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You can be sure Amazon will be very controlling. They'll do that to maintain quality and efficiency. They're not worried about protecting a trucker's freedom and lifestyle. These will be employee drivers and strictly-controlled business partners/franchisees/owners, whatever. And you'll see a lot...

It looks like a good opportunity for someone who has capital and a business mindset larger than the solo van expediter. In 15 minutes on a busy street you can see numerous delivery trucks. Those companies somehow manage to find drivers to run their trucks. The labor issue can be addressed if you...

Interesting. Just curious. Have the advantages of hauling HAZMAT faded for straight trucks also?

Your welcome, MNMS. One additional study thought: Set a goal to carefully read the first post in each of 100 EO Open Fourm threads. Write down every word and concept you encounter that is unfamiliar to you. Then research each unknown word or concept until is is known. Doing that will expand...

Sitting can be some of the most valuable and profitable time you spend in the business ... if you make it so. In the comments above, people talk about sitting as passing the time between loads. What might change in your life if you came to view sitting as self-improvement time? What if you set...

The keep question is important, as is the management question. How do you manage the money you keep? As a group, truckers seem to be spendthrifts. If they make money, it does not stay in their bank accounts long. In that regard, truckers are little different than most other Americans who live...

The answer to your first two questions is yes, for some people and no for others. That's pretty much like any other business opportunity in any other industry is it not? Some people make it, some don't. It's more about what the person brings to the table and/or what the person is willing to...

At a 40 hour week and an eight hour work day, $30,000 per year is about $14.50 per hour. If it takes you 80 hours a week to net the same amount out of an expediting business, it is $7.25 an hour, which happens to be the federal minimum wage rate now (higher in some states). You will get the...

You might want to refine the question you are asking. What van drivers now earn $3,000 per month after all expenses and what exactly are they doing to achieve that? Once you know those answers, you can ask yourself if you have what it takes and if you are willing to pay the price. You might...

Your identified strengths include fleet maintenance and staff management experience. Have you ever done a SWOT analysis? SWOT is a tool that aids in business planning. I don't know your financial circumstances but your posts seem to indicate a negative cash flow, is that correct? If so, enter...

That's important. In fact, it is of central importance since you envision a company larger than one you can run without employees. Allow me to set up the scenario where someone is applying for the job of managing the company you envision. And say you are the applicant. The interviewer, seated...

While I am honored by your request and confidence in me, mentoring is something I am unable to do for two reasons. First, it takes a lot of time. Time is something I have little of these days. We're in a different kind of business now; one requires a great deal of time and offers precious little...

Be careful about over-valuing your diesel mechanic skills. Granted, there is not a non-mechanic trucker out there who does not wish he/she had more mechanical skills. And granted, maintaining your truck well and being able to do some of your own work will reduce your operating costs and down...

Your story has lots to it; more than I dare try to understand based on a brief post. You seem to buy the trucks first and ask questions later. That's not a mentality I can grasp since I'm a research and planning kind of guy. I look before I leap. You seem to leap and then look. You also seem to...

I don't ask this to make you wrong, but to learn more about you so advice about the future can be better provided. How did you get yourself into a three-truck/two-driver business? What was your original reason for buying any trucks at all? You talked about the money you "should" be making. What...

I don't think it is necessary for you to wait for him to learn the ropes. He already has OTR experience. When Diane and I began, neither one of us had any truck experience whatsoever. The motor carrier we started with (FedEx Custom Critical) required us to take a special road test with one of...

When Diane and I were in the business, I wrote some pieces for ExpediteNow magazine, including a series entitled Business Planning for Expediters. Some of the material may be dated by now but you can still see it online by clicking the link. I did not finish the series (stopped writing, left the...

Which direction have you decided to go? Readers will be able to offer better travel tips (so to speak) if they know where you are headed. A general thought: It is often said that expediters should treat their business as a business, and most expediters would agree with that statement and may...

This article answers your question. You do not need to register with the state to be an independent-contractor truck driver. If you choose to do business under a name that is not your own (an assumed business name or a doing-business-as -- d/b/a -- name), and if your state requires you to do...

On one hand, it is wise to master the numbers and the deeper you look into them, the better off you will be. On the other hand, practical considerations apply. As you gain experience on the road, you will come to understand that always/never rules may not always be best to follow. For example...