Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/426944
December 2014 | Overdrive | 25 years as a Class 8 long-haul company driver. Slaugh- ter guesses he ran his own 2005 Ram 3500 at about 80 cents per mile, a good deal lower than the $1.20/ mile he averaged thereafter with an 8-9-car trailer and a Class 8. He transitioned earlier this year to a 53-foot step deck pulled by a Class 8 tractor. He brought in $1.35 a mile in revenue running hotshot, including deadhead. While Slaughter says he's doing better running a Class 8, he views the hot- shot route as having been ideal for him getting start- ed. A self-described cau- tious type, Slaughter drove a gas tanker as a company driver for 12 years. "I wanted to be my own boss," says Slaughter, who considered hauling cars, "but I was too cautious to go out and buy a large rig and go into a lot of debt." He bought a 2005 Dodge 3500 dually for $25,000 and found a new $7,000 Kaufman three-car wedge trailer, and he was in business. "I didn't realize I'd be on the tightrope," he says, walking the line between fed- eral regulations and earning income as an independent business. "I just thought I'd be haul- ing cars, but the next thing I know, I had to get my DOT number, then the DOT WNÅKMZ¼[QVUaPW][MI]LQ\QVO me as a new entrant. I'm setting up a drug program, just like a regular trucking company with a Dodge du- ally and a three-car wedge. I asked [the new entrant audi- tor], 'What's preventing me from going into business with a full-size tractor-trailer?' Nothing, he said – just sign up with IFTA, and you're off to the races." It's the view from the other direction – see- ing hotshot's low startup equipment costs relative to Class 8 – that drives interest from those driving Class 8 long-haul. Butch Sarma, Getloaded. com product manager, says that every year at the Great American Trucking Show in Dallas, booth visitors show ]VKWUUWVQV\MZM[\QVWQTÅMTL work because of lower equip- ment costs. "I could buy a new Ford 250 or 350 and a solid _MTTJ]QT\ÅN\P_PMMTWZ Å`MLOWW[MVMKS\ZIQTMZNWZ $75 to $80K. That kind of money with a tractor-trail- er will not get you a new model." Furthermore, a new Class 3 rig with a new trailer, says Sarma, "will have main- tenance costs lower than those of an 18-wheeler that's Å^MaMIZ[WTLº The spotlights on the busi- nesses that follow highlight how hotshot has worked for three operators. Courtesy of Joey Slaughter THE HOTSHOT NICHE IN BRIEF PROS • Initial new-equipment costs are much less • With many operations, expedited loads mean little to no waiting at shippers/receivers • Income can be as good as or better than Class 8 work • Most work is local and regional, so home time is plentiful CONS • Maintenance intervals and associated costs incurred are more frequent • Costs and hassles of having own au- thority likely as lease arrangements are less common • Local/regional demand can be cycli- cal or unpredictable and unstable • Pressure to find loads/build direct customers as an independent adds work to home time down