Posts Tagged ‘truck leasing’

Making Your Trucking Business Successful

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Thinking about having your own business in the trucking industry?. If you believe that being successful simply means that you’re spending all of your time on the road, then think again. You can only reach your goals if you learn to manage both your driving with your business.

Starting your own trucking company takes a knowledge of transportation as well as a fundamental understanding of running a sound business. If you consider that being successful simply means that you’re spending all of your time on the road, then think again. You can only realize your goals if you learn to manage both your driving with your business.

Once a plan has been written for your business, determine how best to work your plan. Running a profitable trucking business is only possible when you move in the direction of your goals on a daily basis. Be persistent if you want to be successful. After you make progress in the direction of your goals, you may find that you start accomplishing more than you had ever hoped.

Partnering with others should be built into part of your plan after you have started seeing success. The power of relationships is sometimes not thought about in terms of business. The more relationships and partnerships you can create with others in your line of work, the better. These relationships can assist in uncovering opportunities that you may not have been aware of before. While you are creating your business, take time to ask yourself exactly how you can be introduced others in your line of work and continue building your network.

When a trucking business starts to grow, so do the responsibilities associated with it. Make sure to continually re-prioritize in order to focus on activities that can keep your business up and running. Minimize any debt you might have if you wish to keep your business profitable for years to come.

Creating your own profitable trucking company begins with a strong goal and an understanding of sound business practices. To see your vision come to life, think beyond the basic fundamentals of trucking and focus your attention on running a profitable business. Find others who share your vision and can support your goals. You can create a successful trucking company with persistence and will achieve your goals with persistence.

Joe Hoovestol is the owner of Lone Mountain Truck Leasing which provides semi trucks for sale and semi truck financing on today’s best trucks. Learn more about being an owner operator with the assistance of trucking professionals.

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Trucking Business Budget Pitfalls And How To Avoid Them

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

For truck owner operators, the topic of budgeting should be heavily considered. As we all have experienced, the economy has caused a number of financial problems for many people, and the result has been a heightened awareness of expenses. You can plan and plan again in this business,but it may not always help unless you’re prepared for other expenses that may come up that were not expected. The miles you run and your rates of payment may be easy to predict, but truck maintenance (and how much it can cost to take care of the fixes) cannot. Therefore, you should always be budgeting for the future.

Whether you have a brand new truck or a used truck with a million miles on it, the chance always is that you never know when one might need maintenance. Some trucks may break early on, some may break at a later point in time, but it eventually will break somehow. When it does break, the visit to the shop to get your truck back in business is rarely less than $1,000. Keeping this in mind, your budget needs to factor in these types of occurrences. Once you have this factored in, these repairs just cause a minor setback versus completely halting your business.

At Lone Mountain Truck Leasing we include a one year/100,000 mile engine warranty on each of the trucks we sell that were manufactured in 2005 and newer. These warranties include a lot of the major components that will result in what we call a “catastrophic failure.” Typically, these fixes will be in the area of $5,000-$25,000. While these failures do not happen very often, there will be other non-catastrophic events that will potentially put your company underwater if you aren’t prepared for them.

Setting aside at least five cents per mile specifically for the purpose of maintenance and repairs is a reasonable rule to follow. The number can also vary depending on how old the truck is, how many miles you are adding to the truck during the course of a year, and the number of miles were on the truck before you owned it. To keep the calculation easy, five cents for each mile driven is a great place to start your calculation. If nothing is being set aside from the start, and the only items you are budgeting are oil changes, there is a significant chance you are not going to last very long in the owner operator business.

This economy shows that the trucking business (just like any business) requires to you to frequently monitor your expenses to try to keep a financial cushion when times to begin to get tougher. When the repairs come around (and they always will) you will be well prepared for them. Rebounding quickly from these types of issues to get back on the road is the key point to remain successful in this business.

Are you looking for today’s best truck leasing business? Lone Mountain Truck Leasing services all types of commercial truck leasing and financing.

Visit MetroGistics for all of your Vehicle Shipping needs.

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Job Stability

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Believe it or not, one of the greatest turnover rates in any industry belongs to the trucking industry. A turnover rate of 100% actually exists in several fleets out there. What causes this large turnover? This is caused by many drivers in the industry leaving for another company after only working at a company for a few months.

One thing we check when we receive an application at Lone Mountain Truck Leasing that is not credit or income related is the work history of the applicant. We look at the person’s work history to see what they are doing once the truck leaves our lot, and if they’ve been employed by one company for a couple of years with thoughts on remaining there. If a driver has spent more time within a particular business, they know how to succeed within that company’s structure, and who to talk to in the business.

Just like beginning any job where you are new, you generally do not start right at the top of the business. With a large corporation (if you chose to work for one), you would not expect to be given the same pay or treated the same as those who have been with that company much longer, and have gained a significant amount of experience by being there. Even though a trucking company may not be huge, the same facts are true. Generally, the much easier and highest paying loads go to the driver with the most experience, that have shown their value through a long history with the company. The same applies to the dispatchers in the company. Why does this happen? The trucking company wants to keep their most loyal employees happy.

A brand new driver could have abilities that are just as good as anyone that has been in business for a long time. However, the new driver will always need to prove their worth before getting any type of special treatment from their new place of employment.

There are always stories from drivers at other companies or recruiters that are tell the tuckers how well a different company is doing. Drivers in the business can sometimes get involved in the “grass is always greener” mentality, which can be hazardous to the career growth of the driver. What is left out of these conversations is that the success stories are generated from veteran drivers. Because immediate success is sometimes not experienced immediately after joining a company, drivers may move to a different company. This pattern can continue occurring until they begin to spend a larger amount of time at one company and begin experience greater success.

For anyone new to the trucking business, there are some things you can do in order to check into the company you may be working for. To find out how people with varying levels of seniority are treated, talk to a minimum of one new driver in the company and one veteran driver. If you get a great feeling from both, then you may want to pursue a job with that company. Even if the company may not be what you anticipated at first, remain there for a minimum of a year. By doing this, you’ll build relationships within the company which will increase your chances of success. In the event that you still don’t favor the company, your next employer will see that you have a better job history than just moving from job to job. When you are debating about making your next move within the trucking industry, please keep this advice in mind.

Are you looking for today’s premier truck leasing provider? At Lone Mountain Truck Leasing we offer semi truck financing, allowing you to become an owner operator quickly and easily.

Visit MetroGistics for all of your Vehicle Shipping needs.

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