I was a transporter from January 2005 through October of 2007. I put 400,000 miles on two Dodge Rams in that time --- two years and nine months if you count it out!
I started out with Horizon and worked for them for a little over one year then worked for a small family owned company and for JET Transport. I made a little money but mostly it was just fun to do.
RV transporting is a perfect job for someone who is an RVer and a wanderer, who is retired, and who has other sources of income. It is a fun job for military retirees like myself.
A younger man who has a family and a job would be nuts to quit his job to become an RV transporter. The money sounds good until you realize that the majority of your hauls are paid one way only.
My very first haul was from Wakarusa, IN to a small town near Sacramento, CA in the snow and ice. The haul paid something like $2500. I thought, wow, that's good money until I realized I had to drive all the way back to Wakarusa at my own expense to get the next load. It is generally rare to get a backhaul. There are exceptions but don't count on it as a routine occurence.
There are niches in the industry you can run into. When I worked for the small company out of Fontana, CA I once pulled an Alfa from the plant near Fontana to Lordsburg, NM, back to the plant, then to Austin, TX where I picked up another Alfa at the same dealer's lot and pulled it back to the plant. That was a several thousand dollar paycheck for a week's work.
I was running about 135,000 miles per year and earning gross income of maybe $75 or $80k. That sounds like a good bit of money until you subtract the expenses. I was paying $25 to $27k to Flying J for fuel, $5k to $6k to Motel 6 for motels (and sleeping in the trailers most of the time), $3k or $4k per year for tires and maintenance and it can be far more with an older truck. Meals, tolls, permits, licensing and inspection fees on the truck, it all adds up.
When you figure out how quickly you are depreciating a new truck you don't actually earn any money. It could be said that all an RV transporter is doing is selling his new truck, one mile or one dollar at a time. From March 2006 until I quit at the end of October 2007 I put 230,000 miles on a new 2006 Ram dually. Think about what that cost me in depreciation.
I loved transporting when I was doing it. Every load was a new adventure. Saw lots of country, enjoyed most of it, but it is hard work. I ran hard . . . 600 to 1,000 miles per day, six or seven days a week. I had already seen all of the US and Canada but traveled almost all of the US and Canada again while transporting.
Pulling long conventional trailers across I-40, I-70, I-80, I-90, and I-94 with snow and ice on the road and a wind blowing the rig sideways is not my idea of a relaxing day at the beach. I was careful and never wrecked one. Lot's of drivers wreck trucks and trailers, a few lose their lives every year. If you damage a trailer you will normally be directed to return it to the factory. No pay for that trip. If you damage your truck you're out the cost of your deductible and lost income while it is repaired. The first $1000 to $1500 in trailer damages comes out of the driver's pocket and repeat damage will result in termination. Serious tickets or problems with DOT or LEO will result in termination also. DOT is serious and, I think, more serious now than they were when I started hauling commercially. An RV transporter is subject to all the rules the OTR drivers of 18 wheelers are.
A friend and fellow TDR member told me he got a letter from Horizon Transport a couple of weeks ago asking him to come work for them. Horizon said they have a FEMA contract to move 11,000 units from Hope, AR all over the country. Horizon is a professionally opoerated company. They have rules and follow them consistently. They used to be somewhat strict but they are fair and honest.
The RV industry is doing "okay" but nowhere near as strong as it was several years ago.
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