Case Study: My First Load as a Trucking Business Owner

hey what's up everybody it's David McGill now I know a lot of you out there want to start your own trucking business but don't know what to expect when you first get started so in this video I want to actually do a walk-through of the first load I ran as a trucking business owner to hopefully give you guys a better understanding of the behind the scenes of running your own trucking business now if you like this video then go ahead and let me know by giving me a thumbs up and also let me know in the comment section in honor of Black History if you know who this is go ahead and leave his name in the comment section below also now you won't win anything for doing that but hopefully it'll help with the YouTube algorithm so the first load I ever ran was booked through night logistics I got this from the low board and the pickup was December 18th 2017 at 1:40 in the morning was the appointment time it was a twelve hundred pieces of product and it was a total weight of like 45,000 pounds now the load was actually bottled water from a facility near Indianapolis and it was going to Marion Indiana - Dollar General that was about a hundred miles away and it was to deliver at 7 a.m. the same day this low paid $500 now when I booked this load I got the rate sheet that was about four pages and on this rate sheet it had all the information I just read to you but then there was also some driver instructions some more comments you know about billing what to do in case of you know lumpers where the facts are your information over to pavement terms a lot of that type of stuff was included on the on a rate sheet I pretty much studied this sheet as if I was taking the test on it the next day so you know I made sure I understood all the information and I forget what day of the week that this low picked up on but at the time I was still working in corporate America as an accountant so I actually ended up using a sick day or vacation day somehow I ended up not going to work because I roll with it I wanted to ride with the driver so that you know I can you know see everything and how it works so that way I can have a better understanding of the pickup and delivery process now many of you guys already know but I don't have a CDL so I actually started my company by hiring a driver so on these loads on the first couple of loads I actually you know got in the truck rolled with them you know made sure I understood you know where we picked these loads up from what process what process we have to go through to check in at the Ripper's also you know how the how the truck rides you know going on the highway you know see if it was a smooth ride you know make sure the truck was you know in good enough condition to actually how Freight and also at the receiving end just to see you know how we handle you know how we handle delivering these loads you know what are the wait times typically and you know things like that now as a business owner even though I don't you know drive the trucks I wanted to you know be as hands-on as possible so that I can you know learn as much about the process so that I can eventually create you know standard processes around everything so if anything happens in the future you know if we get more of these particular loads or you know even other loads that have similar processes you know I would already understand how everything works so on this particular day I met my driver down at the yard where we were keeping the trucks parked and you know we hopped in we probably left about 1:15 that morning and we got to the pickup well I talked to the to the person at the guard shack you know find out what information that they needed for me in order for us to check-in and most of that information not most of it but all of that information was found during the you know the rate the rate confirmation so you know once I gave them my pick up number and all that stuff they let us know what doctor pull in front of so my driver parked the truck in front of the doc and we just sat there for you know probably about an hour and a half or so um waiting to get loaded and during that time here and I was just just talking you know catching up just talking about a bunch of different stuff whether it be you know trucking and or you know some personal stuff so we just sat there the whole time you know and just talked in the day cap so once the loaded with all the bottled water that were we were delivering you know we had to pull back out pull out of the dock and go over to the to the guard shack one more time where they you know gave us all eyes seals and everything and we had to sign off wait to sign off on the loads before we before we were able to take off so we you know we had to the delivery everything is going smooth the my driver he let me know that the truck you know it ran pretty well and I was that was a heavy load and you know he let me know that compared to other trucks that he's driven that you know this was that this truck ran just as well as those trucks did which for me that was that was comforting because you know that's my first truck so you know I didn't necessarily know you know how it will go so I felt good you know hearing from him that you know the truck actually ran no ramp pretty well and you know something funny about that is I had never even rolled in a semi truck before so you know as we're going down the road you know it's kind of bumpy I'm seeing how much was shaking to the point where I was thinking that the truck wasn't running right because it was it wasn't as smooth as you know driving your personal car but you know he kind of laughed and said now I mean a lot of these trucks like they you know as you're hitting bumps and stuff like that like they shake so that's just a part of it um so again that made me feel a lot better knowing that uh on the first load it wasn't anything too crazy so once we got to so we got to the to the first to the delivery and once we got there there were it was like a ghost town nobody was there so you know I got out of the truck and walked around and looked at what I could like a fine and I ended up finding like a note on like the office door that pretty much said that the facility had moved up the street so we had to get back in the truck and take the load to the to the new facility this was an interest in first lobe because when we got there to the actual delivery I found out about lumpers so basically they they wouldn't unload the truck until they had until they received you know a check for the lumper and you know I didn't know anything about that so I just reached out to the broker to you know find out what was going on and you know he pretty much explained to me what what information I needed to provide to the to the receiver in order for them to unload the truck so that was a that was a learning experience for me that the fact that you know learning that uh once you get to a delivery there's times where you're gonna actually have to pay to have the truck delivery I meant to say pain to have the truck unloaded not delivered pain to have it unloaded so you know that was that was something new to me but I was glad it happened that first time so that way you know I was I knew what to expect going forward now once we got unloaded you know we didn't have any loads any back loads to take home or anything so we just we just rolled home empty and that was that was all intentional because I wasn't looking to you know book any additional loads to keep going that was just moreso of a test run I just wanted to learn the process get to know the driver a little bit better get to you know learn the business a little bit better from the driver side so I wasn't necessarily looking to you know continue to book loads at that time until you know I had tested it out and knowing that everything was you know smooth sailing from that point on now most of you out there who are looking to start your own business most likely they're gonna be owner operators so you're gonna be driving your own equipment so a lot of the things that I had to do you guys won't have to do it so you guys are pretty probably already familiar with what it takes to you know check in and out of facilities and you know how long it takes to you know unload your trucks and things like that but since that was you know a foreign that was a new situation for me I had to make sure I put myself in it just so that I could understand it from my standpoint for anybody out there who's considering starting their own trucking business and hiring the driver then you know that may be something you might want to consider also doing the ride alone just so that you can get a better understanding of the pickup and delivery process from the driver's seat now hopefully this information was helpful to you guys um if you like more videos like this then go ahead and give it a thumbs up and also if you would like to add anything to the conversation leave a comment below if you know anybody who could benefit from this information please share this video with them and as always thanks again for watching

Channel: Trucking From Scratch [David McGill]

Views: 23,460

Rating: 4.9721165 out of 5

Keywords: trucking, trucking business, how to start a trucking business, semi trucking, hotshot trucking, dump trucking, owner operator, company driver, independent contractor, employee, operating authority, self employment, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, david mcgill, maxxforce, international prostar

Id: UgIie9HYkv0

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 20 2020