ADDING A SECOND TRUCK AND DRIVER

Buy new if you can or you'll find yourself fixing other people's problems. (Unless you can fix them yourself). Downtime and repairs will quickly eat away any savings from buying used.
Finding a good reliable experienced driver will be the most important thing. I never had any luck with training anyone, could very well have been my fault, but I would recommend against going that route. It's very expensive and many otherwise good truck drivers just don't turn into good car haulers. Leave the training to the big companies.
when you add the second truck expect your cash flow to take a big hit initially. Be realistic and don't expect a hired hand to work as hard as you work. If you intend to keep good help they want to get paid a lot and work as little as possible. Sad but true. Good luck! It can be done but if you go to two, go to five or ten or just stay with one.

 

I'd think long and hard about a second driver. Lots of O/O authorities that were profitable while the owner ran
single truck and went under with two. Last year I was with progressive they were NON renewing people for
one HOS OS and a couple of other OS's . Once your insurance or CSA score goes you might as well close up.
Now if you are under someone else's authority that's different.
I'd say it'd be easier running a 100 trucks versus two that's why my extra flatbed and truck has been in mothballs. I don't haul cars but it's the same for flatbeds except insurance I've been told cost more for auto hauling.

 

When we made the jump from one truck to two it was easier than most because it was my brother. He had been an independent owner operator with a car hauler, someone ran a stop sign and totaled his truck, he took the payoff and went to work for us. It worked well, but adding the third and fourth truck was more challenging, even though we hired people we knew they did not work as hard as my brother, myself or our partner. Even now, 12 years into it, we have a hard time hiring drivers that will work and care for the truck the way we want to.

If you are going to add a second truck, start with a good used one, I would even think about putting the new driver in the truck you run now, you know that truck inside and out and can help with load configuration, mechanical issues, etc, that you may not be able to help with in an unfamiliar truck. Also, keep a close eye on the condition of the truck, spot check their loading and condition reports and watch the fuel consumption closely until you are sure you can trust them. Lastly, I would send them to well known customers at first, so if there are any issues you have a better chance of working it out without much issue.

Good luck. P.S., be sure to do it right, workers comp, taxes, etc. so that you don't get a guy looking for an easy way out, or happen to hire an accident prone guy who may cost you everything you worked for. We learned that one early on, the first non-family driver we hired we didn't have workers comp on and he had a heart attack on the job. It cost us almost $75,000 in medical bills and salary while he was out of work, plus fines from the State for not having him covered. Never again, we now pay a fair percentage of the gross that will allow the driver to make a good living and us to afford the insurance and taxes, plus make a fair profit ourselves.

 

Well written

 

One question I have is?
Heart attacks are one of the hardest to prove job injuries how did they come to the conclusion it was your fault? Or did they just try and claim since you didn't have workamns comp it was your fault ? Down here you have to have 4 or 5 employees before your required to have workmans comp each state has their own thing. Seems it would be cheaper on you to have an office in a lower cost of operation state.
I wonder how some make money in states when they state has the hand in the pocket so deeply.

 

I'll second that.

 

Pa requires it once you have 1 non family employee. As far as a heart attack being covered, he was loading a car at the time, any injury while on the job is covered. I don't think it was a fair ruling, but that is the law whether we had coverage or not there are many precidents already set about heat attacks.

 

I don't know if this is all states, but to and from work injuries are covered also.

 

Not sure your understanding of the various laws or not ? There are three types of law: Criminal, Civil and Administrative Law. A workers comp claim would be handled under administrative in the beginning and then be appealed to Civil if you didn't agree with the findings. It's the most corrupt law there is governmental agencies use
to "steal" peoples money every minute of the day. This is due to the fact most people don't understand their rights and feel it's easier to pay than fight. You were probably flimm-flamed by the state for one reason only.
Your employee's heart attack could've not been job related but the state ruled it was so they could collect a fine from you or a larger one, otherwise you would've just had to buy coverage and the fine could've been zero or less. Google up the phrase "administrative law is like kangaroo court" you will get thousands of results in less than a second. also google up "heart attack is a workers comp injury".
Sadly people don't understand their rights or just don't care cause it's cheaper to pay.
The day is rapidly approaching where all those who rather pay than fight will meet their financial demise.
In the coming years all this lack of interest and paying government off will usher in so many burdensome rules
and cost the small trucking business model will be finally dealt it's death blow.
Then those who've not made plans will truly be slaves to the remaining mega carriers.