Starting a Box Trucking Business Checklist: All the Important Points

Trucking is an industry that’s hard to replace in the world. Although you can move a lot of stuff by sea and air, doing so is expensive. That’s why companies still rely on trucks to transport much of their products and materials.

That makes trucking a great industry to enter if you want an opportunity. Reports show that trucks carry 72.6% of freight in the United States, so there is plenty of opportunity to find customers.

The good news is that you can follow a set of steps to start a box truck business. Use the starting a box trucking business checklist below to set up your business the right way.

Create a Business Plan

The first step to creating a box trucking business is to create a plan for success. Without a roadmap, you’re stuck reacting to what’s in front of you instead of following the path most likely for success.

Your business plan will help you create a budget, find your ideal customer, find the right people to employ, and more. It will also help you create business milestones that indicate you’re on the right path.

Your business plan doesn’t need to have every detail, but it should give a broad overview of where you want to go. This information will help guide your decisions in the future and help you anticipate potential problems that hurt your chance of success.

Find Business Funding

The next step to starting a box trucking business is determining how much it will cost. You’ll have many expenses when getting started, from the trucks you’ll use to drive to warehouse space to store any items.

It’s important to understand those numbers before you start. You’ll need to figure out how much your initial costs are and the ongoing expenses required for maintaining your operation.

At that point, you can begin looking for startup capital. You can fund the entire thing yourself, get bank loans, or look for capital from investors.

Do the Paperwork

Once you have a plan and funding in place, you can start the official process of starting a trucking company. You must do more than get file paperwork to start a business. Since you’re operating vehicles, you have more licenses to get.

Many of these licenses will depend on the type of materials you’re transporting. Take hazardous material, for instance. You need a special license that proves you have the skill and equipment to handle that work.

At a bare minimum, look at commercial driver’s licenses, Unified Carrier Registration (UCR), motor carrier number, and the BOC-3 form. These will get you started on legally starting your company.

Get Insurance

You’re dealing with many materials when you run a trucking business. And to make matters worse, you aren’t dealing with your own stuff. You’re transporting products and materials for other businesses.

This makes insurance one of the overhead costs you can’t skimp on when running a trucking business. The right insurance will protect your company and your customers if an accident happens that causes property loss.

Make sure to look at your insurance options carefully and investigate your legal requirements to get the insurance you need for your business.

Buy Trucks and Equipment

Once you get the legal issues and insurance out of the way, you can start preparing to start your business. This means buying the trucks and equipment required to serve customers.

Start searching for vendors that can fulfill your needs. Don’t go for the cheapest option available. Look for vendors that offer a good mix of value for money.

If you have contacts in the trucking industry, contact them to get vendor references. Your ultimate goal is to find trustworthy partners that will equip your new business with quality products, now and in the future.

Hire a Reliable Team

You may be able to get started as a solo trucker and do well for yourself. But if you’re trying to grow a large business, you won’t be able to do it alone.

You need a great team behind you if you want to see success. This means hiring other truck drivers to get items to their destinations in one piece and administrative staff to take care of your customers when they need help.

Make sure you hire the best when doing this. Put together job postings that detail everything you need for the jobs you’re hiring for, and spend the time interviewing people to ensure they are qualified for the job.

Create a Marketing Plan

You’ll need to advertise your trucking business if you want to maximize your earning potential after starting. Customers won’t just find you when there is already a lot of competition in the space.

Start by creating a website. Let customers know what kind of products you’re great at handling and add as much information as possible to set yourself up as an authority. You can use EZ Freight Broker Trucking Websites to get a website up easily.

Once you have a website up, you can start driving traffic to it. Start SEO optimizing your website by creating content people looking for trucking companies look for. You can also use PPC to drive paid traffic to your website to get your initial customers.

Follow This Starting a Box Trucking Business Checklist

Learning how to start a box trucking business can be a lucrative venture. Businesses rely on you to get shipments to their customers on time, so they are willing to pay for the service you offer.

But you must start a box truck business the right way if you want to start the right way to start getting business quickly. Follow the starting a box trucking business checklist above to get started on the right foot.

Do you want to learn more about growing your new business? Learn more about growing a new company on the blog.