The RV industry is currently backlogged four months with RVs waiting for transport to dealerships across the United States. It doesn't pay a fortune, but if anyone has a truck in good shape looking to haul, it might be a way to supplement income. Having a CDL would be a plus.

Steve

 

Are there any of those jobs out there that will hire without a CDL?

Also most if not all are probably in Indiana? So you will have to deadhead it there to pick up the load.

 

I do not think they all require a CDL and the RVIA is attempting to get legislation to exempt RV transporters from requiring a CDL. Yes, you will deadhead and they are trying to come up with ways to change that. As I said not big money, just a supplement.

 

For those considering this, what pay-range would a transporter expect to receive?

 

You will also need a DOT number, right?

Sent from my Telegraph using IB AutoGroup

 

I don't know all the requirements for this, as I have never done it. I just was reading in RV Business yesterday about the backlog and meeting the manufacturers just held to try to come up with an answer to the lack of transporters.

This was not a problem until the recession, but when the industry downsized I suspect a great many of the folks who were hauling went on to other work. If you go online and run a search for RV transport, I suspect there will be a number of places to call for more information.

Steve

 

Okay. Thanks for the info, Steve. I've considered asking my local RV dealers about this type of work, but have no idea how to negotiate for pay, because I don't have any idea of the industry pay scale in use.

 

pay depends a lot upon the company, experience and the like.

 

Adds I have seen around here are offering $1.30/loaded mile. Not a great deal given they don't offer to pay anything for the bobtail leg of the trip. I guess if you can sleep in your truck or a really cheap hotel you can make some money.

 

I have talked to a few full time RVers that have tried it and after the wear and tear on the truck, tires, insurance, motel rooms (you can't stay in the rigs) meals they lost money.

Denny

 

I figure operational costs (fuel, insurance, tires, oil, etc.) empty are about $0.75/mile. Towing an RV, you can be anywhere from $0.80 to $1.00/mile. That isn't counting DOT inspection, DOT physical, food...

Now, if you want to get out and see the country, this is a good way to offset some of the cost of your vacation.

 

Talk to Anthony (run6.0run) or whatever his new name is now. He did that kind of work IIRC.

 

Anthony and I were out hauling campers for almost 7 years....

Anthony has his CDL and I do not... You dont have to have it to haul campers, but they are building them heavy these days.... Our company was out of Topeka IN... We would dead head 633 miles from KC to Topeka.... At the time our pay was 1.33 for US loads and 1.40 for Canada loads... Campers over 36 ft long paid 3 cents more per mile... The company will give you DOT numbers and you will have to run a log book and run like a big truck, the trucking rules have changed so get a handy green book to keep in the truck...

In order to log sleeper, you MUST have a legal sleeper, we built a bed in our truck and found a passenger seat out of a junk yard to give us the room to have a sleeper... We would pull into the scale house and get DOT inspection to make sure some states were good with us logging the way we did... Montana is very picky!! Some companies will allow you to stay in the campers, but most won't.

We made a very good living hauling campers, but we have a 2006 Ford F-350 6 speed manual. And drove at 58 MPH everywhere, 5000 mile oil changes and 10000 mile fuel filters...

We saw many drivers buy a new truck, haul A** and break down, then the truck is out of warranty and we would never see them again, It is hard to make money driving by yourself and as a team our truck ran non stop 24/7 for 2 weeks at a time...

The plus side for us was getting paid to see the US and Canada

Some companies pay half up front, some pay by fax, some only pay once a week

If any one is considering this as a part time job or full time job, have about 5000 in the bank,

Get a 5th wheel hitch and an Aux fuel tank, ( we can carry 155 gals)

When it stops raining here I will take some pictures of our truck and show you guys our set up..


Just check out the company and how they pay before you hire on

We put 200,000 a year on our truck and sit with 786k today

We figured it cost us about .27 per mile to run the truck, loaded, empty, tires, fuel, oil, set up cost, down time, insurance, log pages, food ....

BUT REMEMBER WE DROVE 58 MPH Loaded and empty.... Depending on the camper, wind, weather, and delivery location, we could get 12-14 loaded and 20-22 empty ... This is not a dash reading, it is an at the pump average over 7 years .....

Plus side: Tax rules are for semi trucks ( .58 per mile ??? ) and It is a 1099 job, so if you are getting a W-2 and a 1099 with a good accountant you can get back all the tax you have paid in.. I don't know much about how the tax stuff works because we have an accountant that does it for us, but she is great !!!

 

Holy sheet! Same truck over that 7 years?

 

Our first truck had 480k bought new in 2006 and had till 2008 , second truck had 84k when we bought it in 2010 and it is also a 2006 , we still have this truck and it has 786 k on it .. But in total we have over 1.1 million miles , we stopped driving from April 2008 till January 2010 because of fuel prices ... And the economy was in the dump , once the hauling picked up our company called us and asked us to come back , it can be a non-stop job!