QuestionI was wondering if there were many people in the HotShot Trucking business that just did it part time? I have a current 9 to 5 but was thinking about doing short runs in the evenings and weekends if possible for a little extra income. I'm in the Houston area and probably would focus on the oil field loads if possible. What are your thoughts on this??
AnswerHi Kevin.
Part time would be hard to do during the week. The best answer I could give you is to talk to some shippers and find out schedules. The oil fields are different from what I'm use to, along with the schedule. The problem arises that you may have issues unloading. Say you got off work, got loaded, and we're on the road. Now you drive to an oil field 90 miles away to unload, but no one is there until the following morning. Now you can't get unloaded and either have to drive back home loaded, or drop the trailer on site (which can be dangerous). Either way, you have to make a second trip, losing money. This happens all the time in trucking. Someone says they'll be there until 8 pm on the phone, and when you get there at 7 PM, they're gone.
Your also faced with work at 9:00 am, and the shipper is going to be screaming for his load at 8:01 am. He's not going to ship with you again if he has to wait until that night. All of this is counting on the fact that you can get loaded immediately after 5 pm, which is also rare except with big companies.
Bottom line, I think it would be extremely difficult. One other option would be to buy two trailers, if you had some sort of dedicated run, you could have one getting loaded during the day at the shipper with the second that is at the reciever getting unloaded while your at work. At the end of your day, you take the loaded one and deliver it, then pick up the empty and take it back to the shipper to be loaded again. What we call a drop and hook.
Weekends could be different. There may be enough time to get loaded and unloaded on Saturday and Sunday. Again, check with some shippers, or even brokers in your area. You may check into hauling cars, too. Many dealers are open until 9:00 pm and weekends. This may prove to be your best option. I think many auto haulers even unload after hours, so you never have to worry about being stuck with a load overnight.
Finally, I would check with some performance shops in your area, if you do get a car hauler. They may have a need to deliver race cars to the track for weekend races. I know of one guy who does that for a few shops in Miami. He'll take Porsches to Sebring Friday night and return home Sunday night. He'll take drag racers to Moroso in West Palm on weekends too. These shops have customers that don't have their own trailers or crews, but own a race car. The shop may have a truck and trailer, but it's not economical to have more than one. So if numerous cars need to go, thats where you come in. The down side of that is you could have to sit for a day or two before being reloaded, but if your getting paid...
I hope I've been of some help to you.
Good luck
Bob Stephens
