Freight services - this is the business that certainly will not be lost in Russia. Naturally, for this you need to have a sound plan and good capital to start.
Transportation of furniture, moving apartments or transporting large 82-cubic meters of cargo - all this cannot be done without a truck.
Therefore, at the initial stage, transport should be taken care of. In addition, there are a number of significant factors on which the profitability of a company and its relevance in the market depend. How to draw up a business plan for a cargo transportation company, read in our article today.
Licensing
Initially, your company must be licensed, otherwise all transportation that you carry out will be considered illegal. A fine is imposed for this, the amount of which reaches several hundred thousand rubles. Legalization of a business consists in processing various documents in all necessary instances. As a rule, this document is issued to the entrepreneur within no more than 30 days.
And if in Russia the opening of an IP for cargo transportation is accompanied by the receipt of an appropriate license without fail, in Ukraine it is quite the opposite. A few years ago there was officially stopped issuing licenses.
In order to open their own company, Ukrainian entrepreneurs do not have to go around various instances and wait for the issuance of these permits. On the one hand, this is a big plus for “private traders”, but on the other hand, cargo transportation as a business in Ukraine will soon go “into the shadows”. This is especially true for apartment and office relocations: advertisements for services using GAZelle without a license number in recent times are just a lot.
We organize cargo transportation: where to start a business? Calculation of tariff and payment for freight
After the paperwork is completed, a column such as a tariff should be included in the freight business plan. Most often, this value is measured in rubles divided by kilometer. In order not to frighten the customer and at the same time not to lose money, you need to correctly compose the transportation tariff. This should be done based on the volume and carrying capacity of the machine that you have in your fleet. For example, if it is an 86 cc wagon, its optimal tariff will be 35-40 rubles / kilometer. 10-toners and 5-toners take from 20 to 25 rubles / km on average.
Gazelle on interregional transportation now operates at a price of 15 to 20 rubles / kilometer. And then, how much will the office and apartment removals cost, it should be calculated based on the area of the city. Here, even with the same distance, the cost can vary by 1.5-2 times. In order not to rack your brains over it, you can just look at the website of a competitor and find out how much the owners of the GAZelle take for moving to a city.
Before you start the freight business, keep in mind that most of the profit you make will go to servicing the vehicle. For example, on 20-ton trucks, the cost of fuel and spare parts can be about 55-60 percent of the total revenue (that is, net profit from 1 kilometer about 15-20 rubles).
How to search for orders?
Of course, in a big city you won’t have problems finding orders, but due to the competition that has arisen recently in the market, sometimes you have to fight for a client.To increase your chances, you first need to place an advertisement (we will tell you more about marketing moves a bit later). You can also try to cooperate with dispatching and intermediary firms.
Such companies will definitely have the right orders and constantly provide you with work. For cooperation, dispatch firms often charge about 10 percent of total revenue. At first glance, this is quite substantial money. However, taking into account the fact that daily profits will amount to several hundred dollars, 10 percent will seem a trifle against this background.
About documentation
When organizing cargo transportation, the legal side of the issue should also be noted. If you want to occupy a certain market share, you should conclude agreements with clients for the provision of services (tenders). This document indicates all agreements on your part and on the part of the customer. Thus, when concluding a tender, you will be provided with constant work for a rather long time (most often the term of the agreement is from 6 to 12 months).
It is important to be able to correctly draw up contracts and fill out invoices. The customer’s confidence in your company will depend on this, and possibly further cooperation.
Working staff
Any transportation of cargo, even the smallest, is accompanied by loading and unloading. If this is any small-capacity car, for example, a GAZelle, then at first you can handle the work of the loader yourself. However, it should be borne in mind that a house move may involve loading not only a TV and a pair of nightstands, but also more dimensional things that can only be raised by 2 or more people.
Therefore, it is best to hire an assistant. If you carry out cargo transportation on a daily basis, and this is your main income, it is advisable to have several employees (movers) in your company. With frequent orders, you can assign a permanent payment. However, freight logistics shows that it is best to pay for labor from production (i.e., how many orders are made, such is the salary). It happens that in one month you make 20 apartment moves, and in the next - no more than 3.
Provision of warehouse services
Some companies are engaged in indicating not only transport but also storage services. In this case, you just can not do without special loading equipment. Here it is worth taking into account additional costs, such as renting or buying a room, as well as servicing the equipment itself, which carries out loading / unloading of cars in a warehouse.
We draw up a freight business plan: how to get in touch with a client?
If you are the owner of a freight shipping company, you will need to have 2 or 3 separate phone numbers. Their number depends on the size of the company. But if this is just a start-up company, it’s enough to include only one additional telephone number in the freight business plan.
How to advertise your company?
Since the audience of Internet users is only growing every year, you should place your ad there. However, if this is an apartment transportation, it is not a fact that a customer will call you from the city in which your company is located. Therefore, in such cases, advertise in local newspapers.
Of course, the cost of posting ads there is much higher than on the Internet, but you will gain a customer base in a matter of weeks. You can also apply a more creative option - to place ads directly on the truck. For example, in capital letters make the inscription “Cargo transportation” and indicate your mobile phone number at the bottom.
Little secrets to success
Keep your vehicle fleet in good condition: it is unlikely that any person will cooperate with him if halfway he has to push your car on the road.In order not to get into the "black list", pay attention to such aspects:
- Speak politely with the client over the phone. The first acquaintance of a person with you happens just like that - from a conversation he can determine whether or not to deal with this company. Agree, it is unlikely that you would cooperate with a customer who would communicate with you in a rude tone and shout into the phone. For customers, it is important not only the quality of services, but also friendly, polite communication. Otherwise, they simply hire other carriers, in addition, they can make negative advertising.
- Logistics of cargo transportation is such that without serviceable transport, it is simply impossible to deliver the goods on time. Therefore, follow the technical and external condition of the fleet. Wash your cars periodically and check that the cargo compartment is clean. Remember that a person trusts you with all his things, which means that the car body should not be dirty.
- Consider all customer dissatisfaction and their wishes, so try to create your ideal transport company in this way.
So, we found out how to draw up a business plan for cargo transportation and how to organize the search for orders and carriers.
