What a great video!! Exactly what we were discussing!!! Manager your expectations and All transporters are different when it comes to profit and costs! Fantastic information! I'm glad someone is putting out informative videos! 😂
The wife and I have been hauling for 6yrs , 2 trucks of course. We are bringing our youngest son on board in a 3rd truck next week. As we are always learning and good advice is hard to come by. I’m going to share this video with him. The only thing I’ll add is the Bond we all start with too. But great video(s) as always. One of these days we’ll cross paths. Until then safe travels
Good video Tim! This is all great info and very important for everyone starting out transporting RVs to know that this is a learning experience (just like everything else in life). I have been hauling for a year now and I learn something new each run. I too do everything I can to maximize my take-home such as sleeping only in the truck, rarely ever dining out (I got a great deal on a chest style 12 volt portable compressor fridge), finding the cheapest fuel along my routes for my 80 gallon aux tank, doing most of my own maintenance with parts and supplies purchased on sale or with discounts, and most of all..keeping the wheels turning when I am out there. BTW, I tried your tips on super clean glass...worked great!
You can put certain things in the category of fixed cost such as insurance truck payment, etc. you divide that in to the week or you can even do it by the day other things such as fuel those are non-fixed cost oil changes, etc. those are divided by the mile so you will know your fixed cost by the day then you add in your mileage and those cost associated with that
Correct things like insurance are fixed cost but you can't calculate them with 100% accuracy down to the mile. You can calculate past cost down to the mile but not future
Hi Tim. Thanks for making all this great content. It's been very helpful as I work on my business plan for RV Transport. Currently I am approved by several of the Elkhart transporters to come on but I am having a hard time making the numbers work. A big part of my problem is I only have a 1/2 ton pickup and will need to do an enterprise rental at $0.33/mile. I'm estimating gas at $0.26 cents per mile assuming $3.50 gas (with discounts) and avg 13 miles per gallon. I won't have any maintenance expenses but with other expenses like Insurance, food, business operating costs and the occasional motel I am estimating my per mile operating cost near $0.80/ mile. This is half the current loaded rate out of Elkhart of $1.60-1.70. Every mile I drive loaded is a mile I have to drive back unloaded, at the same operating cost of $0.80/ mile. Even if I purchase my own truck, the monthly payment and maintenance will likely still be $0.20 per mile. I'm itching to get on the road, hoping to do a 6 month rental to confirm I'm a good fit and then buy a truck but if I can't count on backhaul opportunities I don't see how I can make this work. What are your thoughts?.
@@EcoIndependent I have to be brutally honest with you, every single person that I know that did an enterprise rental failed in this business in less than a year.
@@TravelinTim Thanks for the reply Tim! I believe it. The rentals not gonna work for me. Too much money and not enough flexibility to run things the way that makes the most sense to me. I'll keep moving forward but definitely trading in the 1/2 ton for a 1 ton.
Tim thanks for sharing as always. I ordered myself a Superduty and waiting for delivering. I work FT and plan to continue to do and do this on a Friday through Monday side hustle. As a guy that lives near Brighton, hopefully well cross paths and I can get some further insights from you. Can you maybe share what rates your seeing on the board in a future video?
3 questions…. Do RV transporters get paid a fuel surcharge in addition to the linehaul? Are you paid the full amount of the linehaul as seen on the load board or a percentage of that linehaul amount? And I asked this question to the transport bandits earlier this week, the economy stinks right now. Is anybody even buying RVs anymore and are dealers still taking delivery of new units? I’ve been driving big trucks the last 27 years and I’m about fed up with it. Sometimes I kinda sorta think I might want to get into RV transport.
With most companies the fuel surcharge is built into the rate. The rates change as fuel increases or decreases. The pay is 2 different ways. If I take load off the company load board then I get paid the full amount based on how many miles it is. But if I go and find my own customer and negotiate a price outside of my company then I give the company a percent of the total. That's because I am leasing their DOT number. I don't have my own authority. As far as the economy goes, it tighter now no doubt. The buyers have changed. High end units are still selling good. People that can afford those have more disposable income. Low end units have slowed but in general I would say it's closer to pre-COVID numbers. Dealers are still taking and selling units. It's not a free for all like it was during COVID but I have not slowed down. I just have to work a little harder to stay busy.
