Start your Hotshot business right way.
If you are starting a Hotshot business, I hope this information will help you to reduce your learning curve. We want to share with you information, ideas and recommendations that will help you start your trucking business the right way.
Company documents
IRS
State filing
Bank account
MC / USDOT NUMBERS:
IRP Account ( taxes ) / IFTA Account ( decals for your truck ) In order to avoid both IFTA and IRP one would have to make sure they scale (truck and hotshot trailer ) under 26001 combined, and make sure the register the tractor or truck at a max of 26000.
DMV ( registration and plates )
Insurance policy for commercial vehicles
States permits KYU, NY HUT, NM and OR weight if you are going to be running with:
Factoring company ( it will help you with your business cash flow and they fully responsible for your receivables ) you will need to check different options but our recommendation is not only the fee per load they charge to you also check if you are going to be forced to sign a term agreement, account management, collection teams, communication, but the most important thing is that are big factoring companies that have a bigger list of approved brokers for hotshots loads.
Selecting your pickup truck, hotshot trailer and secure equipment for your business is a game changer for your revenue and profit .
If you are an owner operator or you are going to hire a company driver try to get your CDL class A license or hire a CDL driver. This will allow you to use the max weight capacity of your truck and trailer, and it will help us as a dispatch service to have more load options available for your truck and better rates or revenue for your business. Also consider for your truck that team drivers are a good option because they can drive per week over 5000 miles and hotshots loads normally are more flexible for shipping and delivery hours. Important if you are going to hire or plan how you are going to run, consider being out home at least for 2 weeks to maximize your revenue.
Selecting a Dispatch service is not only the dispatch fee.
You will need to know that the company has experience dispatching hotshots, understanding market conditions and so they can help you to make the easy and difficult decisions. Also consider the customer service to you, your driver and your brokers. Look for a dispatch service that provides all in one service helping you in all your requirements with a complete operations team and systems operations support ( TMS, CRM, Market Intelligence, etc ) so you can grow the business in control.
