Hotshot Trucking Business Plan: Free Template and Worksheet

A hotshot trucking business plan does two jobs. It gets you a loan if you need one, and it makes you do the math before you buy a truck instead of after. This page gives you a free fill-in template, a cost-per-mile worksheet you can open in Excel or Google Sheets, and the EXAMPLE numbers that show how the pieces connect.

Downloads: business plan template (.txt) · cost-per-mile worksheet (.csv)

What a lender wants to see

The SBA lists eight sections for a traditional business plan, with five years of financial projections and more detail in the first year (SBA). For an equipment loan on a hotshot rig, lenders focus on a few things in those sections:

• Experience. Driving and trucking history, and anything that shows you can run the business side.
• Equipment and its ratings. What you're buying, its value, and whether it fits the freight in your plan.
• Realistic revenue. Miles and rates you can defend, not best-case numbers.
• Costs. Real insurance quotes, payments and fuel at current prices.
• Cash cushion. Months of fixed costs you can cover if loads are slow or the truck is down.

Template sections, with EXAMPLE answers

1. Executive summary. One paragraph. EXAMPLE: "Rivera Hotshot LLC will haul construction equipment and building materials across Texas and Oklahoma with a non-CDL dually and a 32 ft gooseneck. We request $42,000 for the trailer, insurance down payment and three months of working capital."

2. Company description. Structure, state, EIN, USDOT and MC status, home base and radius.

3. Market analysis. The freight you'll haul, where it comes from, your lanes and their seasons. Name brokers or shippers you've already spoken to.

4. Management. Who drives, who finds loads, who keeps the books, who handles compliance.

5. Service. Your equipment and its numbers. EXAMPLE: "Truck GVWR 14,000 lb; trailer plated at 12,000 lb, weighing 7,400 lb empty; freight capacity 4,600 lb; non-CDL."

6. Marketing and sales. How you'll get loads in the first 90 days, and your minimum rate per total mile.

7. Funding request. How much, for what, and how you'll repay it.

8. Financial projections. Year one by month, years two to five by year, built from the worksheet.

The startup budget behind section 7 is broken down in our hotshot startup cost guide, and the startup cost calculator adds it up.

Revenue and cost worksheet

The worksheet turns your costs into a cost per mile and a minimum rate. Here's how the EXAMPLE values work out:

Cost-per-mile worksheet, one truckEXAMPLE

Fixed costs per month$2,810

Miles per month, loaded and empty7,500

Fixed cost per mile$0.37

Fuel: $3.80/gal ÷ 12 mpg$0.32

Maintenance, tires, tolls$0.18

Cost per mile$0.87

Profit target per mile$0.60

Minimum rate per total mile (with 7% dispatch)$1.58

EXAMPLE values. The fixed costs are a $1,300 truck payment, $350 trailer payment, $900 insurance, $120 for ELD and phone, $40 for registrations and $100 for accounting. Replace every one with your own; insurance is the line most first-time plans get wrong, so use a real quote (hotshot insurance guide). Use the current diesel price for your region from the EIA.

The worksheet also gives break-even miles: how many miles a month you need at your expected rate to cover every cost. If that number is more than your truck can realistically run, the plan needs a better rate, lower costs or a different setup before you buy.

Tips that make a plan believable

• Use real quotes. Lenders spot round numbers.
• Count empty miles. Plan for a share of your miles to be empty; use total miles everywhere.
• Show a slow month. One page showing what happens in a month with 30% fewer miles builds more trust than an optimistic average.
• Keep it short. Ten pages a lender reads beat forty they don't.

The full sequence of registrations to go with the plan is in how to start a hotshot business.