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How I started doing cargo transportation. Opening a cargo transportation company: business plan

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If cargo transportation is chosen as an activity, where to start the business? Such an occupation was considered unpromising 2 years ago. Today, even a beginner has the opportunity to quite profitably transport goods and create a profitable business. This is a costly and troublesome task. Up to $10,000 is the amount of starting capital without purchasing trucks.

Trucking business concept

The market for in-demand freight forwarding services is continuously growing in Russia. The services of qualified logisticians are always in demand. The activities of industrial, trading and manufacturing enterprises are closely related to various types of transportation. How to start a business related to the transportation of various types of cargo? You should navigate the market by studying competitors' offers.

Intercity and international flights are the most profitable type of cargo transportation business. In this market segment, the company is subject to more stringent requirements for documentation for technical equipment and technical conditions, but the prices for such cargo transportation are significantly higher than the average. Various options for organizing this business are possible. Without having your own car, you can implement a business idea for cargo transportation.

Cargo transportation as a business allows customers to purchase the necessary equipment and various types of equipment from suppliers, bring raw materials for production, and send goods to their customers. Cargo transportation is used by various modes of transport. Delivery by water transport, plane, railway or road transport is a popular service. Heavy and large cargo can be transported profitably and conveniently using rail or air transportation. Small consignments of cargo are transported using curtained vehicles. Clients value high-quality, reliable, prompt delivery during office or apartment moves.

Specifics of the cargo transportation business

In the mature market for forwarding services, there is a very high level of market competition, but entrepreneurs who have managed to occupy a niche and organize a profitable cargo transportation business have a stable high income. Small private firms account for about 60% of the cargo transportation market, the remaining 40% belong to large companies. An enterprising, enterprising entrepreneur can open a business from scratch in the forwarding services market, provided the right approach to organization is taken. When entering this business, significant amounts of start-up capital are required.

How to open a business related to freight transportation?

Within the framework of current legislation, you can register as an individual entrepreneur, the owner of a small company. An individual entrepreneur manages his business independently. How to open an individual entrepreneur? As part of the standard procedure, an individual entrepreneur is registered, which costs several thousand rubles.

The legal right to transport goods is given by a transport license. To freely cross the state border by cargo vehicles, you must obtain an additional license, which is valid for 15 days. The responsible person is given a power of attorney for the transportation of goods, a list of items being transported, a package of accompanying papers, and a waybill. These forwarding documents are necessary to carry out various types of cargo transportation.

To transport oversized or bulky cargo, the carrier must obtain a special permit. To officially open an individual entrepreneur for cargo transportation, you must obtain insurance for the cargo vehicle. A package of constituent documents is required to register as an object of taxation with the tax authorities. An entrepreneur must obtain a TIN.

Individual entrepreneurs involved in cargo transportation are exempt from accounting. Any enterprise is quite a risky business, so the various nuances of a cargo transportation business being opened should be taken into account by the main document drawn up by professionals who will help and advise on how to organize a business. A business plan is the main document of a future entrepreneur, which helps to assess their commercial opportunities. The success of a business related to cargo transportation primarily depends on this competent document.

The business plan should reveal the main problems of the activity:

strategy and goal of the company's development;
organizational issues;
sources of start-up capital;
order search options.

Part of the business plan is the financial side.

Smart startup

To carry out full-fledged cargo transportation, it is necessary to purchase cars. It is worth starting a business from scratch by purchasing reliable imported cars. A startup will be easier if the aspiring entrepreneur has his own freight transport. The location of the office is not critical. If you want to start cargo transportation, it is better to start the freight forwarding business by using one car. Where to start a business to earn a good income? It is important for carriers to avoid unprofitable idle runs.

A future entrepreneur should take care of hiring qualified workers for a cargo transportation business in a timely manner. Logistics forwarders help minimize transport costs. In accordance with the contract, these professionals perform insurance, storage, transhipment, and freight forwarding from the initial loading point to the final destination. These cargo transportation business specialists choose the optimal route, solve problems with customs clearance, and monitor the completion of documents.

To develop your business you will need:

use of reliable cars;
website with prices and descriptions of services;
electronic digital signature;
experienced drivers, several logistics forwarders.

