It is all through Horizon.

Check out www.hotshothauling.com

 

Now that I'm retired from the Marines, I do horse hauling. Mostly local in SoCal. Just got finished moving 54 head to and from a show. But I also enjoy getting out and doing the long distance stuff. Have a trip up to Port Angeles, WA next week.

 

I know a couple guys who have hauled cars for the auto action here in town. Look them up.

 

MOVE TO CALGARY!! our unemployment rate in maybe MAYBE!! 2% you can do what ever you want here!! i own a coffee donut shop here and am paying potato heads $13.00 an hour to start WITH FULL BENEFITS INC DENTAL!! jobs here are to be had everywhere, i see top exec positions with start wages above 100k with min exp required.sorry my bad off topic a bit, but why not see if your local RV dealers need a hauler?/ i know at the lake we used to frequent when people there upgraded their unit most didn't have a truck so they just paid for delivery and pull out of there old unit.

 

I spent a little over a year hauling horses and livestock on a a contract basis. In 98 the DOT expanded the regs to cover ANY vehicle hauling for hire."For Hire" is defined as "with the intent to profit".... (the regional DOT office in KC said that even hauling my own horse to a show where I might win prize money counted for that) This means that your CTD will have to pass an annual DOT inspection, be numbered and you will be subject to all regs covering the larger trucks( i.e. logs, hours on the road, etc.) You can "skip " this, but woe to you if stopped and they decide to persue the issue....
Once this happened, I was finding it really hard to turn enough of a profit to justify it. I was charging $2.50 a loaded mile( which was high at the time) and was on the road about 6 days out of the week.
It was fun, got to see alot of the country and go a few places I wouldnt have otherwise, but in the long run, I couldnt see enough profit to make it worthwhile. Now once I retire, I may go back to it.
Good Luck with what ever you decide to do!

 

Maybe a little late to chime in here on this thread, but, here it goes anyway. I'm thinking about something along this line of work. I do a bit of "hot shotting" on the side. This type of work, and this line of work is something that I know a little bit about and have a bit of passion about. Not necessarily all the butt sitting though. I'd rather have a remote in one hand and a beer in the other if I'm going to sit on my butt. Anywho...

Chrisreyn is right on the money. I do not know how the DOT's regs were stated in the past, but this is what they say now ... at least what they say that concerns me and my potential plans.

Under Definitions 658.5 - Commercial Motor Vehicle. For purposes of this regulation a motor vehicle designed or regularly used to carry freight, merchandise, or more than ten passengers, whether loaded or empty, including buses, but not including vehicles used for vanpools, or vehicles built and operated as recreational vehicles.

IMO, the DOT has written that pretty well. It covers a lot of ground. Regardless if my truck has personal tags, commercial tags and the same for the trailer, if I'm regularly using it to carry blah blah blah (and blah blah blah is not equal to my own equipment/vehicles to go to a show for example), it is considered a commercial vehicle.

Especially since my idea is to buy a flatbed Cummins dually, and a flatbed trailer. Those are both designed and would be regularly used to haul various merchandise. So it would fit their definition of commercial.

Does 658.5 have me concerned? You bet your donkey it does. Basically what it tells me is I might as well go fully commercialized and jump through all the legal hoops that the DOT can make me go through.

Now if its my own personal truck, and my own personal gooseneck, and I just like to carry my tractor, or whatever to a show from time to time, I'm not going to worry about the DOT. And honestly, I don't think the intention of the DOT is to hassle guys that are hauling their own junk for pleasure/recreation.

But if I'm going to put some money in my pocket for hauling, and I fit their definition of "commercial," from above, the DOT *MIGHT* make it their business to get all up in my grill about whether or not I am legal to be doing what I'm doing. And they would be totally justified to do so.

I don't know, its just not me to try and blow smoke up someone or some entities **** in order to sneak around regulations. I reckon, if you're gonna do something, you might as well do it right. If they pull me over with a coil of steel, and pallet of bricks that I'm taking to TX & AZ, I reckon I'd be better off to be legal than to not only get fined, but to get shut down.

