which size lst truck

[Lodgeicalchoice]

I intend to start pumping in 2010 and am trying to decide between a 3600gl or a 2500gal truck. What do you porfessionals think?

I kind of got the idea of the difference between the two trucks but not sure what is best considering I am splitting myselfe in two directions and the fact that I don't live near a place to unload or any real population. The 2 real competitors do.

My Situation:
*This would be my first & primary truck
*I'm Rurally located between two counties and 3 towns
*12K housholds in one county and 17K in the other
*10miles one way and 24mi. the other to a treatment plant
*Start with parking @ home between runs
*servicing about a 30-35mile radius each direction
*competitors run mostly 2500gl. tanks

Considerations
*Plan to start with a used truck with 100-200K miles
*Small truck is lighter and lower for rural driveways
*Bigger truck allows me to do more tanks before the drive to unload
*Smaller is probably better on disel?
*3600gl truck has more rear tires & surface area/weight which is probably better in the commonly dirt driveways?

What do you think?

[Trent]

First of all, there is no perfect sized truck. I have a 3400 gallon truck and a 1700 gallon truck. They both have there purposes. However I would start with the 3600 gallon truck. Your travel time will be greatly reduced. They can be a real pain in the butt to get in some peoples driveways but you can usually fit them in somehow. Just make sure to carry enough hose in case you have to park on the street or around the house from the tank. We carry 180 to 200 feet on our trucks. Plus we have to ability to take from one truck to cover the other.

The next trick is to schedule your work so you can fill the truck in one area before you move on the the next.

[KPToilets]

I have a small 1100 gallon pump truck. When I am really busy I hate it. All the time wasted running back to unload (I land apply), but on average day when I pump 2-3 tanks and its not bad. It keep me busy all day and not rushed.
My suggestion is to think of how much pumping you want to do. If you think that you are going to pump 6000 gallon a day you need at least a 2500 gallon truck, 10,000 a day you need a bigger one.

You said you have 29,000 people in your counties, 1/3 of them might be on city sewer, that leaves you with 19,300 potential customers. 1/3 of them will have there tank pumped every 3 years, that give you 6,430 potential customers. The other 2/3 of 19,300 might have it pump every 10 years which give you 1,287 more potential customers. Give you a total of 7,717 yearly customers.

The first yearif your LUCKY you might get 5-10% of the total business, that mean 350-771 pump-outs, about 1 to 2 jobs a day, on average. A small truck would do you fine. Once you got to 25% of your market or 1,929 pump outs a year or 5.3 jobs a day, you need a big truck or two smaller ones.

You need to Know your market. The customer that have there tank pumped every 3 years are not going to use you for a long time because they will call who they have always called.

The 10 year customer will use who is cheapest or first to get there, you might only do 100 jobs the first year.

Don’t underestimate your competitors if they are big there is a reason and they might bite back.

[Lodgeicalchoice]

to:KP Toilets
Your approach is following my train of thought. I have no idea how many gallons I'll be pumping a day though.

1)My strongest competitor bought his business from my pumper who offered to sell me the business years ago but it didn't fit my life at the time. He told me that there was no way I could do his business part time because he was overwhelmed with work. The new guy has 1 new truck and expanding with portable toilets now.

2)My household #'s are pretty accurate. I took the population #'s and subtracted the villages that I know have sewer.

3) I can start part time because I'm in a different career that I can retire from in Sept. I work nights and can do both until it gets too busy.

Your reply helps a lot and has very good points.

[KPToilets]

First people sell their businesses for 3 reasons,
1 tired of it or ready to retire, 2 someone offered them a lot of money, 3 the business is in bad shape( date equipment, low profit, change in market and to many competitor ). Maybe the guy who was selling his business knew something.

Is the guy that bought the business adding toilets, doing this because he had time to take on something else because he wasn’t busy, or had so much business he wanted to expand.

My suggestion is, if you really want to do this is, keep you job, buy a truck now not later and test the water. Keep you job as long as you can as you build a business, if necessary hire part-time help while you still have your job, and give the business a fighting change. If it tanks you still have your job to help pay of the equipment. You could postpone your retirement a year or two to recover your losses.

[Lodgeicalchoice]

What your last thread described is what my plans are. The priviouse owner was in his 60's and did retire. I need to get my ducks (business class series, business plan with more thought & more $ in the bank for murphy's law), in row befor I start though. So next year is the plan.

[Dennis]

Gearhead perspective;
A good truck mechanic can help with the chassis. My biggest precaution would be tank condition. How long before you're patching or replacing the tank?