Dodgezilla

Can somebody tell me how much insurance costs you per year for hauling around those 2 or 3 car flatbeds? How much would be considered average income for a single truck and trailer pulling up and down the East coast?

What about you Hot shot drivers? I bought the truck that will do anything. I might as well let it make me some money!

I don't know how much longer I'm gonna stay at my current job and when I leave I plan on being self employed. You can PM me if you would rather not have the info public.

Also, is anybody pulling one with a 3500 SRW? I know a dually is better but I don't have one anymore. I also would probably have to go back to stock tires if I was pulling full time too...

Thanks in advance......

Tengu

Dodgezilla, I have been thinking about the same thing and I have the same questions.

roadranger

Seems like from what I've been reading here and other forums, you've got to run the wheels off your truck to make any money at it. Between low hauling rates, and sky high insurance costs, you've got to be behind the wheel of your truck 18 hours a day 6 days a week to make any decent money. (the 7th day you don't rest, you get to perform maintenance)

I was an OO for 24 years, and gave up all of that BS in 1994 for a real life with a regular 9-5 job....
but, to each his own!

Dodgezilla

Roadranger,
Sometimes the 9-5 has too much BS with it too. My job now pays pretty well but I can't stand the traffic much longer(plus a few other things). I could take it once in a while but everyday is eating at me...I have a lot of options and I would probably diversify and do many different things including hauling some cars around..

spots

Grass always looks greener on the other side. I was OTR for a couple of years and got tired of driving my eyeballs into the asphalt. I had a great hotshot gig for quite a few years but now the bean counters at that company figured they could save big $$$ by having their own truck and 6 dollar and hour driver on standby. I was getting between 4 and 5 dollars per mile between '91 and 2002. Some weeks 4 runs, some months nothing. I am just as glad to not drive for a living now but it was something I had to get "out of my system". Go for it and see if it works for you. Good luck

Dodgezilla

Thanks BBD and everyone else. I actually bought my truck along w/ a 30' enclosed car hauler to start my own moving equipment business. That's what I do now, only for someone else. It pays pretty well considering that I am just a HS grad. Well, I gave the company about 6 months notice that I was going to leave and was actually planning on using them as a supplier so I wouldn't have to have so much stock on hand. Anyways, they did not want me to leave and eventually made me a very good offer to stay. My main reasons for leaving were the traffic and a couple other things I am just not happy with. The money they offered was probably more than I would have made in the first year and I was flattered that they were trying so hard to keep me. They actually offered me another $20,000 per year with the possibility for much more depending on sales. I had everything in place. website, yellow page ad, suppliers, some customers, and I have so much equity in my house that all my bills would have been paid off and I could have put around half the money down on another house once I sold it. This way I could have still lived if things started slowly. It was scary though, thinking about taking the plunge. In the end we decided to accept the offer and here I am, hating the traffic again plus all the other things. I sold the trailer because I just didn't need it and got what I paid for it. And I have the title for the truck. Maybe I should just be happy........
Once you have that taste for doing your own thing, though, it stays in your mind!
Of course I will keep everyone informed....

gofastman

I have my own bus. of hauling cars or anything else that will fit on the trailer.
My ins cost me 5800 per year, that 1 mil for liability and 100,000 for cargo.
I have put 101,000 since Oct 03, i have profit right at 60,000 so far this year (since Jan.) so anybody that says they cant make money doing this they are doing something wrong is all i can say.
I enjoy being my own boss....no dispatcher to tell you waht to do or not to do. I have my wife getting me my loads, she does the paperwork, all i do is drive.
Need any info let me know,
gofastman@ellijay.com

aaronisbad

Cost around $600 a month in these parts. Plan on staying out two weeks at a time to make a fair living. If ya wanna see your bed everynight forget it.

Spots, what theyll soon figger out is them 6 buck an hour weenies rip off fenders flatten tires and drag ramps for miles n miles, give it a while theyll be beggin for ya back

spots

My nephew is the dispatcher for the company I was hot-shotting for. I get all the inside gossip on what goes on, as well as a load every now and again. (about once a month now) He would rather give the work to me, but he has to do what the upper management says. They go through drivers like coffee cups at his place. I'll wait and see.

aaronisbad

I have a garage full of $30 dolla starps, all I gotta do is wait for a newby driver to come dump at auction. They is always good for a couple of straps, its inevitable that something will be left behind

Haulin_in_Dixie

Yeah, I lose four or five chains a year, hard to keep up with them when in a hurry and pouring rain etc.

Dodgezilla

I sell those straps and chains now........

Haulin_in_Dixie

I had a real nice lot man the other day. He brought me a chain and told me I left it last time. I thanked him, and left with a feeling that there are still some real nice people around.

I can get straps for $16.00 each and chains for $10.00. Don't pay to fool with used stuff. Most used stuff you run into is stolen and I won't put stolen stuff on my truck. I spend more money that way, but I sleep well. Once had my chain rack lock cut and stripped while eating dinner at a truck stop. Lost about $500 in chains and binders.

One truck stop caught a guy that had a setup on his truck, pulled in a parking lot, dropped a 1/2 inch hose in the next trucks fuel tank, it transfered fuel to his.

Patrick Campbell

I heard about people siphoning fuel in GA/AL ... Now that is low.
3333# rated (10K breaking point) Keeper straps at home depot are $12 each! Not bad. But those are just regular old straps, not wheel straps.