Thinking about hotshotting. Worth it?

[3dracer]

I am about to lose my job in about a month and am considering the hotshot tour. I have lots of questions, so post what you know if you can. Is it worth it? How do I need to get started? Is it better to pull cars or travel trailers? I need to know something. Thank you all who can help.



3dracer,,, B. J. Deal

 

[Kimrey]

Sorry to hear about the job loss coming up. At least you have time to prepare. Look at insurance, auto and liability. You will be classified as commercial now, Tags, flares, fuses, log book. The best thing to do is talk with your insurance person, and go to DMV and pick up a CDL ( commercial Driving License ) book and it will tell you what you need and if you need CDL license. Your state may be different. If you hook up with the right company, I heard you can make good money. Do a search in the towing forum. This has been talked about before, and there are guys thats done it before. Good Luck!

 

[QRTRHRS]

B. J. Deal,



Have you ever done any commercial hauling at all? Not to discourage you but if the answer is no, I would go this route. First get your CDL and find someone to give you a job. Or look for one of those companies that will train you to drive for them. Get some road experiance with someone else's equipment before you use your own.



If you have experiance, read every thread on Hot Shotting you can find, email some of the guys posting. Find out the up's and down's. Realize that the noose is tightening on this catagory of rigs. And also know that the states are as hungry for your revenue as ever.

 

[3dracer]

I tried the search and no luck. No I have not done any commercial hauling but do spend alot of time trailering. There is a friend of mine that wants to do it as a team (possibly)?! I was just worried about the money. Is it worth the trouble and road miles on your truck. I only have a 2500 2x4 with 4:10 rearend and an Auto. Should I look at new trucks. Can I get a hold of someone by phone or email to talk about this? Thank you guys for your postings. .

 

[GFoley]

I did some inquiring about hauling for the trailer manufacturers in the Elkhart IN area some time ago. I used a search engine Yellow Pages and looked for hauling, or trailering. As I recall one of the places sent me info about doing work for them. My location was in MD at the time and not within a reasonable distance to them.

 

[Bart]

Need Input

Would some one please edgimacate me. What's a Hot Shot tour?

 

[rob10858]

hotshots

the "hotshot" nickname came from the name of one of the first medium truck commercial delivery systems. the theory was, why hire a bigrig to pull a light load, at their rates, when a smaller rig, such as ours, could do it more cost efficiently. the biggest drawback to this type of operation is the cost of ins, fuel permits, cdl rules, driving record, etc. our company hauls it's own property, not someone else's, and that makes a big difference. then you have to figure out your hauling fees in a way that assures that after everything i've talked about above is taken into consideration, you actually make a profit. costs of fuel, motels, tolls, maint, all should figure into the equation.

 

[klenger]

I assume that you don't make any money dead-heading, so it's hard to make money hauling one way.

 

[pwknapp]

There is no such thing as a dead head or a back haul. Do like I do and carry a small Tonka dump truck and strap it on when going home. Actually most hot shot rates for trailering are higher than a big truck because we don't get many runs back.



Some states are going to limit registered wt by your mfg GVWR rating. This will effectively shut down the 40 ft trailer loads except for those who have moved up to the mini Pete's, Int low pro's etc.

 

[FL70CAT]

Check out RAD TRANSPORT INC. in Elkhart, In.

1-800-528-0719



Good luck

 

[3dracer]

Thanks alot guys for all of your help. I am trying to get info from alot of different places. Right now I have nowhere to go but up, so I am taking the best route that I can take. Any more info that pops into mind,,, let me know.



B. J. Deal

 

[noland]

I work at Horizon Transport. I am a shuttle driver/spotter so I am not the best person to ask about driving OTR, but I will be happy to answer any questions that I can.

Is it worth it or not will be a decision that you will have to make. A big downside is lack of backhauls. Tomorrow I will try to remember to ask our backhaul dispatcher what percentage of outbound trips get something to come back with. My guess is around 20% but I will find out.



-- email address removed --

 

[noland]

I work at Horizon Transport. I am a shuttle driver/spotter so I am not the best person to ask about driving OTR, but I will be happy to answer any questions that I can.

Is it worth it or not will be a decision that you will have to make. A big downside is lack of backhauls. Tomorrow I will try to remember to ask our backhaul dispatcher what percentage of outbound trips get something to come back with. My guess is around 20% but I will find out.



-- email address removed --