re: Thinking about setting up a hot shot business

My former employer uses them for all their shipments. The going rate in GA is about $4.50/mile with a $750 minimum charge.

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Insurance costs will be very heavy. Auto, GL will eat your arse right now.

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I would say make sure your business paperwork and your insurance are on point. Wouldn't want to lose everything because of an accident on a slick road somewhere. Once you know your costs, you can compare it to what folks are paying for that kind of work.

Just a FYI, what you see on Shipping Wars is not how any of this works.

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But the headaches, out of town travel, ... is just dead to me.

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Chewing up interstate miles ... feels like something I’d enjoy right now.

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Also with your comment about taking off every 2-3 years for beach town bartender work, it just sounds like you are burned out. The hot shot work would likely be more of a hobby than a profession. You made a comment about retiring early, which means you'd have to hustle quite a bit. I think you would burn out with hot shotting too, however there probably is the chance to take on enough work to make a certain amount (overhead + profit).

Grass isnt always greener. Listen to YOURADHERE, his family has been in the trucking business for years.

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What you spend on these rigs you can get a nice used semi set up to do this type work. You can buy fleet from some of your carriers that take good care of rigs and have 200+ Miles warranty. You will be able to haul a 4’ lawnmower trailer or a 53’ dry van.

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Believe it or not just like the automotive market the shortages have hit commercial equipment just as hard.

Expect a few year old, ~500,000+ mile truck to be around $80k or more. Ragged out, million+ mile junk will still be $30k.

The 2023 we have on order and won't get until ~November is over $30k more than the 2021 we purchased ~8 months ago. The 2016 we're getting rid of will set for what we paid for it 3 years ago. It's insane.


ETA: The hotshot market is very competitive, while typing this I just covered hotshot load going almost clean across the country for $2/mile within about 30 seconds and had ~30 phone calls.

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Go on

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Flatbed bulk freight is where it's at. I work for a large retailer and we're paying brokers out of the arse to move shite from remote origins to our bulk product facilities.

The easier route is to work for an asset-based trucking company, but you will be paid much less. The more difficult, but more profitable, route would be to get your CDL, buy a rig, and set up your own LLC and get brokered.

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Hoping for some adult, snark free feedback. Thanks

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My cousin does it and loves it. He loves driving though, so obviously that's a must.

When I was in college, I made a run with him to South Carolina and he paid me decent money to help him. He basically needed someone to drive while he slept so he could turn it around as fast as possible. It wasn't bad at all. But I also kinda like driving long distances too. For me at least though, I do think I'd get tired of it sooner rather than later.

But you're right, in this climate with everything going on or about to be going on, it seems like you could make a killing, especially in the short term.

I do agree that you should see about keeping your stake (or some portion of it) in your current company though. If for nothing else than this may not work out. But if you have other ventures that can support you financially, getting bought out may not be the worst plan. And since you seem to be sort of set financially anyway, you can always pick up something else enjoyable as a supplemental income if none of this works out.

frick it, I say do it.

That is exactly right. You can find some of these companies like Werner, TMC, maverick that pull around 300k..

I would look into expediting in a sprinter van, if I were you. The money is almost as good and you don't have to deal with things like weigh stations or keeping logs...and van freight is no touch. I'm guessing that running hot shot loads would involve a lot of tarping.

If you go this route, I would sign on with a company for at least a year, so that they can dispatch/search for loads for you while you're on the road and just to get familiar with what you.re doing.

Trying to find your own loads on boards would be an added stress and the MC# that is issued to you will be new and make a lot of companies hesitant to book loads with you.

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into expediting in a sprinter van

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Cheaper to get into also