4 Helpful Tips for Starting a Trucking Business

In the post-pandemic era, more and more professionals are looking to get out of the daily 9-to-5 routine at the office. People want to work from home, travel, and start their own businesses. Regardless of your reason, starting a business is the first step to becoming financially stable and free.

The trucking business is among the best ones because people need to move their materials and goods around, especially now with more people working remotely and running big online businesses. However, trucking companies have to follow a lot of regulations with their trucks and drivers in addition to regular compliance for businesses. For example, complying with the California DOT regulations if you’re in the state.

To help you start right, here are a few helpful tips for starting a trucking business.

The Right Market

Operating a trucking business can be incredibly profitable and fun if you choose your market wisely. Finding the right market, or a niche in a market is the most important step.

Since you will have to deal with massive competitors with decades of experience, your need to find the right market to make sure your business gets a good shot at success. While you may have something in mind, it may be good to look into markets that the large carriers avoid. These are generally more specialized loads that need specific trucks to haul them.

Because the variation in markets could mean different trucks, choosing your market, in the beginning, will help you choose between buying or leasing, create your rates, and choose your freight lanes, among other things.

A Business Plan

Before going out to buy a bunch of used trucks and hiring people, you should try to write down a business plan to make sure everything goes smoothly and you don’t miss something.

Remember, there are many bigger national trucking companies out there but the real competition is with the smaller businesses. People who were in the same boat as you a couple of years ago now run competitive trucking businesses and make the biggest impact in the industry.

To get a broader view of the industry, start by researching the market of your choice. Then you can go into the step-by-step, such as:

• What kind of rules, regulations, and safety protocols do you need to follow?
• Whether you should buy or lease your equipment?
• What vehicles do you need, and whether to purchase or lease them?
• What will be your home location?
• What type of truckers you should hire?
• What are your main competitors’ strengths and weaknesses?
• What does your ideal customer look like?
• Since ideal may not pay the bills in the beginning, think of a secondary client base and look into diversifying later on as well.

Running The Back Office

The back office is the part of your business that manages the internal operations, not facing clients. This is a vital component of a trucking business, as proper management of your fleet and drivers is the only way to make sure the clients are happy.

Fortunately, you no longer need to rent or buy office space and hire a bunch of professionals to run things smoothly. Even better, you also don’t need to manage everything sitting at home or in a small office with an internet connection, laptop, and phone.

These days, you can go on the road yourself as long as you have a smartphone and a data plan. Try searching for fleet management software, a trucking dispatch app, and an employee management tool that supports your mobile. Also, look into a workflow management system to manage things better once the business grows.

Finding Orders

Now that you have an idea of what your trucking business looks like and how to manage it, you need to know how to find orders for your business.

Luckily, the modern world has made everything incredibly convenient. For beginners such as yourself, there are plenty of online job boards where you can expect to find orders. While some of these are free, others require a paid subscription for access.

Another great way to find orders is through networking. Knowing the right people can be incredibly helpful, and detrimental to your success in the business.

After building a good customer base, you need to build on those relationships. Soon enough, you can establish your lanes and have a profitable trucking business.