In the first months of the company’s operation, when the client base has not been created, the work has not yet been established, and no one knows about the transport company yet, it is especially difficult for entrepreneurs.

If you organize your cargo transportation business correctly, you can soon make a good profit.

Order a business plan

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Any person sooner or later is faced with the need to transport any cargo. For individuals, this type of service usually accompanies moving, purchasing furniture, building materials or large household appliances. Manufacturing enterprises need regular delivery of raw materials, semi-finished or finished products, and trading companies need to fill retail stores with their goods.

When considering where to start a cargo transportation business, you can find that this niche in large cities is almost filled, and therefore entrepreneurs working here cannot boast of super-profits. On the other hand, studies show the presence of free demand in this industry, which even numerous offers from transport companies are not able to satisfy.

This need is associated primarily with the low quality of services and insufficient responsibility of individual market entities. It is logical to assume that an entrepreneur who successfully avoids such negative factors can provide his company with a constant high income.

Business Features

Road transport companies account for about 4% of the total volume of cargo transportation in Russia. Of course, this industry cannot compete with railroads in productivity, but for citizens and small businesses there is simply no alternative way to transport things, goods, equipment or raw materials over short distances.

Moreover, 80% of all road carriers are small firms and individual entrepreneurs with a fleet of three to five cars. This fact is explained by the availability of light-duty vehicles to the population: for example, a business plan for cargo transportation on a Gazelle requires an investment of only 1.1 million rubles, even when purchasing a new car.

When starting to organize a business, an entrepreneur must conduct some analytical work and assess the saturation of the local market for transport services. The easiest way is to use local newspapers and other media: just count the number of classified ads from other organizations to imagine the scale of the upcoming competition. Then you should find out how many cars the companies operating nearby have at their disposal, find out the tariffs for their services and the most popular areas of activity.

Finally, you need to consider the pros and cons of the trucking business so as not to miss the opportunity to take advantage of the advantages and avoid possible risks.

Listing the main advantages, it should be mentioned that:

An entrepreneur can choose one or more of dozens of available areas and cooperate with both legal entities and individuals;
The business has enormous development potential - as the vehicle fleet expands, the profitability and profit volumes of the enterprise increase;
Unlike the transportation of passengers, transportation of goods in any volume does not require licensing;
To reduce the initial investment, equipment can be rented or arranged under a leasing agreement.

Of course, the transport business is also characterized by certain disadvantages that further complicate the activities of the entrepreneur. So:

The level of competition in this market segment is quite high;
The operation of transport is accompanied by the need for constant repair and maintenance;
The carrier is responsible for any damage to the cargo received during transportation.

Types of services

A beginner learning how to properly run a cargo transportation business should take into account that only very large companies with an extensive fleet of vehicles can afford to deliver any types of cargo for any clients. For entrepreneurs whose financial resources are limited, it is better to work with a specific type of customer at first. Finding their place in the market:

Companies delivering small cargo for private clients within one city and nearby settlements;
Firms that cooperate with trading enterprises and transport various consumer goods from city to city, as well as deliver distributor products to retail stores and warehouses;
Enterprises serving industrial or mining production, transporting various types of raw materials, semi-finished or finished products;
Intermediary companies that do not own their own fleet of vehicles and use the services of third-party carriers to service clients.

In the process of considering the question of how to open a cargo transportation business from scratch, you need to pay attention to the fact that the main service of the company in any case remains the movement of any objects over short or long distances. Depending on the type of vehicle, type of cargo and distance, all activities included here can be classified as follows:

Transportation of goods. Includes delivery of furniture, household appliances, building materials and other goods for legal entities and private customers;
Transportation of passengers. This type of activity involves servicing regular routes, transporting tourists and vacationers, as well as delivering employees of any enterprises to their place of work and back;
Moving. The service is in demand among citizens and companies transporting things from one place to another - for example, to a country house, to a new apartment or to an office;
Garbage removal. Most often, special transport is required to provide this service, but ordinary trucks can also be used to remove industrial, construction and household waste;
Special transportation. This implies the delivery of specific, oversized, perishable or dangerous goods. For these purposes, tank trucks, truck cranes, refrigerators, low-loader trawls, tow trucks, timber trucks, etc. are used.

