I dabble with More than Decent when I can; but if you have ties to home, that cuts into driving every waking hour for 2 weeks straight

It's possible but not probable, like the lottery. 14 years in, and I have no idea what next month will look like.

I won't have really any costs except for any van repairs and gas and maintenance for roughly the first year, that's what my banked money is for, i've been saving for quite some time, and my bank has already pre-approved me for a small business loan for the amount I need, just need to get it on paper. I have an idea of how much one year worth of van payments and insurance would be. My plan is to do it part time until I get more established, i know it will take a while. Also, of course I have taken a look around, I don't intend on starting this until after everything has gotten back to at least somewhat normal again. The company I work actually has a couple different companies and I work for two of them, one of them being a dispatching service. I dispatch owner operators at a small fee so they can just focus on driving. Had about an hour long conversation with one today about why I was really only able to get him $1.07 a mile pretty much anywhere unless he goes on 200 mile or less runs.

 

[brokcanadian]

I dispatch owner operators at a small fee so they can just focus on driving.

Now THAT sounds like a business!

 

[RoadTime]

My plan is to do it part time until I get more established

Do what part time? Drive?
Unless your retired with a source of income coming in, Your going to need to work a little more then part time to stay afloat...and that might not be enough