William Orr ⋅ Greenwood , IN Edward Jones Investments ⋅ 4 years experience

+1 on the business plan. In the competitive industry of OTR logistics, I think there is some room for another startup; however, some of the newer regulations coming down the pipe may hamstring the little guy. Speed limiters, mandatory electronic logs, etc...I'm not an expert on these things, but I do listen to Road Dog Trucking's Dave Nemo talking about these things daily.

I'd like to see you succeed and I'd love to help out with the cost analysis. I do know quite a few folks in the industry. I would recommend finding a mentor via ACP to help out with the particulars around getting this business off the ground. Good luck.

Steven Sachs ⋅ Washougal , WA Los Angeles Community College District ⋅ 37 years experience

Ken, on the highways, I often see trucks with stuff like "Need a Job? Call Our Company to Become a Driver. Free Training."

What this tells me is that despite Mr. Green's unlikely prediction that trucks will be driving themselves within 20 years, the companies are still hiring humans.

So one direction you may want to consider is approaching an established, large, national trucking chain with a proposal: That you (or your new company) get them tremendous numbers of pre-qualified, trustworthy, experienced drivers. Yes, I understand that your current point is vets-working-with-vets, but if you do this, the companies using your services could end up with primarily-veteran drivers.

You could be the main, nationwide driver broker. This would be different from launching your own transportation company, but it could get your foot in the door, or at least get your face in front of the people who have already launched such companies successfully.

And if you continue exclusively with your current plan, you should, in my opinion, capitalize on concepts of vets: strength, honesty, integrity and, yes, even bravery. How great it would be for people driving by your trucks (presumably festooned with American flags and a catchy, veteran's-themed company name) to salute them rather than flipping them off(!)

Thank you for your service; for protecting me and my family. I hope you succeed, whatever you do.

. . . Dr. Steve Sachs
Advisor

John Green ⋅ Cary , NC Information Technology ⋅ 40 years experience

The very first step before you do anything else is to write a complete business plan.

https://www.score.org/business-plan-resources

One thing to consider :

- within the next ten years, the majority of trucks on the road will be driver-less.