You can increase the profitability of your cargo transportation business and win the favor of customers by providing additional services that allow customers to save money, time and resources. This includes:

Loading and unloading of goods by the contractor;
Dismantling and packaging of things, furniture;
Goods safety insurance;
Customs declaration for international transport.

Documentation

Where to start a cargo transportation business? To operate legally and safely, an entrepreneur must register his activities in the prescribed manner by contacting the local tax office. For a company with one owner, it is better to choose an individual entrepreneur, and when organizing a business with partners, it is better to choose an LLC.

Registration is carried out on the basis of an application, which should indicate the passport details of the individual, his registration address, the desired types of activity according to OKVED and the preferred taxation system. After issuing the certificate, you need to open a bank account for non-cash payments, order a stamp for documents and register with various funds.

For any entrepreneur, it is logical to want to save on tax payments. Considering the existing taxation systems and the criteria that companies applying for their use must meet, we can identify two schemes that are most loyal to cargo carriers:

USN. The simplified system is used in two versions: payment of 6% of the company’s total income or transfer of 15% of net profit (after deducting expenses). Since 2018, the use of the simplified tax system has been permitted for enterprises whose turnover for the previous year does not exceed 120 million rubles, and the value of fixed assets - 150 million rubles;
UTII. In this case, there are no restrictions on turnover, however, the number of transport units at the enterprise should not exceed 20, and the number of employees - 100 people. The rate is calculated based on the base profitability of one car (6,000 rubles) and the actual number of cars. The advantage of UTII is the possibility of deducting insurance premiums of individual entrepreneurs and transfers to funds for employees from the tax amount.

Before you open a cargo transportation business, you must also order lawyers to develop a standard contract for the provision of transportation services. When concluding an agreement with a client, this document indicates:

Exact addresses for loading and unloading of goods;
List of company employees involved in organizing transportation;
Dimensions, weight and other parameters of the cargo;
Type and characteristics of the vehicle;
The final cost of the service and the payment procedure;
Delivery terms.

In addition, each individual transportation process requires filling out a vehicle waybill, a waybill, as well as an insurance policy in case of any damage to the cargo (if such a service is available).

Car park

When drawing up a business plan for cargo transportation, an entrepreneur needs to remember that it is hardly possible to purchase cars for all occasions. Therefore, first of all, you should determine the target audience of the company, study its needs and find out the main types of cargo - for example, furniture, building materials, food, liquids, bulk substances. Based on this data, it is necessary to select vehicles designed to solve specific problems.

In the process of implementing a business idea for cargo transportation, the question of choosing between new and used cars may arise. There is no clear solution to this situation, since new models are much more expensive, and used cars require additional repairs and maintenance. However, practice shows that it is better to purchase any domestically produced vehicles in a showroom or at a factory, and foreign trucks - when they are no more than three years old. The fleet of a logistics company may include:

Light vehicles. Among domestic models, the most popular trucks and minibuses are “Gazelle Business”, “Gazelle Next”, “ZIL Bychok”, capable of transporting from 1.5 to 3 tons of cargo. The cost of a new Gazelle is from 1,100 thousand rubles, with low mileage - from 810 thousand rubles;
Isothermal vans. A sandwich panel body with thermal insulation properties is most often installed on five-ton trucks. Such vehicles can be used to transport both regular and perishable goods. The cost of three-year-old Hyundai HD65 and Hyundai HD78 cars belonging to this class is in the range of 1.9–2.2 million rubles;
Truck tractors. Designed for long-distance transportation of long cargo semi-trailers with a carrying capacity of 20–30 tons. The cost of Scania, Mercedes, Volvo, and Man trucks starts at 4 million rubles;
Trucks with open body. Various models “MAZ”, “KAMAZ”, “ZIL”, “FAW”, “Tatra” are used for transporting bulk and large cargo - sand, earth, building materials, agricultural products. This category also includes dump trucks and vehicles with trailers;
Special equipment. To transport non-standard cargo, special-purpose equipment is used - food tank trucks, fuel trucks, refrigerators, manipulators, tow trucks, low-loader trawls, car transporters.

