How to Make Money Hauling Cars – Start a Car Hauling Business

Last updated on September 21st, 2024 at 10:28 am

If you’re planning how to make money hauling cars as a business, it’s not a bad idea and it can get you paid full-time. It’s one of the many ventures that are not too circulated and few people understand ways to make the most out of it.

You need to know which cars won’t cost you much if you’re to start a car hauling business. Like any other business, you need to understand it and the best practices that work to succeed.

Car hauling is a kind of business that will keep you busy most of the time when there’s work but the returns are worth the effort. Anyone can put up a car transporting business, though some start as drivers working with auto transport companies.

Car hauling is at times a tricky business but managing costs is the most important thing. Fuel costs are a challenging expense for most start-ups, and when some fail to manage them end up quitting.

But before starting, there are some questions that you must ask yourself for things to work out as we are going to see. Let’s now get into detail about starting up a car hauling business to make money for a living.

What Is Auto Hauling?

Auto hauling is a legal transport business in the trucking industry where cars are transported from one location to the other. When you start working car hauling jobs you connect with car dealers, brokers, private individuals, and others.

They are the people that make your business by offering them a service to get paid after delivery. And before making any delivery, you must get into negotiations with car owners to determine transportation charges.

To make more money here, ensure to provide the best service in terms of charges and transportation to have an edge over your competitors. Take your time to understand what it takes to come up with a profitable car hauling service business.

Types Of Car Hauling Services

It’s important to know what you’re doing to successfully move cars from one place to the other to make money. Here are some of the hauling service types available that one can use to move cars.

• Personal Vehicle Shipping

This is a car hauling service where there’s the transportation of individual cars on a raised car carrier trailer. And here the car carrier it’s only used by a single client for transportation.

• Expedited Car Haul

It’s where cars share transportation on a car carrier trailer with fast delivery to the final destination. Expedited is costly compared to other car haul types in the list.

• Car Haul

Here the vehicle shares the car carrier trailer with others up to its final destination. And it’s among the most commonly used type in business since it’s cost-effective.

• Enclosed Critical

This is another kind of car hauling service where vehicles are shipped and moved in an enclosed box to keep them safe. It’s a service normally applied to posh cars or as requested by the client.

How Much Can I Make Hauling Cars?

Determining how much you’re to charge or make depends on several factors like distance, transport type, weight, size, and other factors. And these factors all apply whether you’re working with a transport company or a personal business.

With drivers, they earn a fixed amount throughout the year whereas, for an entrepreneur with a car hauling business, earnings fluctuate. Entrepreneurs earn more compared to drivers but they are risk-takers.

Sometimes drivers also make more money with high mileage and the opposite is true. Car hauling is a paying business and some entrepreneurs make a lot of money during the year transporting cars.

Asking whether it’s possible to make 6 figures? Yes, people are earning up to $100,000 a year according to research which was done by The Auto Haulers Association (TAHA).

For car hauling services you can use platforms such as move car and it’s one of the best platforms which starters can benchmark for success.

Therefore, car haulers charge between $0.60 to $2 per mile, which means that for 400 miles charges range from $240 to $800 per car.

How Much Do I Need to Start a Car Hauling Business?

Like any other business, you need to know the car hauling requirements and how much you’re most likely to incur before getting started.

With most start-up costs combined someone requires about $ 25000 to be on the safe side to get started. Some start-up costs include:

• Business name registration
• Insurance
• Website Designing
• Business licensing
• Hauler trailer

What Does It Take to Successfully Start a Car Hauling Business?

There are things that you must put into consideration before starting operations with car hauling services. And some are compulsory legal requirements that any car hauling business should have before starting operations.

• Understand The Business

Before starting any business, you need to know how it works if you’re to succeed and make money out of it. Yes, you don’t dream about the car hauling business and just get started without any knowledge in the field.

It’s like most other businesses where you need to sit down to find out what works and what doesn’t. Consulting with experts can be very helpful when just starting to get clear about the forward to success.

Understanding the business first is vital, but this can’t stop you from getting started since most things can be gotten along the way.

• Medical Examination Report

Besides getting a driving license, you must present a medical examination form with a certificate from a medical examiner. Here a medical expert is supposed to examine your vision and mental well-being before getting a license.

• Commercial Driving License (CDL)

Driving any carrier requires when you have a commercial driving license also known as the CDL. And this is a must-have in case you’re planning to get into the car hauling business to make money.

When you put up a car hauling business ensure that all your drivers go through driving practice and possess legal commercial driving licenses. It’s a cost that you can attach to the driver or bare it as a company to provide for them at no cost.

