Hauling cars

77GreenMachine

77GreenMachine

Phillip Talton
Joined
Mar 30, 2010
Location
Trinity, NC
These days I see a ton of trucks running up and down the road with a wedge trailer or similar hauling 2-3 cars. Does anyone here do this or know someone that does? I’m just curious about it. Seems to be a lot of people doing it now, and many times riding in a very nice truck.

Do they make good money?
Where are these cars going?
Where do you even find all these cars to haul?
 
Totally did not mean to put this in tech
 
There are a few good youtube channels about hotshoting. It's not always easy.
 
A $hit load of cars go to dealer auctions every week, then those same cars go back out to dealers and buyers. Same thing at the insurance auctions. Dealers also move cars between dealerships. Individuals buy and ship cars as well, not to mention all the new cars moving around.

As said, plenty of vids on the youtubes. Just like every other trucking game, there are those doing well and there are plenty more that are just wasting their time.
 
Co-worker started doing it as a side job. After a year or three he quit his regular job and did it full time. I have no idea how much money he makes doing it, but he quit a Senior Engineering job at my work to do it full time.
 
My BIL does it. Started with a 3-car wedge trailer then upgraded to a semi with a 5-car stacker. He does really well, pay depends on the load. Primarily hauls to auctions, dealerships, co-part, etc. There's multiple websites to find the cars. @Mulishajoe considered hauling part-time with how much my BIL was bringing in. However, there's insurance & DOT regulations that can get expensive.
 
I’ve thought that wouldn’t be a bad gig in retirement. Years ago we had a neighbor that was retired, but he and his wife hauled nascar show cars all over. He said he got paid to see the country. Probably did 1 gig a month. He spent a ton of time keeping the truck, trailer, and show car waxed and shiny though!
 
jeepin' jen said:
My BIL does it. Started with a 3-car wedge trailer then upgraded to a semi with a 5-car stacker. He does really well, pay depends on the load. Primarily hauls to auctions, dealerships, co-part, etc. There's multiple websites to find the cars. @Mulishajoe considered hauling part-time with how much my BIL was bringing in. However, there's insurance & DOT regulations that can get expensive.
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Sounds like the BIL is who we need to haul our junk to Moab next year.
 
Yeah not so much looking for a career change for that just general curiosity. Although I sure don’t mind a road trip and enjoy towing. Wouldn’t be a bad gig IMO, specially if you could haul some rigs to the west for pay and a passenger seat!

Seems to be lots of folks doing it. I do want to figure out how to work for myself in the next year or so the more I learn about construction and see needs not met and niches that could be profitable, but that’s another thread.

I imagine if I was burning up the road hauling cars all week, I’d be a lot less excited to jump in the truck and drive 5+ hours to go wheeling lol
 
5 or so years ago when there wasn’t a lot of people doing hot shoting with medium size trucks it there was a good chunk of change to be made. But like all this where it looks like someone is making bank a lot of people jumped in and it drove prices down. We have some guys that deliver stuff to us and they make good money hauling small loads of steel to jobs all over the southeast.

To make the most money hot shoting you need to find a special nitch and only haul that. Like campers, or gen sets.


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Trucking is tough right now. Our insurance was about 55K per truck per year. With all the companies being put on hold, cruise lines schools etc, there are more trucks looking for freight than freight. Hotshot has exploded in the last few years. I'm ready to get out after 20+ years in it.
 
jeepin' jen said:
My BIL does it. Started with a 3-car wedge trailer then upgraded to a semi with a 5-car stacker. He does really well, pay depends on the load. Primarily hauls to auctions, dealerships, co-part, etc. There's multiple websites to find the cars. @Mulishajoe considered hauling part-time with how much my BIL was bringing in. However, there's insurance & DOT regulations that can get expensive.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what my co-worker did. He started out with Ram dually with a small sleeper cab and pulled a wedge trailer, but then upgraded to a semi so he could haul more.
 
There's also an explosion of Campers, being towed up & down the road, along with some boats. I think most people doing this are just enjoying the travel. But there is the Insurance cost, your mileage, & the "O Crap", when tires blow out!
 
My friend Kevin from HS is a postal worker somewhere down near Sanford. Three times divorced, and had time on his hands on his days off. Apparently they get a butt-ton of days. Anyways, he bought a 2016 dirtymax and went into business with a former over-the-road trucker to do hot shots back in 2017. Kevin would do SOME of the hauls with his truck, and the other guys trailers. But his dirtymax was pretty much burning up the roads every day, mostly driven by the trucker. So their "partnership" was basically; they use Kevins truck, and the truckers trailers, and split the profits. No written agreements, no contracts. So last year the trucker up and dies at home from a heart attack. Trailers, all monies and LLC all go to truckers family and Kevin is left with a 4yr old dirtymax with 1/2 million miles on it.
 
I was talking to one the hot shot guys that picked up a load from us one day. Said it cost him 50k before he even got in the truck to start hauling. Between the insurance and DOT fees. And said he was on the road ALL the time.

I too noticed it seems like there are tons of them on the road lately.

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