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I have up to 10 -20K to invest in a vehicle to do delivery work, courier work etc and love to drive. Just wondering what might be a good option to make some money owning some type of bread truck etc to do this. I'd be happy with modest income like $25,000/yr after taxes + vehicle expenses.. I'm 15 miles outside of New York City in New Jersey and don't really know anything about guys who own their own vans or box trucks doing independent deliveries or what options are available. I know how to work on cars so doing own maintenence + basic repairs is not a problem. I'm not a cab or limo type guy because don't like the interaction with passengers. Any suggestions or thoughts?
Hi Tripod! I'm not sure whether you want to stay local or go out over the road. But, anyway, here's a bit of info to get you started. Granted I've never driven anything smaller than an 18-wheeler to deliver anything, but this may be some help.
- Small, independent courier services/parcel delivery are a rough way to go, IMHO. From my experience, providing transportation services, whether a pick-up, box truck or big truck means that you provide all the resources and effort and the guy you're leased to skims the good money off the top. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but I'd network with anyone i see driving the type of vehicle you're interested in and ask them about it.
- I know many of the folks who work for the big guys like Fed EX & UPS love what they do. And the big guys offer some security.
- If you don't mind venturing out across the country, or at least several states away, Expedited freight may be for you. Outfits like Fed EX Custom Critical, Tri-State, Panther and MANY more handle shipments from one small box to a whole 53' trailer full of cargo.
The bottom line is: be careful and know what you're doing BEFORE you invest your own money. You may want to consider working for someone else before you pony up your own cash. That way, you'll get an idea of what it'd be like on your own.
Tripod, I don't want to scare you away; there are some good delivery gigs. but there's plenty of bad ones, too. Best of luck!
Last edited by Crew Chief; 01-19-2014 at 06:47 PM..
Thanks for the response! Actually I'm real close to deciding to sign up at a tractor trailer school and would be starting in a month or less if I do that. I've always liked to drive ANYTHING and see a lot of options from starting out driving a straight job locally to going OTR in a semi and then possibly locally/regionally to becoming an owner operator. I'd be happy driving a newspaper or bread truck in the early mornings to basically doing anything involving driving so I'm probably going to do that. Not worried about income because I'm single and have a home at my fathers house so even 25-30K gross to start would be fine. If I go OTR I could save a ton of money with no bills at home and could put quite a lot of money away towards getting my own house one day.
^Glad to be of service, Tripod! If you haven't done so already, take a look at some of the threads about trucking; good info can be found there from those of us who have done it.
If you haven't committed to the school yet; the cheapest way to get a CDL is a community college or other publicly-funded truck driver training programs. All ANY school will teach you to do is pass the CDL exam to get your license. Years of driving will get you good at the job...
At your stage of the game, I would STRONGLY advise against committing any of your own money except for training you pay for yourself. The longer I drive on someone else's money, the smarter I see that it is for most people to do that.
Put your money into some sort of safe investment, get your CDL and go drive for one of the large truckload carriers. With you not having any real attachments and expenses, you'll be in better shape to deal with a weekly income that can be very different from week to week. Once you get some driving time behind you, take a look at expedited, such as Fed Ex or Panther, etc. Although I'm very satisfied with my current gig, I've always thought expedited would be interesting. The drawback is that you sit a lot and have to get rolling on short notice. But the money seems to be fairly good. So it may work for you.
I used my vehicle for deliverys at one time, and all that happened was I went broke and the vehicle got driven into the ground between paying to keep it alive and rent and food it was a losing proposition. I would take that 20K and invest it in a growth stock mutual fund make money work for you.
AMEN, Flightsimmer! There's no shortage of driver/owners that are broke and with ruined credit because they provided transportation services to someone else. That's why I believe trucking on someone else's money is the way to go right now. Unless you REALLY know what you are doing, can find (and keep) good customers and don't mind working most of 24/7/365, you'll lose your butt... I refuse to compete with owner/operator wannabees that think $1.00/mile is good money for a big truck...
There is a guy on a forum I go to who used to be a truck driver, and pursued anther career briefly. He went back to being an owner/operator just recently and is making decent money. According to him he makes $1.20/mile minus expenses, and last week alone he did $2K net. He figures $80k/yr is a good round average.
Have you tried looking at places that deliver medical supplies? I've seen some posts on car forums of people who drive over 30k miles a year (sometimes far more than that) doing a standard route most of the week.
I found these 2 posting as examples of what I'm talking about. Though I don't think you need a large vehicle for these positions.
There is a guy on a forum I go to who used to be a truck driver, and pursued another career briefly. He went back to being an owner/operator just recently and is making decent money. According to him he makes $1.20/mile minus expenses, and last week alone he did $2K net. He figures $80k/yr is a good round average.
Not bad.
Sure, there are decent O/O gigs. My message is that you really have to do your homework if you want to provide transportation services to someone else. And, regarding your O/O example; as long as that is CONSISTENT revenue, he'll do OK. For the most part, consistent revenue in the truckload sector is VERY difficult to obtain.
What shipping services hires owner operator contractors with cargo vans?
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