Boat hauling
 

I have been thinking of getting into the trucking biz. Was gonna go and buy a tractor and put it to work with a friends outfit hauling containers.

Just curious if there was a demand for people needed to haul boats. Say like sunsation powerboats, Checkmate, formula, etc. Say sunsation has a new dominator leaving the factory and it has to go to a dealer at LOTO. Or, a board member needs his boat hauled down to FL to get rigged, or just a guy buying a boat who needs it towed? I think there's a guy on the board who does this, just wondering if there's any money in it. I'd much rather drive a 2006 F350 diesel dually around than a kenworth. Plus Id get to haul cool boats rather than a container full of diapers.

Re: Boat hauling
 

you mean full of mexicans ? coming to america :chimp: :chimp:

Re: Boat hauling
 

Anyone have any clout with Formula? Id like to haul just their fastechs around. The factory isnt to far from me. :D

Re: Boat hauling
 

The trucking industry is a tough gig right now, but I would rather tow with a semi than an f350. Longer life out of the truck a used clean unit wont cost more than a new dually better stopping power than a dually, not restricted to the size of boat you can haul with it "cruisers" granted the insurance will be a little more but the long run you would make more with it and if boat hauling isnt what it pans out to be then you can goto another carrier. In FL for wellcraft I believe they use a company called Genmar? do alot of hauling. If oyu get the first gig do it right and word of mouth will be your best friend in the industry.

Re: Boat hauling
 

genmar owns wellcraft don't they?

Re: Boat hauling
 

The boat hualing buisness is tough, most of them operate as part of a marina or boat dealer so they really don't have much overhead involved with the hualing buisness since they have the trucks and trailers anyway. Ther are some guy like the one you referred to on here, Jeff Murray, that do it and I couldn't say for sure but I'd guess he makes a decent living at it. He has to hustle all the time though always looking for a load in some city so he doesn't have to deadhead, deadhead miles will kill you if you let them add up. The best bang for your buck in the trucking buisness is heavy haul work, over sized and over weight loads like heavy equipment. There aren't neer as many people in it and they charge what they want. You have to step to atleast a 7 axle but an 8 or 9 axle will make you alot more money, there are probalby only a few dozen 8 axles in each state if that. There is alor more involved in this kinda work like dealing with permits and the paperwork involved, this is why most people stay out of it. You have to keep track of your mileage in each state and pay the permit fee per state based on that and your weight. Just to give you an example of the money in it though, the average 90k pound lift costs me about 16k to hual from California to Florida, there are about 2k in permits involved that the trucking company has to pay as well as about 2k in fuel at current prices. It's a five day run becuase you can only run daylight hours with that load and you have a half day on each end for load and unload. That leaves you with 12k for a weeks work, of course you still have to pay for the truck, trailer, and maintenance. Don't under estimate the cost of maintenace on one fo these beasts, including down time it adds up quick, your probably looking at around 2-4k a month on average and it will be much higher when it comes time to buy tires. You can find plenty of low mileage 8 axle set ups for aound 120k, truck and trailer. I actually have a good friend that just got a new truck and has his old setup for sale. It's an 02' Pete 379 with the condo sleeper and a 600 CAT, the trailer is a Lidell 55k, Lidell's are the Cadilacs of low boy trailers. With that setup you can get a blanket permit in your state of registration for 136k pounds which will cover loads to about 95k pounds.

Re: Boat hauling
 

Yes they do and they have there own trucks, which expliand why the truck says Genamr on the side.

Re: Boat hauling
 

If Mild Thunder would get in to boat hauling, what kind of insurance would be needed & cost?

Re: Boat hauling
 

You make it sound like ocean containers from the yard.
Or is it local p/u and delivery or over the road work?
Do you want to be away from home all the time?
I ran domestic and international out of Elk Grove and Bensenville for ten years theres plenty of work. "O'hare"
Contract and haul loads to the APO.
Get a couple cube trucks and do hot shots.
Cargo vans and do pick up and delivery of small packages for cargo companys
theres over 1000 cargo companys in that area and they all dont have there own trucks.

You just need to plan it right theres plenty of $$$ to made in that area.
But if you want to do over the road good luck.

Look into driving oil tankers for companies that do oil recycling
p/u and drop at the same places everyday and no surprises the pay is good too. Theres a couple in the Elk grove area.

Des plaines, Rosemont, Bensenville, Elk Grove, Woodale, Itasca then theres the big parks in
Naperville, Bloomingdale, Schaumburg, North Aurora has a big park going up I can keep going but you get what Im saying.

Re: Boat hauling
 

i think he was asking about hauling boats....

Re: Boat hauling
 

If he doesnt want to haul containers for his buddy those are just some options.
He said he was curious about boats.

Re: Boat hauling
 

i don't think he is gonna haul to many containers with a 2006 f-350.... he was gonna go into containers...

Re: Boat hauling
 

No I dont think he could do it either
But it would make for a good picture :eek:

Re: Boat hauling
 

I would recomend a minmum of 1 mil in liabilty insurance just to cover all bases and give customers piece of mind. We all know that in todays boat it doen't take al that much to get to a mil real quick. Make sure it is good insurance too, not some flight by night company. good insurance costs more but it's well worth it when you need it, and remeber you don't always control when you need it. What happens when another vehilce cuases an accident that totals the boat in tow but they don't cary near enough insurance to cover it, why would they they don't own a million dollar boat. Unless you work with a good insurance company that will promptly pay the claim and make thing right with the customer you buisness won't be long for this world and you will find yourself in bankrupcy court. My comany has been involved in many product liabilty claims over the years, none of them were actually anything wrong with our product just the moron operating it, we have payed out millions to morons but without good insurance we would have gone under a long long time ago. To carry that kind of coverage through a reliable carrier you would be looking at around 10k a year with a pickup and probably 12k a year with a real truck. That is asuming everything is done right and the pickup is commercialy registered, if not the insurance will be much less on the pickup but god help you if you ever make a claim that way. With the big truck there is no choice but commercial registration.

Re: Boat hauling
 

Fred last week had 2 Sunsations that had to get from the factory to florida so I called the # he had posted. What a joke, they where paying $1500 for a 1200 mile trip. Try paying for a new dually and care in custody insurance and fuel.

Re: Boat hauling
 

My buddies outfit picks up containers from a rail yard, back and forth between Chicago and Lima Ohio. Several other runs, but you get the idea. Keep th ideas comin, some good info

Re: Boat hauling
 

Formula has their own trucks and move the boats themselves. Very rarely do anyone else get the opportunity.