I am not sure there are a lot of people who don't have insurance on their fleet. I would not be surprised if there were some, however.

 

Not sure if the above companies have lines of credit, I'm sure they do, but nonetheless Werner, Heartland, Knight also sold part of the company to the public which I'm sure is in part why they have plenty of cash.

Crete is not a public company so I don't know what their balance sheet looks like.

One final note, a company may not need a LOC to survive but they may need it to grow. You can't grow without capital. Right now it is extremely hard to obtain capital.

 

I think it's much less stressful just to run one truck and do everything yourself, especially if you don't have to do too many miles. I'd do 1,000 miles a week - just for fun - while investing money into triplex and fourplex multi-family buildings for extra cashflow. I know that if I live in one unit and rent out the rest, getting the loan is relatively easy. The beauty of real estate is 1) it's passive income - you don't need a GPS to track your 'investment' 2) you can write off depreciation from every building against your trucking income resulting in very little income tax (if any). I have one rental apartment right now and getting $925 a month like clockwork feels pretty good (rented out my 1 bedroom condo to a couple of young professionals in Guelph, ON, Canada). I email them a rental invoice 10 days before it's due and they send me the money a week later by Interac email which I deposit electronically into my bank account. I don't remember last time I met with them face to face

 

You've got that right Tracer. I agree with you 100%. However there are no triplexes down here in South Florida and the ones they had where I'm from (New England), well not the most desirable tenants.
But seriously, I don't know about up there, but down here if you had cash you could buy at prices that are unbelievable.

I said it above, trucking is definitely not the best way to make money in life. You know somewhere in this thread I mentioned a place down here called Carrier Service. They handle all the IFTA and permits and stuff. Family owned business since the 50's I think. I was talking to the owner's son the other day and I asked if he could name me one person that he has know to get rich in this business. He couldn't name one person. He felt people did better before deregulation.

I have no idea about that so I won't comment on that. But my partner always says that the only time you make money is when you cash out and sell the equipment (now is not that time obvioulsy). I told another friend of mine that who use to own a trucking company even before deregulation (he hauled horses from New England to Florida) that same comment about only making money when you sell and he laughed and agreed.

What all the old timers tell me, that you can make a comfortable living with this. I have been very fortunate in a way. I work in partnership with people that have skills I don't have. The in house mechanic has saved me a fortune. This guy is good too. I mean a whiz with electrical stuff.

I have obtained fuel discounts kind of like Rev use to say he got with that company he was leased on to. I use to wonder if he was telling the truth with those discounts, but I can log in now and check on that stuff. To be honest I wasn't supposed to get them, but I pushed for it and had a few email saved from some sales people who promised me things they weren't supposed to. I'm saving about $1,000 a month now currently.

And let's be honest, this is the worst trucking environment in our lifetime, is anyone really making money right now? But nonetheless the last few months I have bought a truck and trailer cash (2006 freighliner for $34,000 and a 2006 Utility reefer for $34500 with 4000 hours on it) The trailer wasn't such a deal but I needed a trailer.

Anway back to the real estate, I agree it's a better source of income. Depends on a lot of things though cause you can lose your rear in that to. In the state I'm from, people can stop paying rent and they will be there forever while you go through the courts. Here in Florida is another story, their stuff will be on the lawn faster then I think they realize.

Well nothing in life comes easy anway

 

One of my favorite books is a tiny 100 page volume first published in 1929. It's called "The Richest man in Babylon". Here's an interesting quote from this book: "A man's wealth is not in the coins he carries in his purse; it is the income he builds, the golden stream that continually flows into his purse and keeps it always bulging". -Arkad, The Richest Man of Babylon

Real estate seems a good way to create such an income...

Another book that I like is called "Multi-Family Millions" by former BROKE landscaper David Lindahl who started investing into triplexes and fourplexes in US. His first property that he bought with $0 down was 'cashflowing' at $972/mo (that's net profit!). At the end of Year 1 he owned ... 11 properties getting $11,000 a month. I believe he used a property management company to take care of the day to day operations.

I have quite a few of real estate books in my truck... I'm not saying getting started is easy but as "Rich Dad" used to say, "Buy assets; avoid liabilities" No matter how you look at it; when you're buying real estate you're getting an APPRECIATING asset, often at a discount. When you're buying a truck, you're getting a RAPIDLY DEPRECIATING asset.

If I had 50 grand to spare, I'd buy a $500,000 multi-family building and hire a property manager to take care of the headaches with tenants. Something like this: MultiFamily

 

Speaking as a real estate agent/investor, now is not the time to do this. First, loans for small investment properties are nearly impossible to get. Second, rents are plummeting. I just had to reduce most of mine. Third, because of the first two factors, values are declining. Fourth, because tenants are having such difficult times financially, landlords are faced with high numbers of evictions.

I have evicted two tenants in the past month. Both left the units totally trashed. The fist ones unit was all brand new, gutted to the studs and totally re-habbed before they moved in just over a year ago. The cleaning bill was $600 after I spent most of a day getting the big stuff out. I think I'm going to repaint the whole thing and depending on how much carpet I replace that will be $700-$1500 more. I have a money judgment against the tenant for over $2000, which does not include any damages for the condition the unit was left in, but she is contesting the wage garnishment. I'm not sure it's worth seeking a judgment for the damages.

The second one is even worse. By the time I'm done with cleaning, carpets, sheetrock damage, window coverings, new paint, whatever else I find that's damaged, I could be into this one for $4-5,000. Not counting the loss of revenue while I do all the work, not counting the cost of finding and screening a new tenant to rent the place to at a new, lower price. I'm spending my Sunday taking pics and de-grunging the place when I would rather be riding my motorcycle.

When I hear people talking about how easy it is to make money with income properties it reminds me a lot of people talking about buying a truck. I've owned/managed properties since 1990. I'm a licensed real estate agent and a Certified California Residential Property Manager. It's not that easy. If you don't comply with the Fair Housing Law you can get in big trouble. If you don't budget correctly, if you don't watch every aspect of your business you can still lose, especially in an economy such as we have now.

 

Maybe you should try renting to businesses instead of people. I mean - get a warehouse or an office building and then rent them out. It seems to me businesses would be more motivated to be good tenants, especially if they pay most expenses. I used to be a real estate broker in Moscow, Russia and made some good money by renting office space to U.S. business people who were opening offices in Moscow.

 

Commercial/Industrial? In this economy?

I want to meet your connection- you're smoking way better stuff than I can find.

 

There are pros and cons to any business. In a poor economy the most important thing people can do is to survive. I think that is where most people are at this point.