Owning a Trucking Company: 5 Need-to-Knows
When you own a trucking company or any company, there are many benefits of being the boss.
When you own a trucking company or any company, there are many benefits of being the boss. When you’re an owner-operator, you make more money, pick up more loads, and there isn’t a boss controlling when you get off work or vacation. It takes the proper research and resources to ensure that your trucking company doesn’t fail, and it’s not a level of responsibility that everyone can handle. Before you leap to start your company, here are five things you need to know.
Owning a Trucking Company Comes with Initial and Monthly Costs
You must understand that owning your own company is not a cheap investment. There are many upfront costs that you have to consider before you can even begin to drive. These costs include your truck’s down payment and your plates, license, insurance fees, and permit fees. After these initial costs, there are also monthly costs to pay such as fuel, maintenance, and food. You have to have a gameplan on covering these costs before your company starts bringing in money. Typically the first few months or more will involve you trying to earn your revenue back on your initial costs.
Quarterly Taxes
One noteworthy significance between being a truck driver for another company versus your own is how taxes operate. You will have to pay taxes quarterly versus them coming out of each of your paychecks. Set aside at least 25% of your weekly income to account for taxes. Also, it would be best to keep all of your business receipts and documentation so that it’s not challenging to track your earnings.
Your Customers
What typically happens is that you won’t have to go out and find your customers. You’ll most likely lease on to be a carrier. With that in mind, it still matters that you know your customers. The type of customers you’ll have depends on the kind of operation you own. If you’re a flatbed driver versus a dry van driver, your customer base will differ. While you can’t control the rates when you’re in a lease with a carrier, you can think about adding value to your customers and how you stand out from cookie-cutter companies.
Compliance
Before becoming an owner-operator, you should know the rules and regulations of owning a trucking company right away. Ensure that every 25,000 miles, your truck has a Federal DOT inspection to comply with Federal DOT regulations, which we can take care of for you. We also handle Chassis inspections, which check 50 different aspects of your truck. You must also have an Electronic Logging Device (ELD) to record your hours.
Owning a Trucking Company is Not for The Faint of Heart
Your job as an owner-operator is to deliver goods, but you are now also a small business owner. After driving, you may want to relax, but you still have to handle the business side of things. There isn’t anything wrong with outsourced or third-party help!
MIDDLETON & MEADS IS YOUR ONE STOP SHOP FOR ALL OF YOUR VEHICLE’S NEEDS.
Need to repair your truck or bus? Contact Middleton & Meads today! Middleton & Meads provides quality truck and bus repair, service, and fleet management for the Baltimore, MD area. We have over 90 years of experience in the trucking industry and will provide you with customer service like you have never experienced before! If you are interested in seeing how we can help your business, give us a call at (410) 752-5588 or visit us online today! For more articles and trucking tips, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn.