I didn't start with 10 vans, I started with one. I also found a couple things you obviously missed... I contracted directly to a primary/secondary broker. Yes, these such contracts exist. We were based in a border city with a constant flow of outbound freight; he would get direct broker and direct company shipping department calls for bids (many times he'd get a call from a company, then from a broker for the same load, obviously bid higher to the broker fishing to see how much in which he needed to respond to the initial company so they can't re-bid and farm it out). We did primarily automotive parts that missed the scheduled trucks out of El Paso, whether by customs delays or manufacturing delays, so there were outbound loads 6 days per week. Our lanes were mainly EL Paso to other border cities, DFW area, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Occasionally, we'd get medical equipment loads to run a delivery route to various SoCal hospitals.
Utilizing a small-time primary/secondary broker, sure, I lost a cut, but he also operated as a factoring company, so I presented the bills when returning to town, and he immediately cut me a check. No waiting for companies to pay, he had that concern (and his wife was all over them for collections on day 30). He was on the hook for the load board subscriptions as well. And getting CCA isn't that big of an expense. Getting authority and maintaining everything it entails is less than $1,000 up-front, and about $500/yr afterward (if you DIY, paying a company to do it for you is costly and unnecessary). INSURANCE was the biggest expense, as liability only at $1 mil plus an inland marine cargo coverage rider at $100k was about $2800/yr for the first van, a 1997 E150. It went *up* as I grew, but went down in cost per unit over time as I become more established.
I kept the vans moving at a profitable rate, averaging $1.39/mile for all miles (loaded and deadhead).
Hotels? Have you even looked inside one of these vans? Insulate the back, install an adjustable-height flip-up bed, and your driver can live in the van without hotel expense. Install a diesel heater, and now you are open to temp-controlled loads in the winter (Bosch has computer circuit boards for ECUs that cross the border in El Paso and need to maintain 80* per contract heading to one of their facilities in SC, so that can always be bid higher). If we got a load that suddenly wasn't ready on time for us, we would get a night in a hotel thrown in as layover pay. If the bed is installed right (and you load the van with the shortest pallet in front), the driver can sleep in the bed *above* the freight.
And you need to look at tax laws again. As long as you begin at standard mileage rate and are class 1-2 only, you *can* use the standard mileage rate. You cannot flip flop, though, so if you were using actual expenses (which in class 8 you were), you cannot revert to standard. Just because *you* were restricted from doing it doesn't mean its not in the tax code for others to use.
Your username is fitting as fuck on this post.
I did it. Sold it off as a turn-key, and I moved into semi-retirement.