Having an auxtank is definitely better but it's not a deal-breaker. did this for several years and the biggest priority is to have maintenance money set aside from every trip and to put money away in savings. The biggest problem with doing this is the inconsistency. you could have a few months where the loads are down and you're having to dip into your savings.
@@ictpilot we will just have to agree to disagree. Fuel is the biggest cost doing this and it's a place where you can save the most money. I have never had this dig into my savings because it was slow. He just have to work harder to find loads.
@@TravelinTim I did it for about 10 years so I know the industry and I know how it goes. As far as savings goes, you always want to have some money set aside in case you need it.
@@ictpilot of course you want money set aside. Saving money on fuel helps with that. With my tank I can go into Cali and do everything I need to do and get out and not buy fuel. Huge savings. Or pickup in Washington, and deliver in LA, then drive to Arizona before I need fuel. All the way through Cali and never buy fuel. I have savings set aside. I've been doing this for 6 years. Never had a slow down where I wasn't running. Might not be going where I like to go but I never stop until I go home. 3 weeks out, 9 days home. That's my cycle. The people that don't run when it is slow or the people that are picky and don't want to go where the money is going. Like the people that won't drive in Wyoming in the winter or go to Washington in the winter or go to Canada because they don't want to get a Covid shot . They always have an excuse. If you want to make money doing this, do you have to go where the money is going.
@@TravelinTim Yes I agree with most of what you're saying. I don't go into Canada but I go where I make money. The slowdowns can be pretty bad. I was with Indiana transport I don't know what company you're going with but over the last 10 years I did this there were some months that it was pretty tight.
@@ictpilot I was with Wave the summer that everything died...like 2 summers ago. People dropping like flies with "no work", everyone turning on everyone else because they were jealous if anybody got a load. I never stopped running. I had to hustle a lot more to get the loads I got but the slowdown didn't change my bottom line
The biggest thing is time management. Making sure you get all of your drive time in each day and making sure you arrive when the customer is open. Trip planning falls into that. Looking at the weather, fuel stops, traffic and construction. All the rest are fixed costs. Maintenance, truck payment, insurance ETC.
I like your video's, lots of good information. I've noticed a lot of the RV transport and Hotshot guys aren't posting nearly as much. Do you have an idea of how many miles you'll get out of your truck before it needs replacing? I see C Farmer has 500,000 on his and still going strong.
Hey Tim, thanks for all the great information. I’m Gary, 62 yrs. of age, I’ve been operating a Class A 18 wheeler for the past 15 yrs. I am currently considering getting into this RV Transporting and have questions. Would it be possible to contact you or have you contact me for a one on one verbal conversation?
If you are a driver and are paying income tax you are doing something wrong. You need a better tax person and better recordkeeping. Everybody's situation is different. I have enough deductions that I don't have to worry about income tax. If that's something that you have to worry about then you have to factor it into your numbers. I don't have to factor it into mine.
😊sir, are you aware of any age limit restrictions for RV transport? I will retire from my day job in the near future and just turned 62, just wondering if age is a deal breaker, thanks and I really enjoy your content. Tony
@@TravelinTim Perfect, I passed the physical last year because I was hoping to start up sooner, but glad I held off on startup due to the unexpected lengthy slow down, thanks again.
Yes I am but I have been out on my own since last January. Most of the companies are about the same. Some pay a little bit less, some pay a little bit more. It's just tough to get in right now
@TravelinTim thank you for the reply. Do u have to use a ELD. I drive a semi. But trying to get into rv transporting. And all the videos on RU-vid are old and not many people are talking about this topic anymore
@@Matt_curtis ELD requirements will depend on what you are pulling. For campers you don't need one. A few of the larger RU-vid people have gotten out of the business for one reason or another. The people that I know are having to work harder to stay busy but they are still staying busy. Mostly the information on the older videos is still valid. The rate per mile and the fuel cost might be different but the process is still the same.
Absolutely. I have 71,000 miles on the tires I have right now on the new truck and they still have plenty of life left in them. I'll probably get over 100 out of these tires.
