As these trucks often see high mileage and are pushed hard to meet schedules, preventative maintenance is key. Truck and equipment depreciation should also be factored into pricing, but good equipment lifecycle management can help increase the ROI on the equipment investment. It’s important for hotshot drivers, as owner operators to truly understand their operational expenses so they can set prices that make the hauls they take worthwhile and keep them profitable. Pricing is also based on the specific job at hand – how fragile the equipment is and how quickly it needs to be moved. Charges change from one haul to the next, and per driver, depending on fuel costs, their truck and trailer combo’s mile-per-gallon and likelihood of picking up a return haul.
#Hot shots trucking drivers
Hotshot trucking generally charges per-mile, with drivers setting their own prices, so rates vary widely.
Hotshot drivers must also comply with much of the same state and federal laws as other carrier types, including for insurance, licenses and qualifications, drug and alcohol testing, Hours of Service (HOS) logging and IFTA reports (depending on pounds hauled). Maintenance is often more frequent, and it’s difficult to maintain resale value of vehicles. Work can be unstable, and drivers must be ready at moment’s notice and then may be deadheaded. Hotshot trucking also comes with challenges. Other benefits include drivers being able to set their own price – often at premium rates due to the tight turnaround – and choosing when to take loads, as they work for themselves. Buying a Class 3 truck and trailer is far less expensive than a Class 8 long-haul, and has less insurance cost. One of the key draws of hotshot trucking is the low startup equipment costs at higher per-mile pay. Their liability requirements differ, though, depending on truck type. If running interstate, expediters also need a US DOT number. They’re generally exclusive vehicle use and do straight-through delivery, meaning no stops or other pickups. Unless they lease their hotshot to a business, an interstate hotshot trucker must obtain a US DOT number and a minimum of $750,000 in primary liability insurance coverage.Įxpediters are owner-operators or companies with cargo vans, sprinters, straight trucks and/or tractor-trailers that make rush or emergency orders. They also often tow cars, equipment, machinery, boats and even RVs. They’re often delivering an item needed to prevent a failure, such as in the power grid, in a factory or plant, or a pump in an oil field.
Hotshots are generally Class 3, 4 or 5 trucks pulling a flatbed or other type of trailer for extra capacity.
Hotshot and expedited trucking are both for-hire operations and haul time-sensitive loads with no set lanes, but are not the same. This created a niche, wherein owner-operators run items needed as soon as possible. People would sit outside manufacturing facilities in their own trucks and, when an oil drill part was completed, run it out to the oil well. Hotshot trucking is believed to have originated in the 1970s in the oil industry.
#Hot shots trucking license
They only need a commercial driver’s license (CDL) if gross weight exceeds 26,000 pounds. Unlike carriers that wait to fill trailers with multiple loads, hotshot trucking generally takes incomplete or less-than-truckload (LTL) loads and dedicates the route and their schedule to a single customer.