Staff

Running a trucking business on your own is quite difficult. An entrepreneur who owns a single vehicle can still cope with administrative work, but expanding the fleet inevitably entails the need to hire additional employees, including:

Drivers. The number of drivers is determined by the vehicle load. For example, with a standard eight-hour workday, one person per vehicle is enough, for long-distance transport, two are needed, and for trucks operating around the clock, three;
Mechanic. Of course, for a vehicle fleet consisting of two cars, it is not advisable to hire a mechanic, but if the number of vehicles exceeds 5-6, you need to invite an experienced specialist to work. His responsibilities will include routine repair and maintenance of trucks, inspection before leaving the line and other measures to prevent and eliminate technical faults;
Dispatcher. As a business, cargo transportation requires constant coordination of transport operations and monitoring of the current situation in order to process orders in a timely manner. If the number of cars exceeds 2–3, the entrepreneur will need the help of a dispatcher, whose list of responsibilities will include accepting applications from clients and receiving information from drivers in the process of completing them;
Accountant. An outsourced specialist can easily handle accounting for a company that owns two trucks. If the number of vehicles exceeds five or six, it is better to hire a part-time accountant. If an entrepreneur considering how to develop a freight transportation business plans to expand the fleet to ten units or more, he cannot avoid hiring a full-time employee;
Loaders. A company providing a full range of services will definitely need loaders - qualified specialists without bad habits, who can work quickly and accurately. To create a positive image of the enterprise, they should be given a new uniform with corporate symbols;
Managers. In the early stages of organizing a cargo transportation business, you can do without office workers, however, in the future, the entrepreneur should hire a sales manager who searches for clients and a logistics manager who compiles and optimizes transport routes.

Production area

Providing transport services is considered a space-friendly activity, since you can start a cargo transportation business from scratch even in your own apartment, using a home computer and telephone. However, some clients negatively perceive this format of the company, and therefore all entrepreneurs sooner or later realize the need to rent an office.

A large area is not needed, since a maximum of five people will be at the workplace at the same time - the director, accountant, managers and dispatcher. Location is also not particularly important, since basic issues are resolved over the phone. You can rent such an office even in a large regional center for 230–250 rubles/m² per month.

Let's assume that an entrepreneur starts a cargo transportation business from scratch and has two or three cars. At this stage, he will not need the help of other support staff except the dispatcher: drivers and loaders will be constantly on the routes, and an outsourcing company will handle the accounting. Therefore, the office equipment can be represented as follows:

Office equipment

Name	price, rub.	Qty	Amount, rub.
Work table	3500	2	7000
Chair	1000	4	4000
PC or laptop	18000	2	36000
Internet connection	1000	1	1000
Telephone lines	1500	2	3000
Telephone sets	1500	2	3000
Switching equipment	2000	1	2000
MFP	11000	1	11000
Filing Cabinets	3000	1	3000
Rack	2500	1	2500
Stationery	–	–	4000
Other small equipment	–	–	5000
Total:			81500

The second important issue that must be resolved when starting a freight transportation business is finding a place to park trucks: by leaving them in the yards, the entrepreneur risks causing dissatisfaction with residents, while parking lots for cars are simply not capable of accommodating vehicles of this size. The ideal option is to have your own garages, however, finding a box more than 12 m long and more than 4 m high, as well as its construction, is not always possible. Therefore, businessmen rent space in the territories of motor depots or in specialized parking lots for trucks: the cost of one parking space here is in the range of 100–150 rubles per day.

Search for clients

As a small business, cargo transportation is of interest to many beginning entrepreneurs who have the required capital, as a result of which the level of competition in the transport services market remains quite high. To find your client, the owner of the enterprise needs to pay constant attention to promoting and finding clients, spending a significant part of the budget on this.

The most effective for attracting individuals are:

Contextual advertising in search and on thematic sites;
Advertising on social networks, maintaining your own group;
Offers of services on the Avito service;
Searching for customers and publishing proposals on portals;
Advertising and notices in free newspapers;
Posting advertisements at bus stops, near construction materials markets;
Collaboration with furniture stores, household appliances supermarkets;
Cooperation with intermediary companies;
Your own website in a one-page or full-fledged resource format.

When working with corporate customers and other entrepreneurs in the business plan of a cargo transportation company, you need to consider slightly different channels for organizing demand, including:

Participation in tenders held by large public and private companies to find performers;
Cold calls to managers of enterprises potentially in need of cargo transportation or forwarding;
Distribution of commercial offers to customers indicating the list of services, price range, terms and conditions of delivery;
Registration on popular cargo transportation portals.

