How to make money with a box truck

The main ways to make money with a box truck are local delivery contracts, moving and junk hauling, freight from load boards, gig apps, and renting the sides of the truck to an advertiser. The first four pay you to drive. The last one pays you for miles you already drive.

You do not have to pick one. A steady contract can cover the fixed costs while app or load-board work fills the empty days. If you run one truck, you are not alone: about 59 percent of active US motor carriers run a single power unit, according to the FMCSA company census.

You get local delivery contracts by going straight to businesses that move bulky goods across town, or by subcontracting to a carrier that already holds those accounts. Furniture and appliance stores, building supply yards and food and beverage distributors often need a box truck they can count on.

Bring what a buyer wants to see: a certificate of insurance, a clean truck, a lift gate or pallet jack if the freight needs one, and a plan for the day the truck is in the shop. One customer with a weekly schedule beats ten one-off calls.

Last-mile work for large retailers often comes through a contractor with its own rules. Read that contract for exclusivity, how you are paid, and who pays for damaged freight.

Yes. Moving and junk removal let you find customers in your own area and set your own prices, with no broker in between. They also take the most physical work and the most marketing.

• Moving: most jobs need a helper, blankets, straps, a hand truck and a ramp or lift gate. Quote by the hour or by the job, in writing, before you load.
• Junk removal: price disposal into every quote. Dumps and recyclers charge by weight or volume, and items like tires and electronics often have their own rules.
• Licensing: moving household goods for the public is regulated. Local moves fall under your state's rules, and moves across state lines need federal registration as a household goods carrier. Check both before you advertise.
• Marketing: real reviews and referrals from real estate agents and property managers bring in more local work than flyers.

Load boards are marketplaces where brokers and shippers post loads, and box truck owners book the ones that fit under their own operating authority. Boards such as DAT and Truckstop list loads of every size.

To haul freight for hire across state lines, you need a USDOT number and interstate operating authority, which comes with an MC number. Amazon Relay is one example of what freight programs ask. It accepts 16 and 26 foot box trucks with a working lift gate, and wants authority active for at least 180 days, a valid MC number, at least $1 million in auto liability and $100,000 in cargo insurance.

Expedite is the other freight lane for box trucks: urgent freight that has to move now, often one shipment per truck. It suits owners who can stay on call. It does not suit someone with a day job.

Delivery and moving-help apps that accept box trucks send you single jobs through your phone, and each sets its own rules for the truck, the driver and the insurance. Bungii is one example: its driver page lists box trucks, and asks box truck drivers for an active USDOT number, a pallet jack, and their own liability and cargo insurance.

Apps are good for filling empty days and learning what local customers pay. They are a hard way to cover a truck payment alone, because you do not control how many jobs come in. Before you sign up, check four things:

• Does your insurance cover this work? A personal policy may not.
• Who pays if the goods are damaged?
• How, and how fast, do you get paid?
• Does the app take your truck's size and equipment?

Insurance, fuel, maintenance and the truck payment decide whether a box truck business makes money, and the only number that tells you is your own cost per mile, not someone else's average.

Price insurance first, because the work you want sets the minimum. Get quotes before you buy the truck. Fuel and maintenance grow with every mile, loaded or empty, and a set of tires or a lift gate repair can wipe out a slow month, so put money aside every week.

1. 01

   Add up fixed costs

   Truck payment or lease, insurance, registration, phone, apps and parking, for one month.

2. 02

   Add running costs

   Fuel, tires, maintenance, repairs, tolls and helpers, for the same month.

3. 03

   Divide by every mile

   Use all the miles the truck drove that month, including the empty miles back to the yard.

4. 04

   Test every job

   Take a job only if it pays more than your cost per mile for the loaded and empty miles together.

How much a box truck driver makes depends on who owns the truck. A driver employed by someone else earns a wage. An owner keeps what is left after every cost.

For an owner, the math is easy to write and hard to run: what you bill, minus your cost per mile times every mile driven, minus helpers, fees and days off the road. A figure that skips the empty miles or the slow weeks is not your figure, which is why we do not print one here. Ask owners near you what local work pays, and run it through your own cost per mile.

Yes. Pass By Media pays box truck owners every month to carry an ad on the sides of the truck, on the routes they already drive. You take no extra trips, so it adds income without adding miles or hours.

The average single-unit truck in the US drives 10,880 miles a year, about 907 a month, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Those miles happen either way, and an ad lets the sides earn on them.

• Your pay is set per truck and route, and written into your agreement before anything goes on. It arrives monthly by direct deposit, from the day the ad goes on.
• A bolted aluminum frame holds a printed banner. No adhesive touches the paint, and we install and remove it at your yard. See how the frame works.
• You approve every ad before it prints and can block whole categories.
• Free to apply. We never send checks and never ask you to pay for anything. How to know it is really us.
• Refer another owner and get $500 when their truck gets an ad installed.

If the truck is leased, get the leasing company's written OK first. And any ad on your truck must leave your USDOT number and company name readable and your lights and reflectors clear, as federal rules require.

Car ad programs do not fit a box truck: Carvertise, for one, does not take commercial vehicles. If you also drive a car, read ads on your car before you answer any offer. We take box trucks of 16 to 26 feet and 53-foot trailers anywhere in the United States. See the full deal for truckers.

Start with work that needs no new authority: a moving-help app that takes your truck, local businesses you can call this week, and an application for truck-side ads, which costs nothing. Add load boards once your authority and insurance are in place.

1. 01

   Check your papers

   Registration, insurance that covers commercial work, and a USDOT number if your work or an app requires one.

2. 02

   Find one paying lane

   Sign up with one app and call five local businesses that move bulky goods. Take the work that beats your cost per mile.

3. 03

   Track every mile

   Log revenue, costs and miles from day one. After a month you will know your real cost per mile.

4. 04

   Rent the sides

   Apply for truck-side ads. It takes two minutes and pays on miles you drive anyway.