Starting a trucking business is not always simple and easy, however, the business is more than profitable if you have a substantial number of contracts and driving routes. A trucking business can help you achieve financial independence and even make a great source of passive income.
A trucking business can generate hefty profits even as a passive source of income if you are not driving trucks but only investing. If you would like to invest in a trucking business but you wouldn’t want to drive, we have found some of the top ways to start a trucking business without driving.
Here’s our ultimate list of top ways to invest in the trucking business without getting behind the wheel.
Leasing or Renting a Truck
A good start is to buy a truck and start renting it to other trucking companies. You can buy multiple trucks and increase your profits if the budget allows it. If you don’t have enough money to buy a truck, you can take a lease.
Lease involves renting a truck or another vehicle for an extended period with low expenditure for long-term rentals. Leasing multiple trucks instead of buying a truck yourself may be the best option. This is especially the case if you know that there is a demand for truck rentals in your area.
Investing in a FedEx Delivery Route
Another great way to invest in a trucking business without driving is by buying a FedEx delivery route.
One of the top reasons why a FedEx delivery route is an excellent investment is the case where you don’t need to buy your trucks as FedEx provides vehicles for trucking routes in some cases.
You will need to have a trucking company to apply and match a list of criteria, while you will also need truck drivers for deliveries in your area.
To operate a FedEx route and make deliveries within your designated area, you don’t have to have semi-truck drivers. FedEx deliveries can be done via trucks and vans, which makes the process easier.
Once you get a delivery route from FedEx, you won’t have to worry about ever running out of deliveries.
FedEx regularly provides deliveries for FedEx route owners, so you can keep your drivers busy as you are managing all deliveries in your area.
According to FedEx, an average route owner earns $1.5 million per route, out of which net profits for the route owners are usually between $30,000 and $40,000 with $100,000 in expenses.
Buying a Bread Route
Buying a bread route is similar to the concept of investing in a FedEx delivery route. If you have trucks or vans, or at least one truck, you can arrange a bread route contract in your area.
In case you manage to buy a bread route, you will be earning based on a commission for every delivery you make.
You may be able to get contracts with well-known and established companies like Pepperidge Farm, Nature’s Own, Wonder, and Sara Lee and deliver their products to major retailers like Target and Walmart.
An average ROI (return on investment) can go from 37% to 62% depending on the county you are operating in. In case you manage to secure at least a couple of contracts and have two drivers operate those, you can make a substantial profit without driving a truck yourself.
Start a Trucking Company and Hire Drivers
You can also start your own trucking company and operate as the company’s manager. You can hire one or two drivers to start and then have more employees in case the business expands.
As a trucking company with vehicles and drivers, you can compete for box truck contracts that you can find online.
Some of the top online boards to browse are:
Trucker Path is one of the top popular load boards available online. The service is free to use and comes with a handy app that helps you find the most competitive contracts. You can also browse the load board from your desktop.
Truck Stop is one of the first load boards on the internet with over 600,000 reliable box truck contracts. The service is also fueled by a strong community and offers a streamlined load booking. While the service makes it pretty easy to find contracts for your trucking business, it doesn’t come for free. There are three tiers with different functions to choose from, starting at $39.
Direct Freight might have one of the top feature-packed apps among online load boards. The app helps you find trucking contracts, but also updates you on the weather conditions for your unique route, includes custom notifications, and comes with a filtering system. You can also check credit scores for all brokers on the service for safe browsing. You also get a 15-day trial period before you are charged $34.99 per month.
DAT is surely one of the biggest and most popular load boards on the internet. DAT offers hundreds of contracts that are all supplied to your contract feeds. You can also access a map that shows where your trucks are in the highest demand. DAT lets you choose between two types of accounts for the most perfect box truck contract feeds. The premium tier, DAT Power, costs $170 per month.
123Loadboard allows companies to post box truck contracts for free, while truckers on the lookout for new jobs need to pay a fee of $35 per month.
You will have a 10-day free trial to try out the app and the desktop service before the first fee is charged. 123Loadboard comes with a great number of features, including insights into costs for every load.
You can also get delivery and load routes via FedEx Delivery routes or find bread routes yourself. Forming a partnership with an established trucking business with numerous clients and contracts is also a good choice to start a trucking business.
How to Start a Trucking Company?
Starting a trucking company is not easy or cheap, however, the profits may be worth it, especially if you are only investing in trucking as a passive source of income.
To start a trucking business, you will need to:
- Create a business plan
- Legalize your business
- Secure financing
- Obtain necessary licenses and permits
- Get insurance for your trucks and business
- Secure a location for trucks
- Create a marketing plan
- Hire truck drivers and dispatchers
You will need to apply to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and get a Motor Carrier Number.
You also need to make sure that your business is registered and completely legal, both on the local and federal levels.
Mobile Advertising
Mobile advertising can be a nice side gig in case you have operative trucks and vans making deliveries and taking on moving jobs.
Many companies are looking for mobile advertising space, which may be your vehicle.
As a standalone service, mobile advertising may not bring hefty profits.
However, the service could make a great additional way of making a profit aside from having box truck contracts.
Increase your profits by combining different delivery services, routes, moving gigs, and mobile advertising. That way you’ll be using the potential of your assets to its fullest.
Invest in Trucking Industry Stocks
Investing in stocks is an excellent example of a passive source of income. Investing in truck industry stocks means that you don’t need to buy any vehicles or start a company to start making profits in the trucking industry.
You can learn some of the basics about stock trading and investing to generate ROI.
Even though investing in stocks may look easy enough, generating profits require experience, skill, and knowledge.
You can try real-time trading simulators before you start investing in real stocks. eToro and similar brokerage platforms offer simulators for beginners, so you could get a taste of the markets.
Before you start investing in trucking industry stocks, it is recommended to do some research on various companies and the history of the market value of their stocks.
Some of the top trucking industry stocks for 2022 based on the historical value are:
- Landstar System (NASDAQ: LSTR)
- J.B. Hunt Transport (NASDAQ: JBHT)
- Old Dominion Freight Line (NASDAQ: ODFL)
- Knight-Swift Transportation (NYSE: KNX)
- Covenant Logistics Group (NASDAQ: CVLG)
Stock prices are susceptible to changes concerning relevant industry news and events, the company’s profits and net worth, partnerships, growth and expansion, and other internal and external factors.
To be able to generate hefty profits from investing in trucking stocks, you need to familiarize yourself with investing and trading tools and metrics, as well as with other relevant information.
Start a Truck Warehouse Business
Starting truck warehousing can be yet another great way to invest in trucking without sitting behind the wheel. If you can find a perfect location for truckers and trucks, then you get a unique selling point that you can use to make a hefty profit.
If you can rent or buy a massive warehouse, you can adjust it to become a one-stop-shop for truckers where they can find a place to rest after heavy-duty delivery.
You can also build a garage where truckers can find tools and spare parts for their semi-trucks and trucks.
Finding the best location might be the hardest part here, however, familiarizing yourself with trucking routes can be a major plus in your search.
Conclusion
As you can see, there is more than just a single way to invest in the trucking business without driving a truck. We hope that our list will help you get some ideas and create a plan for your next trucking business. You don’t need to sit behind a wheel to get a chunk of the trucking industry’s profits.