Investments

For an enterprise that does not involve the construction of its own office building or warm garage boxes, the main investment will be related to the purchase of cars. Below is an example of a business plan for a freight transport company whose fleet consists of two cars - a one and a half ton Gazelle and a five ton Hyundai with an isothermal body. The presence of such trucks will allow the entrepreneur to provide a wider range of services in the transportation segments of both regular cargo and food products, as well as simultaneously work with private and corporate customers.

Initial Investment

Analyzing the structure of an enterprise's current expenses, it should be noted that many variable costs depend on the mileage of vehicles, while others appear once a year. So:

The cost of compulsory motor insurance for vehicles of the specified carrying capacity is 5880 rubles. Insurance is paid annually;
The cost of technical inspection for cars weighing up to 3.5 tons is 1100 rubles, with a weight up to 12 tons - 1900 rubles. Inspection is carried out annually;
When operating at 75% load (six hours a day), the average vehicle mileage is 120–130 kilometers per day;
The average fuel consumption in the combined cycle is from 12 liters per 100 kilometers, and the cost of diesel fuel is 30 rubles per liter;
The cost of maintenance for trucks of this class is up to 10,000 rubles per 15,000 kilometers.

Monthly expenses

Article	Amount, rub.
Office rental	4600
Rent a parking lot for two cars	6000
Maintenance and repair	4160
fuels and lubricants	22460
Transport tax	270
OSAGO	980
Technical inspection	250
Car wash	1200
Driver salaries, 2 people	56000
Salary of loaders, 2 people	32000
Dispatcher salary	12000
Insurance premiums for employees	30000
Accounting services	5000
Insurance premiums for individual entrepreneurs	2300
Marketing expenses	15000
Communications, stationery	3000
Total:	195220

You can learn how to open such a company and organize its work from video lessons on doing business in the field of cargo transportation:

Video on the topic

Revenues and profitability

Is the trucking business profitable? The profitability of an enterprise is largely determined by the effectiveness of advertising, correct pricing policy and quality of work. Average tariffs for services of transport companies in large regional centers are given below:

Tariffs for company services

Let's say the enterprise will operate on a six-day schedule with 75% load, fulfilling an average of 1-2 orders per day with the provision of loading and unloading services. Thus, the effective working day for drivers will be 6 hours, for loaders - 3 hours. These data allow you to calculate the expected monthly profit:

Enterprise profitability

Based on the results obtained, we can conclude that in order to increase profitability and reduce the payback period, the business plan of a freight transport company needs to provide for an expansion of the vehicle fleet as the customer base develops and the number of orders grows: overhead costs will grow more slowly than income.

Conclusion

The main competitive advantages of small motor transport enterprises are mobility, the ability to quickly respond to changes in the market situation and affordable prices: unlike large carriers, their owners do not need to maintain huge office buildings and additional staff.

Currently, the service market is overflowing with various types of offers. In order to find your niche, you need to work out an idea and draw up a sound business plan on how to automate your work in the future. The market for cargo transportation services is quite saturated with offers from various companies that offer optimal conditions for transporting goods. Among these enterprises there are both large “carriers” and smaller companies.

To get out of the shadow of competitors, offer high-quality services and services; for this you need to automate your business by implementing a special one. Not only will this make your work easier, but you will also quickly understand how the business of cargo transportation processes works; the KiberLog () program is perfect for you for these purposes.

How to become one of the market players? This is our review article, in which we will try to talk as clearly as possible about the features of organizing such a business.

How and where to start a cargo transportation business?

To begin with, we note that you should not delude yourself and think that everything is extremely clear - road transportation as a business is a labor-intensive and energy-consuming process. It is worth deciding on the name of the company - it should be harmonious and succinctly indicate the scope of your activity. You need to understand that you can offer your client a worthy alternative to existing “carriers”. This means that from now on the main features of your company will be integrity, quality service delivery and maximum care for the client. And then customers won’t have to wait long. There are also subtle legal formalities. Starting a trucking business doesn't require much effort. Anyone can purchase a truck, register themselves as a private entrepreneur and start their own business. But you should know that by law, at the time of transportation of things, they are for some time the property of the “carrier”, and he is responsible for them.

