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Starting a trucking business

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bjpsindu

Experienced in US many years. Wanting to move Portugal

Cheryl

Hello bjpsindu,


Welcome to Expat.com 1f601.svg


We would appreciate it if you could provide additional information about yourself and your expatriation plans.


With a better understanding, we will be able to offer more effective assistance.


Cheers,


Cheryl

Expat.com team

bjpsindu

@Cheryl

I am a owner of trucking company in US. I am thinking to start one in Europe. Kindly let me  know how profitable the trucking in Europe


Also i wanna know how easy to start a company with my self as self employed trucker


Appretiate ur response


Thank you

chrisschubert21

Hi Bjpsindu, at the moment in Europe are missing about 50.000 trucker, so you have a big opportunity to make good business.

Strontium

Hi,



For many years (25?) I worked for French driving around Europe, EU and further in trucks, it is very difficult to start a trucking company unless you already have some "local" contacts who will give you work. To lease a truck, let alone buy it,  the "bank" will need to see your business plan including work (ie income) already agreed and you'll need to keep up the monthly payments - you will be competing against already established local companies who obviously already service the local area, they will also have local drivers on their books. With a suitable licence you still need to keep up with " continuous training"  requirements and any ADRs for carrying special goods. You'll do all the paperwork in Portuguese and if you buy a vehicle then you'll also need to park it somewhere and get it serviced, insured, pay for fuel before having any income.  Being the EU here any driver from an EU country can work, some of the eastern EU countries where wages are low have supplied drivers to the rest of the EU and though there is a lack of drivers generally the jobs which remain unfilled are the ones most drivers wish to avoid which is contract work through an agency. Stuff like having to accept maybe a 6 hour job 2am to 8am delivering to 6 super markets then a 4 hour job 11 am to 3pm collecting rubbish  then nothing for 2 days. The long distance continuous work is already taken and have 2 person crews to drive so very difficult to find an opening.

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