But I'm just starting to poke my nose into this industry and I may be off with this stuff. Don't quote me on it.

If'n your truck and trailer were tagged to be carrying 26,000 lbs or less, and if'n they weighed your outfit and your out fit was 26,000 lbs or less, and if'n you had your story straight regarding why you had that stack of wheels and 4 pack of shower stalls (for example) on your trailer, maybe you'll go on down the road scott free. But that's a lot if'n ... a little too much for me.

- JyRO

 

I pulled 7,000 lb pintle trailers between NY and fla with an 86 isuzu NPR landscape truck during the winters back in the late 80s, early 90s, the pay at the time was $1.25 a mile, and as long as I ran loaded all the time, it was a decent way to make money, unfortunately, that little 3.9 4 cyl turbo diesel didnt like to go much past 65 MPH and pintle loads became harder and harder to find.

Snowplowing, depending on your area, and client base can be good, or bad, Ive tried working for the town, but at $40 an hour, its hardly worth it, private jobs pay better, but can be harder on the truck, I made the most money doing driveways, but it seems nowadays that everyone has a home depot credit card, and a snow blower

 

Yes you can make a living. that said, you can make more and be comfortable with a bigger truck. Costs.... Insurance is maybe 20% more for a big truck, fuel is a couple of gallons more on a big truck, but you can haul three times as much which means that you travel a lot less miles and less hours. Oil changes work out to about the same money per mile.

Doing anything significent with the Dodge you will end up with a cdl and all the rest of the federal regs like a big truck. I do the same work today that I did with the Dodge, make twice as much, have actually a small rv to sleep in.

A used big truck is available cheaper than replacing the Dodge, last much longer. I always wanted to try hot shot, did that, went back to a condo sleeper. DOT does not bother me like they did.... MHO

 

Answer to #1 - Horses, hay, cars, other pickups, farm tractors ......... whatever I can.
#2 - Local contacts, some Internet posting.
#3 - No, I'm retired from the Teamsters.
#4 - W. Colorado - I could do much better in AZ, CA or most any state east of the Mississippi I think. Not a heck of a lot going on right here as say, on the East Coast.

 

Haulin' - It's good to hear from ya! Glad you chimed in. Didn't know you went back to the big's. I'm PM'ing you because your post is so right-in-line with what I'm discovering.

- JyRO

 

here's a data point: got up on local car forum, had "3500" in sig, guy PM's me, wants me to move his boat, agree on $300.

go pick it up, all wires cut (no lights), no brakes (turns out, it was a "storage trailer") and load range C 14 inch tires under a 6k boat.

long story short, redid wires, had guy go buy 2 spares & meet me,
had to make the run late at night to minimize traffic, was uneventful, but could have been a bad day for not much $$$.

got back O'dark thirty. took me ~4 days to get caught back up on sleep.

 

They added a Medium Duty topic over at hotshothauling.com because more and more hotshotters are moving up to Medium Duties for the same reasons you mentioned .

 

Well I'm pretty spoiled now so could not go back.

Generator
2000 watt inverter/100 amp three stage bat charger
refridgerator
14,000 btu air for nights/11,000 btu heatpump
27 inch high def tv
dvd with over 200 movies on board
internet/17 inch laptop
laser printer
coffee maker
5 gallon ice water
alpine with 760 and 1100 amps, 2 ten inch subs
xm radio direct plumed to stereo
microwave/convection/broil
sleeper ceiling too high to reach standing up
500 hp
7 to 8 mpg
jake brake
of course air ride, air ride cab, air ride seats

It would be hard to go back to sleeping on the Dodge recline seat Best part is that I am not constantly doing maintenance and upgrades.

 

Its about time that you stoped in for a visit. Still beating you brains out on the road I see.

 

Bill, I'm glad to hear that the big truck hasn't turned into "Big Murphy."