Start your business by registering an enterprise - you choose the form of ownership at your own discretion, but transport services must also be indicated in the KVEDs. Afterwards, your attention should be focused on team building. And at the initial stage, it would be wiser to hire people for one-time work. For the first time, it would be better to rent or lease equipment.

You should have a lawyer on your staff who can competently draw up an agreement and spell out all the subtleties and nuances. Moreover, the services market is regulated not only by generally accepted rules, but also by law. Don't be afraid to take on this responsibility. When transporting things, do not forget about such key points as vehicles of different carrying capacities, containers and packaging for the safe transportation of cargo. If you have to transport quite expensive things, for example, antiques, it is necessary to stipulate a certain percentage in the contract, since, we remind you, responsibility, including financial responsibility for the cargo, lies with you. Work on 100% prepayment and non-cash basis.

If the cargo is damaged during transportation, then after the fact it is possible to draw up a report so that the amount of damage can be assessed. But the main thing is that you fulfilled your obligations and the move took place. The location of the office does not always play a key role. You can build a business in such a way that the client does not come to you, but on the contrary, you come to him.

In order for customers to learn more about your company, create your own website indicating a list of services; tariff schedule; brands and tonnage of trucks; company data and contact information.

Let's summarize how to organize cargo transportation and what is necessary for this: - register an enterprise; — rent/buy an office building or a separate office; — staff (lawyer, drivers and loaders can be general workers, telephone dispatcher, accountant); — trucks (at least two to start with); — If it is not possible to buy a car, you can become an intermediary between the customer and the carrier, for this purpose; — bank account in case of payment by bank transfer; — container and packaging; - legally correctly drawn up documents (contract; act of completion of work, act of compensation for damage; - your own web resource (if possible); - adopt and use software for managing an enterprise in the field of cargo transportation, for example our system.

Happy business!

2005 year. Several years have passed since I graduated from university, and I still haven’t found any meaningful use for it. I am a historian by profession, but history did not interest me. However, from his youth, he more than once noticed his interest in commerce, managerial impulses and all kinds of financial schemes. While still studying at the university, I created the youth public organization “Our Choice” under the Youth Affairs Committee of the city of N (later they even prepared me for the position of Chairman of the Youth Affairs Committee). However, due to social activities, I didn’t feel full at that moment, and the desired “Mercedes” didn’t appear either (I had a very strong passion for the automotive industry since childhood).

And then one day, driving along the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway on an autumn day, I noticed an insanely large number of trucks flying along the road. Apparently, at that moment the idea came to me to start an automobile business, or more precisely, a business related to cargo transportation. I immediately opened the Internet, magazines, newspapers, in short, I was looking for information about what kind of business this is and what it is used for! In the end, I realized one thing - that I didn’t understand anything, besides, this business is carried out either by the former heads of the “Sovdep ATP”, who fell into their hands during the “times of general division”, or by criminal structures. Somehow at that moment my enthusiasm diminished, but my interest did not disappear, I would even say it increased. I even had to go to the highway and talk to the drivers, saying, well, I want to buy a truck. Over the next two to three months, I studied the type of business and worked out the math for this project. I found out that there are two types of this “transportation” business. The first is when you went, bought yourself a truck, put the driver in the driver’s seat, sent him on a flight and you sit there, waiting for him to bring you a lot of money for the trips he has taken (this is how I told it in a simplified version). This option was somehow not very suitable for me, since I didn’t have the money to buy myself a used Mercedes, which I so dreamed of, let alone a truck! But somehow I immediately liked the second type of this business. I thought, this is my topic! It consisted of the following... All these truck owners, after all, turn to someone for cargo, are looking for cargo in order to load the truck and transport the cargo? That’s right, they are looking for and finding all sorts of different dispatchers (although there were several tens of thousands of them in Russia). The dispatcher's task is to find someone who needs to transport their cargo, and to find someone who can transport it. True, there are still many details and subtasks for the dispatcher, but... more on that later. It was in this simple formula “out of thin air” that a small but frequent profit was formed from each flight. And the more trucks you load and the more often they drive back and forth, the greater and greater the profit.

As a result, I borrowed 50 thousand rubles from a friend. I registered an LLC (RUB 7,000), rented an office for a month (RUB 8,000), bought a computer, fax and printer (RUB 20,000) and, of course, connected to the Internet. I left the rest of the money as a reserve, you never know!

