Haulin Assets

I like to rip the bandaid off quick and get the bad news over with first. The head on my truck cracked and had to be replaced along with the cylinder sleeves. I was off the road for three weeks.

It was all covered under the extended warranty I purchased. Boy am I glad I bought that warranty.

A major engine repair on a truck with as few miles as mine has is rare, but it does happen. If you don't plan and prepare for something like this to happen, it will probably be the end of your business. The biggest thing I did right was buying the extended warranty from the manufacturer of the truck. I learned a bunch of other lessons from this experience, I have listed some of them below. Listen to the episode for full details.

• Prepare a head of time

• Buy an extended warranty, it's like insurance. I am usually not a fan of warranties on vehicles, but a truck is your business's lifeblood, it makes sense because a major repair in your first year will likely kill your business.

• Cover your personal budget. You either need to have personal savings to last you several weeks or you need to have a temporary employment plan. (There are trucking companies out there who will keep a driver on their books and use you when you are available.)

Take a deep breath, this is just a bump in the road and you will be able to get through it. Don't let yourself get focused on what is happening right now, look at the big picture.

One of the most common questions I get from people starting a new trucking company is how to find loads when so many brokers won't work with you. Even though we have had other episodes that talk about finding loads, I still get a lot of questions specific to getting through that first 90 days when your options with brokers is limited. So.... I decided to do a full episode dedicated to just that.

Craig and I dive into the specifics of working with brokers who will accept a brand new trucking company with a brand new trucking authority. We also talk about a list I created of brokers who will work with new authorities. Service and professionalism is the key. The list of brokers and some more pointers are available for free at motorcarrierhq.com. If you have found some other larger brokers who work with new trucking companies, let us know in the comments at the the Haulin Assets website.

Here's another episode where we cover the financials for Haulin Assets. November was an average month. The main reason was I was not on the road for as many days as I would have liked, and there is a reason for that that I'll get into in a future episode. Here is a quick overview, and Craig and I talk about all the details during the episode. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see copies of the Profit and Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet.

• Total miles ran - 10,251

In the end Haulin Assets realized a profit of $2,065.39. Revenue was about the same as last month, but expenses were down, no repairs! Listen to the entire episode to learn more about the details.

To see full show notes and hear past episodes, check out the Haulin Assets website.

I have had a lot of people talk about the economy and the current state of the trucking industry. Things are different now than they were last year. Last year’s rates were better than we had seen in a really long time. You couldn’t help but make money but that might not have been an entirely good thing. I think this year we are seeing some negative consequences from last year’s boom. So what does that mean?

During this episode, Craig and I talk a lot about the state of the owner-operator world. Things were really good for most people last year and a lot of companies and owner-operators made decisions that are now having a negative impact on the freight market this year. We break it all down and talk about what I think it means.

There are pros and cons to starting and running a business when the economy or an industry is struggling and we will talk about that. I use my experience of doing just that and some of the lessons I have learned over the years.

I know there are a lot of people out there asking themselves the question, “Is now the right time for me?”. That is a very personal question and I can’t answer it for you. I hope the info we share in this episode will arm you with some important information and thinking points to help you decide what is right for you in your situation.

To see full show notes and hear past episodes, check out the Haulin Assets website.

Ben Franklin made the phrase, “a penny saved is a penny earned” popular, and there is no industry where that saying holds more true than the trucking industry. A savings of 6 cents a gallon of fuel is like saving 1 cent per mile. When you are driving over 500 miles a day, 1 cent a mile adds up to thousands of dollars a year.

Purchasing fuel smartly is one of the easiest ways to save money. In the past I have talked about how fuel planning and a good fuel card can save you lots of money. I want to take it one step further and show you how understanding fuel taxes can help you save even more.

Most people don’t understand how the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) and fuel taxes work. Those who do will save money on their fuel. I had an experience recently that illustrates this point. Listen to this episode for a full explanation.

See the full show notes here, and check out the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

Things are looking better for the month of October than they were for the few months previous. That's not to say that nothing unexpected or difficult came up, but thanks to Chris's preparedness and the relationships he's cultivated, he was still able to turn a decent profit even while driving slightly less than his monthly average.

