Are you looking for ways to make money with a box truck?
Box trucks are some of the most in-demand vehicles used for short-distance loads.
If you live in a city with many people and businesses, you may find great opportunities to make money with a box truck.
I bet that you saw other drivers already driving on the roads of your city.
Imagine you doing the same thing.
The only thing to do is decide which way to choose about making money with a box truck.
Check out below different ways to make money with a box truck.
How much can you make owning a box truck?
As of Jan 15, 2022, according to ZipRecruiter’s stats, the average annual pay for box truck owner-operators in the United States is $110,275 per year.
That means that the average box truck owner-operator's hourly salary is $53.02 while the majority of box truck owner-operator salaries range between $52,000 to $146,500.
This information should give you a sense of how profitable your box truck business can be.
5 ways to make money with a box truck
Whether you own a box truck company, operate as an owner-operator, or work as a truck driver for a company, you'll mainly will operate in a few popular niches. Here are the most popular ways how you can make the most money with a box truck:
1. Delivery services
If you own your box truck, you can find a to earn some extra money after your 9-to-5 job.
Today, with the rise of the e-commerce business, the demand for non-CDL delivery services has grown among businesses that sell their products online.
When an online sale is done when a product needs to be transported to its customer.
Usually, these kinds of deliveries are done within a city and box trucks are used to provide this type of service.
2. Moving services
Anybody needing to move household and furniture goods needs a box truck to transport things like appliances, furniture, and other heavy belongings to a new location.
Box truck delivery services are popular among people who move from one place to another.
The moving process involves:
- Packaging and unpacking the goods to ensure the goods are not damaged during the transportation.
- Loading them onto the truck.
- Delivering the goods to the new location.
3. Get paid to advertise on your box truck
If you're not tied to a company, you can advertise on your box truck for other businesses and receive income for that.
Box trucks are excellent vehicles for advertising.
Their large area may cover a lot of ground. And considering the local routes of box trucks, many people within a city may see the ad.
Businesses with many box trucks may earn good passive income by placing ads on their box trucks without changing anything in the company’s operational logistics.
4. Junk hauling services
A junk hauling service helps someone to get rid of unwanted junk from their home or business.
A box truck can pick up their junk goods and deliver them to a dump or recycling center.
5. Other side hustle jobs for box trucks
If you own your box truck, you can find a box truck side hustle to earn some extra money after your 9-to-5 job.
How to make money with a box truck?
There are three main ways of making money with a box truck:
- start your own trucking business.
- be an independent contractor.
- work for someone else.
1. Build a box truck business
Benefits
There are many benefits to running a box trucking business:
- You choose the customers that you want to work.
- You decide what loads to haul and how often to make the runs.
- If you want bigger profits then you decide how much to work.
- Despite the hard work raising the company, the reward is to have more control and freedom in your life.
However, this option is not for everybody.
To raise the trucking business, you have to put in a lot of time, financial investment, and determination.
If you have these resources, give them a try.
How to start your box truck business?
First, you need to fill out the legal papers such as the insurance, truck lease, LLC (limited liability company), etc.
As a box truck business, can grow your box truck fleet, hire company staff, and employ box truck drivers.
Run your business to meet the market needs and strive to achieve profits.
Go through the required steps of starting a box truck business by yourself. Or you can protect the formation process of your trucking business by trusting ZenBusiness.
Once the company becomes profitable, scale it up by marketing your trucking business and increasing your fleet.
2. Become a box truck independent contractor
As an owner-operator, you have the freedom to choose the best contract jobs for your business. But, at the same time, issues such as breakdowns, paperwork, or booking are all on you. This scenario gives you more flexibility, but it also gives you more responsibility.
In such a case, having prior trucking experience helps a lot.
Prior experience in trucking helps you be in control of the money you make and your expenses. It gives you more clarity over which niches are more profitable than others.
As a box-truck owner-operator, you drive the truck, search for work, and deal with any operational issue.
So, to stay profitable, you need to be confident in what you are doing.
That means being aware of the below metrics:
- Know your RPM (rate per mile).
Knowing your RPM means calculating the rate per mile that you need to charge your customers and stay profitable.
Your RPM also serves you as a benchmark when searching for work.
If you want to stay profitable, don't choose rates lower than your RPM benchmark level.
- Know the dimensions and capacity limits of your truck.
Knowing your box truck specs prevents taking on loads that your vehicle doesn't have the capacity for.
- Know how to find work for your box truck.
Once you’ve found a profitable industry for box truck services, look for jobs load boards such as DAT Edge, Direct Freight, 123 LoadBoad, TruckStop. Or find jobs for box truck owners on Indeed, ZipRecruiter, or Glassdoor.
A big part of making money with a box truck is having realistic expectations.
- Be realistic about earning 150k a year with your box truck
Earning 150k a year with a box truck would be great but pretty unrealistic for the majority of box truck drivers. Consider that box trucks can take small loads that are hauled in a shorter distance than a semi-truck.
@Richard Folger said it best on this topic in this Quora feed when someone asked if you can earn 150k a year with a box truck.
I don't think you can. Unless you are hauling illegal cargo trucking doesn't pay that well. There is too much competition and unused cargo capacity on the road for one operator to make that much with a single truck. Additionally, a 24′ truck is a kind of small for making money on the road. Your truck is not as fuel-efficient as a tractor-trailer because you will be burning about the same fuel with less than half the load. So you would be limited to about a 240 mile range. This is the approximate distance you can drive and return from in one day. Ideally, if you find a factory that needs just-in-time parts within the 240 mile range of their suppliers you may be able to charge a premium for your service. However, only having on the truck and one driver will not fit the needs of very many clients. The first time they need more capacity or delivery on your day off they will find someone else.
3. Work for someone else as a box truck driver
When working as a company driver, you don’t need to handle the operational issues.
You know how miles you need to drive. You know how much money you receive. And, you go home at the end of the working day.
As a company box truck driver, you deliver the load and receive the paycheck at the end of the month.
Conclusion
Reading the above should give you an Idea of how to make money with a box truck.
Regardless, which form business or contracts you'll get, you may always get involved in one of the ways to earn with a box truck mentioned at the beginning of the article.