First work day. I'm sitting and surfing the Internet. I don’t understand what I’m looking for there. I browse various sites (specialized ones, of course). By that time, I already had contacts of several drivers who agreed that if I had any cargo (for good money), they would be ready to transport it. So I’m sitting on the Internet, rummaging around, so to speak, looking for clients. And suddenly, I accidentally end up on a site in which there is a large list of these drivers themselves and the clients themselves, and even all the contacts are available, however, for money (the guys who came up with that site, thank you very much, I will never forget you!).

As a result, I paid a couple of thousand from my current account, received 30-day access to contacts... and off I went! This is where my work began. I call some, offer cargo, call others, offer transport. And so from 8:00 to 18:00 every day. And I’m not the only one, there are thousands of them online all over Russia. After 18:00 I make all sorts of lists (now these are databases) of drivers and customers who are at least somehow interested in my proposals. True, sometimes I had to fib, like the trucks were mine. Otherwise, who would work with me? You'd think it was just another intermediary! Even though I was like that at that time. Well, what to do, it was worth starting somewhere.

As a result, in the first week I shipped about 8 cars and earned 12,000 rubles, in the second another 12 cars, and so on... in a month I paid off the “debt” 50 thousand rubles and was very pleased! With accounting and reporting, thank God, my mother helped, she is an experienced accountant.

I work and work, and in the middle of the second month I contact one customer who ships a lot of cars per day with his products. I'm calling. I suggest. I'm getting kicked off. Like, they say, “We have a ton of our own carriers, we haven’t had enough of you here yet!” Okay, I think you’re not the only one in Russia. And I forget about them. Fortunately, this business allows you to cover a large geography, as long as you have a telephone and the Internet. Then I found a couple more small customers and so little by little, “one by one,” the money seemed to start appearing.

Several weeks pass, it is already approaching the New Year. And then the call. A representative of the plant that “knocked me off” calls and says that they don’t have enough cars before the new year, and they started delivering products to a new region and did not have time to develop connections with local carriers. They ask for help. Of course, I'm not a vindictive guy! I agreed. But the representative says that we need to meet and discuss the nuances. I agree, meaning by this an official acquaintance and the conclusion of a written contract with a price agreement. In principle, this is exactly what happened, although in my office, and not at the customer’s plant (which surprised me a little). And it was not for nothing that this surprised me, since at the end of the conversation I was told that the cost of each transportation for which I agreed should be increased by 1000 rubles, and this amount should be transferred to this representative personally and monthly as a reward for the contract and support provided For all questions. I took a couple of days to think about it. After consulting with “experienced people,” I came to the conclusion “apparently everyone works this way.”

The customer really turned out to be a very serious client; I supplied 8-10 cars a day to just one of his plants with a profit of 2,000 rubles. And there were three factories. By that time, I had already hired a deputy, an accountant, a couple of dispatch managers and a secretary-operator. The work was in full swing. I am constantly on the road, meeting with new clients, carriers, constantly discussing transportation directions, rates, resolving controversial issues, etc. In short, what I dreamed of, real business activity! Everything was going great, new areas of business were added, and we even had to move the entire business to Moscow. Of course, with most of the staff. The move to Moscow was accompanied by emotional joy. Buying an apartment, a car, renting a beautiful and spacious office in a modern business center. In short, life got better!

The business also grew, the company became recognizable in its field. Among the main clients by that time there were already Wimm-Bill-Dann, Russian Alcohol, Rossstekloprom, Russian Aluminum, etc.

An interesting story happened with Wimm-Bill-Dann. For a very long time they refused to cooperate with us in the field of freight transportation. And I annoyed them so much that they could no longer see me, unless I spent the night with them. As a result, I was very familiar with the logistics department and its boss, who would not mind working with us, but there were no instructions from above, therefore, there was no contract. As a result, after two months I “lured” almost the entire transport department and the boss to my company. Of course, for very good money. And literally three days later I received a call from the management that almost their entire transport department had quit and there was no one to deal with the supply of transport. As a result, my guys were now busy supplying transport to their former plant. As you understand, I and now my employees had no problems with this. True, all this was revealed four months later, in the end they were offered an even more favorable salary, and they changed employers again. Although what was to be expected, since they came so easily, they should have left just as easily. But I drew a lot of conclusions from this situation. First of all, I was closely involved in the staff and their motivation, so that in the future employees would not easily leave me.

