Should You Invest in your Own Flatbed Truck Fleet?
If you frequently ship heavy machinery or products or materials that require flatbed transportation, you might be considering investing in your own flatbed truck fleet. Maybe you’re thinking that in the long term you’ll save money by owning your own trucks rather than hiring a shipping company every time you need to ship.
So, is it a good idea? While there are many factors specific to your company to consider, the first of them being a financial analysis, the general answer is probably not. Here are the reasons why:
1. It’s not your core business.
Whatever your core values and business are, chances are that they don’t involve flatbed trucks. Even if quick shipping is part of your service, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to own the trucks yourself. It’s better to work on the experience and values that you want to transmit to your client and owning your own flatbed trucks is probably not part of that unless you have sales volumes great enough that you can’t hire the trucks you need from shipping companies on a regular basis.
2. A flatbed truck fleet requires many more resources than trucks and driver salaries.
There is a reason that there’s an industry based on flatbeds. Trucks need to be maintained, repaired, and replaced. Drivers need to be paid and trained. They also need to be lodged and fed. Routes have to be planned since not all roads will not allow your cargo to go through them, either due to physical constrains or transit regulations. All of these factors translate not only into costs, but man hours, both of which can be better used elsewhere.
3. It will take a long time to recover the investment.
Buying your own flatbeds is going to take considerable investment. And unlike other investments, flatbed trucks will lose value over time. In fact, after a certain time, you’ll have to replace older trucks for newer ones. Training drivers will also be an ongoing cost. Most importantly, this cost will not reflect in the experience of your client, which means it doesn’t add value to your brand.
4. Owning your own flatbed truck fleet makes life more difficult.
We’re sure you have more to do than you can handle at the moment; all companies do. Producing, trading, selling, taking care of customers, and looking for ways to expand your market share are already challenging enough without adding more complications to the mix. Unless a solid financial analysis shows extremely good savings, getting your own flatbed truck fleet is just asking for more trouble than you can handle, especially because you don’t have experience in the shipping industry.
If your business needs the expertise of a leading flatbed shipping company, Nationwide Transportation is your connection to affordable, deadline-focused shipping and logistics. Call us today!