• Business Registration

When you get to know about the business with a driving license gotten, then business registration gets easy. You can register the car hauling business either as a sole proprietorship or as a limited liability company (LLC), whichever is right for you.

A sole proprietorship is when you’re operating the business alone whereas a limited liability company is where there’s a joint effort.

• Insurance

There’s no way you’re going to get started hauling people’s cars when you don’t have insurance for their cargo. Insurance helps your business to cover accidents and some other unexpected incidents that may cost you when transporting cars.

And to get coverage from an insurance company the drivers should have experience of at least two years. You should work within your means and look out for insurance service providers with the best offers.

• Equipment

One of the most important things that make up the car business is the trailer. You can start small with a secondhand truck and a rig to reduce start-up capital.

And these can cost you up to $10,000, being one of the costliest items in the business. It’s possible to get better equipment within budget when you take your time to look around for price-friendly offers.

• Communication

In any business, communication is key to success and where it fails nothing comes to success. When there’s streamlined communication in business, it builds trust in people with your business.

This means there will be transparency, clients will always get back to you when they need service. And with that, you’ll get more referrals and connections in the industry due to customer satisfaction.

Communication is something that some people never think about as a requirement but there’s no way a business can grow when there’s no transparency through effective communication.

How to Determine Car Hauling Charges

Pricing charges in the car hauling business depend on several items which need to be put into consideration to make a profit. And it’s not as hard as you think to come up with the right amounts when you take note of what needs to be done.

Determining the right charges, you need to put into consideration the following:

• Weight and Size – Cargo that takes a lot of space and is overweight pays more than light cargo.
• Distance – When cargo is going to be moved many miles away, you’re supposed to charge highly to manage costs.
• Season – At times charges depend on seasons for example when there’s high demand for hauling services at a certain period in the year charges shoot up.
• Hauling Service Type – where clients want convenience like with personal vehicle shipping, normally charges are high compared to car haul.

How to Promote Your Car Hauling Business to Get Clients

People need to know about your business if you’re to get clients to get deals. And when you advertise the business, you need to ensure that you provide service according to client expectations.

Get an online presence for people to find you wherever you’re through social media and a business website. Putting up posters and banners it’s not old fashion, it adds up to the business in terms of advertising.

Clients need to know about how your experience in business and what more they can expect from you, all that is on the side of business promotion. Therefore, promotion is one of the things that will help you take the business to another level.

Barriers to Entry into Car Hauling Business

Many people would like to get into the business but there are limiting factors that we need to address here.

• Capital – start-up money is an issue for most people who want to get into the business. To some people, it’s quite costly starting up a car hauling business.
• Competence – most people don’t want to get started due to a lack of technical knowledge about the business.
• Tax Benefits – some existing car hauling businesses might be exempted from taxes, which makes it hard for new businesses without tax benefits to compete.

And when the business pays little to nothing at all, the charges won’t be high compared to one paying taxes without any deductions. It, therefore, creates an unhealthy business working environment in terms of pricing charges.

Ways to Finance the Car Hauling Business

Before starting the business, you need to find ways to get money to use as start-up capital.

• Personal Funding – Before looking for money elsewhere you need to first look into your savings to get funds for the initial setup.
• Family Members and Friends – when you find that your savings are not enough, then you can talk to friends and family members to give you a hand. It’s the second option because when just getting started, you don’t have to rely on borrowed money with interest rates.

• SBA – Guaranteed Loans – For a small start-up interested in getting a loan from the bank it would be wise to use Small Business Administration as a guarantor.
• Crowd Funding – Through crowdfunding platforms, you sell the business idea to investors ready to finance profitable business ideas.

And some of the platforms include GoFundMe WeFunder, Patreon, Fundable, and more open to entrepreneurs with business ideas.

FAQs

1. How Long Does It Take to Make Money Hauling Cars?

The challenge is in getting deals at the start and people need to know about your services. And it takes some time depending on how much you apply yourself in promoting the business.

Hauling cars pays some good money over the year when it picks up for example an established business can make up to $100,000 per year.

2. Do I Need to Be an Expert in Transport to Start a Car Hauling Business?

No, but provided you get a commercial driving license you can start up a car hauling business. If it has not been your area of expertise, the experience can be gotten on the job by connecting with people in the same business.

3. What Are Some of The Mandatory Requirements Needed to Start Up a Car Hauling Business?

Some of the things which you must have before starting up the business include a commercial driving license, insurance, business name registration, and a hauler trailer.

Conclusion

Starting up a car hauling business is not hard but you must do things right to succeed. However, there are challenges along the way like in any other business but the rewards are worth the effort.