So 2006-2007 passed, then 2008 ended, and by the end of the year I felt something was wrong. In some strange way, clients began to pay for services, or rather, I would say, they stopped paying at all. And....here comes the CRISIS!

Back in August 2008, our company created a new direction, or rather, new relationships with financial institutions. Title of the area: “Management of illiquid transport assets of banks and leasing companies.” We understood perfectly well that problems in the banking sector would, first of all, affect our company. By that time, we were planning to expand our truck fleet and were preparing for a deal with the leasing company “N” to purchase 40 units of vehicles. The contract value was about 4.8 million euros. Preparation and verification took about two months, then the leasing company requested additional documents, and the review dragged on for several more months. As a result, when everything was agreed upon, and we were even given a positive decision from the credit committee with the management’s signature and seal, and we were ready to make an advance payment, this leasing company sends us a notice of suspension of financing, because the head office (in Europe) was not ready for financing. It became clear that if everything is so vague with the leasing company “N”, what can we do with the others! Then it was decided to start working with the banking sector under the program “Management of Illiquid Transport Assets”. By that time, the crisis had greatly affected the cargo transportation industry, and many companies that failed to prepare for cost optimization measures and develop an anti-crisis strategy began to go bankrupt. Since our company mainly works with single-customers (where at least 30 regional shipments are made from the client every day), we were prepared for the harsh conditions of competition.

Leased property was confiscated and returned to creditors on a daily basis. Banks and leasing companies had no idea what to do with it, sell it? And to whom? All car showrooms and dealers themselves cannot sell their equipment.

We approached banks and leasing companies with an offer to manage these trucks. Our lawyers and financiers have developed several management options. Basically, we relied on the fact that when managing the illiquid assets of banks and leasing companies, their balance of payments remains positive (we pay for debtors), overdue payments are significantly reduced, and the assets are redeemed at the end of the year at their residual value by our company. These measures allowed many banks and leasing companies to free themselves from illiquid (problem) assets.

This direction of “Management of illiquid transport assets” allowed our company to avoid risky investments, adapt to the crisis liquidity of transport assets and create the necessary fleet of vehicles, which is one of the most important competitive advantages in the field of road freight transportation.

Briefly, this is one of the options for how we solved the problem of lack of financial resources to increase the fleet.

And then one day, driving along the Moscow-St. Petersburg highway on an autumn day, I noticed an insanely large number of trucks flying along the road. Apparently, at that moment the idea came to me to start an automobile business, or more precisely, a business related to cargo transportation. I immediately opened the Internet, magazines, newspapers, in short, I was looking for information about what kind of business this is and what it is used for! In the end, I realized one thing - that I didn’t understand anything, besides, this business is carried out either by the former heads of the “Sovdep ATP”, who fell into their hands during the “times of general division”, or by criminal structures. Somehow at that moment my enthusiasm diminished, but my interest did not disappear, I would even say it increased. I even had to go to the highway and talk to the drivers, saying, well, I want to buy a truck. Over the next two to three months, I studied the type of business and worked out the math for this project. I found out that there are two types of this “transportation” business. The first is when you went, bought yourself a truck, put the driver in the driver’s seat, sent him on a flight and you sit there, waiting for him to bring you a lot of money for the trips he has taken (this is how I told it in a simplified version). This option was somehow not very suitable for me, since I didn’t have the money to buy myself a used Mercedes, which I so dreamed of, let alone a truck! But somehow I immediately liked the second type of this business. I thought, this is my topic! :) It was as follows... All these truck owners are turning to someone for cargo, looking for cargo to load the truck and transport the cargo? That’s right, they are looking for and finding all sorts of different dispatchers (although there were several tens of thousands of them in Russia). The dispatcher's task is to find someone who needs to transport their cargo, and to find someone who can transport it. True, there are still many details and subtasks for the dispatcher, but... more on that later. It was in this simple formula “out of thin air” that a small but frequent profit was formed from each flight. And the more trucks you load and the more often they drive back and forth, the greater and greater the profit.