The Staff of Entrepreneur Media - Transportation Service: Step-By-Step Startup Guide

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

Cover Design: The Staff of Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

Production and Composition: Eliot House Productions

2016 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Requests for permission or further information should be addressed to the Business Products Division, Entrepreneur Media Inc.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Transportation Service: Entrepreneurs Step-by-Step Startup Guide,

ISBN: 978-1-61308-338-3

Previously published as

Start Your Own Transportation Service, ISBN: 978-1-59918-585-9,

2016 by Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved.

Start Your Own Business, 6th Edition,, ISBN: 978-1-59918-556-9,

2015 Entrepreneur Media, Inc., All rights reserved.

Contents

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Table of Contents

T he transportation industry in America is alive and well. And there are so many entrance points that anyone interested in starting a small business could find something in the transportation industry that would interest them and utilize their strengths and skills.

One consistent piece of advice we received from all transportation business ownersadvice that is common with all small-business startupsis that you cannot do enough planning before you start your business. And one important part of planning is to talk with others in the field you intend to enter. Transportation covers a wide range of serviceswe interviewed a taxi cab service, a horse transport business, and a helicopter business, showing with just those three businesses how diverse this field is! And each one of them has its own set of complex regulations. Hauling livestock requires knowledge on interstate agricultural regulations, helicopter service is subject to a huge array of federal aviation regulations, and any service carrying human passengers is highly regulatedsomething that the popularity of the five-year-old ride service Uber has challenged as antiquated. But despite regulations, the transportation field offers some lucrative and creative business possibilities.

Planning is important and made easier with the amount of information available on the internet. Government regulations might be hard to slog through, but you can do it in the comfort of your own home without having to print out hundreds of pages.

Dont forget to look up from the computer and talk to people who have been in your shoes and gone on to run successful transportation businesses. Utilize the SCORE program of retired executive advisors. While these entrepreneurs may not have kept up on the most recent changes in regulations, they have great advice and experience to draw on.

So sit back, relax, and read about what you need to do to get off on the right foot in this intriguing industry known as transportation. This is admittedly just the tip of the iceberg of the research you will need to do and the planning you will need to put to paper, but you have to start somewhere. This book will launch you on one of the more interesting journeys of your career.

F rom taxis to limousines to bicycle rentals, moving vans, and long-haul transport of refrigerated goods, the transportation industry has a wide range of entry points. Whatever your particular interest is, there is likely a transportation business that can fulfill it.

But first, lets look at small business as a whole.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses (defined as those with 250 or fewer employees) employ 56.1 million of the nations private workforce. Firms with fewer than 100 employees make up the largest part of small-business employment.

That said, small business is far from immune to the ups and downs of business cycles. It has taken a while for the small-business sector to recover from the recession in the late 2000s. Just in 2015 did birthing of companies exceed the exit rate, a trend not seen since 2007 according to Business.com. Small businesses are the forefront of our economy.... Every minute, a new business in the U.S. is started and according to some people, more than 50% of all workers will be self-employed by 2020. (The State of Small Business in 2015, May 5, 2015, by Betsy Scuteri, www.business.com.)