In today's episode, Chris shares with Craig the numbers for October and also shares some stories that illustrate why it's so important to cultivate relationships--you never know when the right one will be there to help your business thrive. Another story illustrates Chris's point from last week to be wary of a few things that brokers might do to make your life harder than it needs to be.

See all show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

There are good brokers and bad brokers; you need to know how to deal with the guys who don't care about you or your business and just want to get everything out of you that they can. Listen to this episode to learn what to watch out for when dealing with brokers.

Why I'm Doing Haulin Assets

In this episode I also talked a bit more about my background and why I am doing this podcast. I mentioned a couple of my businesses that provide different services to the trucking industry. If you ever had a need for any of the services we provide, we would love to have yo consider working with us.

Motor Carrier HQ helps drivers who want to start their own trucking company go through the startup process and it helps them with other administrative requirements like DOT compliance, IFTA, etc. you can check it out at motorcarrierhq.com.

I also mentioned iThrive Funding that helps trucking companies manage their cashflow and billing paperwork through factoring, you can check them out at ithrivefunding.com.

What to Expect From Episode 27

Craig and I discuss the difference between transactional relationships and lasting relationships. Most brokers work with owner operators like it's a transactional relationship. Basically, they don't care if they ever do business with you again, and that's how they treat you, and some will try to take advantage of you. Because of that, you need to be careful with how you deal with them so you are protected.

Here are the main things you need to watch out for, we cover them in detail during this episode, including what you can do to prevent them from happening to you:

• Not getting paid for a load

Other Things to Be Careful Of:

• Watch out for brokers who promise the world.

See all show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

What does it mean to control your circumstances, when so much seems to be out of our control? In this episode, Chris argues that there's more within your control than you might think, if you're willing to put in the work to see it. It takes discipline and foresight, but controlling your circumstances -- to an extent! -- is not only possible, it's actually not too complicated either.

Chris gives a couple of recent examples from the road to illustrate how he's taken control of his own circumstances... and how he failed to, in one case.

See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.

It's a dangerous world out there for truck drivers and not all dangers are on the road. If you want to see me get fire up, start talking to me about ways truck drivers and trucking company owners get taken advantage of. In this episode I cover some of the more common ways I have seen drivers and owners being taken advantage of.

There are a lot of ways I see people being tricked and taken advantage of. Just like wild animals warn you by making some kind of noise or physical display before they attack, most predators in the trucking industry give warnings too. Below are some of the things that are warning signs you should watch out for. During the episode Craig and I go into more detail and give some examples. Hopefully listening to this episode will help you avoid these traps.

Do some research. There are plenty of websites that you can use to help you be safe. My favorite is to use Google reviews. You have heard me talk about this with shippers. I use it for companies I am going to do business with too. Don't just look at the star rating, read some of the reviews. No company out there will have a perfect rating, but ratings should be high and the reviews people write are what really tell the story. Try to look at reviews for several companies that provide the same service and factor their rating along with the price they charge to determine who you will use.

Facebook has ratings and reviews too. Other rating services like the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or Trust Pilot are rating companies businesses subscribe too. There ratings can be helpful, but I always take them with a grain of salt because the company they are rating has paid them and I have had too many bad experiences with companies that they rate highly to take them at face value.

I'd love to hear what you do to keep from getting scammed, let us know in the comments at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also see the full show notes and hear previous episodes.

It’s another episode where we go over the financials for Haulin Assets.

Over all, it was a pretty good month. Here is a quick overview, we talk about all the details. There are a lot of things that happened this month and we talk about all of them in this episode, so give it a listen. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see copies of the Profit and Loss Statement and the Balance Sheet.

• Total Miles Ran-10,520

In the end Haulin Assets realized a profit of $1,099.86. The synopsis is that revenue was good for the month, but expenses were a lot higher than normal. Listen to the entire episode to learn more about the details, specifically which expenses were so high and why.

The company that replaced my trailer tire I discussed was Kent's Tire out of Wichita Falls, TX. They were super fast, didn't even have time to burn a 30 minute rest break.

See the full show notes at the Haulin Assets website, where you can also hear previous episodes.