How to Start A Successful Passenger transportation Business [With Free Tips From Experts]

How to Start A Passenger Transportation Business From Stratch

As a small business owner you want to start transportation business, passenger transportation is a needed service in almost every economic situation, as there will always be individuals, groups and items that need to be transported from place to place, from from street to street and from road to road.

Is it not so? This is a good and faultless reason why you should walk into the transport business startup.

Transportation business is the most lucrative business we ever know. 

But however, stories of transportation business failures remain more rampant in the transportation sector than in any other business sector in this country. 

And this is the reason why we said starting a transport business can seem like a daunting task. According to the experts, once you have all of the pieces in place, passenger transportation can indeed be a very lucrative business that you can make a fortune from. 

So this article of SMBIGS we received views from such different experts and successful transporters in the local paper we read brings you that you can avoid failures in the transportation business and it will help you to learn how you can make a fortune from it. 

How to Start A Transportation Business

No.1: You can start with a motorcycle (which is now an endangered item in some of parts of the country), tricycle, technically called Auto-Rickshaw, cab-registered or unregistered and buses. 

Now, for instance, we have what is called corporate cabs, if you want to be part of Red cabs, which is one of the new corporate cab services, you can go to their offices in this country and discuss with them.

And they will tell you what you are to do. And if you can meet their conditions and make little payments to them, they will give you the cab to you and after you might have deflated the cost of the cab, it becomes yours. But if you have your own financial capacity, you can buy your own vehicle.

No.2: You can start transport business with just one vehicle. If you want to start with two to three vehicles, there will be problems unless you have old or long experiences in transport business before or you have under the tutelage of your boss as a conductor. 

This is owning to the fact that when you start any business as a new entrant, there are lots of challenges that will come your way. 

May be you decide to start with two or three vehicles because of your financial buoyancy, I ask you a question: "Have you done it before? If your answer is no, then start small as a test. 

No.3: It is said by Mr. Aniobia, the owner and operator of Keke Marwa, that it depends on the type of transport business you want to go into, for instance, some people prefer Okada transport while some others prefer Keke Marwa transport business or even inter state business. 

According to him, he was into tricycle( Keke Marwa) because with little fund, he would be able to be successful though there are risks. 

No.4: Before walking into transport business startup to buy type of bus or car, you are advised to seek advice from those who have experienced and can be trusted about the type of bus or car to buy and the route such vehicles can ply successfully. 

What Are The Regrets Of Those Who Are Into Transport Business? 

There can be no regret if you get it right. As a passenger transportation service provider, you are either riding your tricycle, driving your cab or your bus yourself or you can give it to somebody else and the person will be delivering money to you daily.

But you are at risk if you don't know how to drive this cab or bus yourself. You won't have a full complement of this.

For instance, if you have a bus and you want to give it out to a driver, he will bring 5k to you daily. But believe me that if you drive it yourself, you will go home with about 11k or 12k every day after fuelling it. 

You can even decide to stop the day's work by 6pm while the driver you give out to will be parking your bus or cab around 9 or 10 pm and also bringing you 5k. 

Guess what? The depreciation rate of the bus is faster and you will lose much profit. So you are advised to drive yourself or learn to drive yourself. 

You don't need to drive for the whole day. You can work for just six hours. You can decide to work two hours in the morning, between 5am and 7am.

And by the time you park your bus around 7am, you are probably going home about 3k.

You come out in the evening, between 6pm and 10pm, you are going home with about 5k. Which one: you want to give it out to the driver that will bring you 5k daily for just 15 hours or you drive yourself that will bring you 12k or more daily?

If you want to give out your bus or cab to the driver, you need to have device strategies to handle him. You need to give him a law that he must follow it up.

If a driver gives you headaches and devices a crooked means of making more money from the bus than you, just collect it from him and let him know that you know what he is doing. Then he will stop cheating you. 

Choose marshals or secret monitoring team who will inspect or monitor secretly for you at your absence if you want to manage a transport company. 

Challenges on transport business

There are challenges, depending on the area of transport you are involved. Any service provider who drives a cab or bus has also his own challenges. 

For instance, one of the challenges is that if you do not drive a cab or bus and you give it out to the driver, you are at risk because you are unfortunate to have a crooked driver. They can devise ways to swindle you on tyres. So you need to have tyre rotation. You need alignment and wheel balancing to keep track of it. 

Let us talk about maintain challenge. We have routine maintenance and emergency maintenance. And routine maintenance is what you should do normal oil filter change, plug change, fluid top up, like brake fluid. 

These four things you do them during routine maintenance. Emergency maintenance occurs when there is an emergency. You keep one tyre for future emergency if there is suddenly exhausted burst or lost a tyre that you should like to replace or fix it.

The second challenge you face one or other problems is security agencies. So you need to have Union that will help you to solve a problem between you and them or rescue you from them. 

The third challenge you face is accident, nightly robbery, safety officials, Area boys and stolen loads. So to avoid risks in the future, you need to register with all transport unions that will protect for you.

Whatever you face little problems on the road, you can take it to them for solution.

But one thing they can not do anything for you is if your vehicle is impounded; if your road certificate is invalid; if you do not have a fire extinguisher and C-Cautiion. It shows that you contravene safety officials'own laws.

For the Area boys, I am not sure. I am not sure we or our state government can eradicate them because they are controlled by some transport unions for one reason or the other. 

They become entrenched in some where in different individual cities. If you know how to play your game with the Area boys,there would have no problems. 

How Lucrative Is Transport Business? 

It is so lucrative because there is nobody who does not need transportation services. Every body needs passenger transportation service for plying work, plying school, marketing purchases, traveling holidays, etc. 

Where there is dense population, there is transportation service needed. Where there is existing passengers, there is transport business life. People needing transportation service everyday indicates how lucrative the business is. It is a very profitable transport business.

But it can be your financial wreack any time if you dont plan for your future security on exchange in car, bus, tricycle or spare parts. The more lucrative the business is, the more it can financially wreck you if care is not taken because you spend all your reserved money on any defects. 

To guard against ups and downs in transport business is to save for future emergency each time you make money or to buy spare parts or buy second handed new vehicle and keep it in case that your cab, bus or tricycle or its spare parts develops any defects. 

Not all drivers and owners are rich, depending on their financial habits. What destroys their financial robustness is their spending habits or to spend on defects they do not plan before.

How Much Does It Cost You To start transportation business? 

It depends on your financial power. It depends on how much you have to buy. You decide which vehicle you want to purchase.

If you don't have financial capacity, you can go to the chairman of the motorcycle association, the tricycle association, the cab association, bus association of your choice at its Park. 

And discuss with them and they will look for you. Before you are allowed to drive a vehicle, you are required to register with all documents.

If you have 250k and buy that vehicle, you can break even in less than six months. It means you can make 100% or 200 % returns on investment in one years if it is well managed or maintained. 

Success Secrets In Transportation Business

1. To grow your transportation business is to depend on your vision for business growth.

If your vision is to grow that transport business from one vehicle to two or more ones, then you must be ready to put in place strict control and/ or strict maintenance regimen. 

You must be able to separate your business from your family life-- your income from the business must be treated as proper business. 

If you make 10k in a day, you must let it pass into a dedicated account. And if you want to touch it, you must replace it as you borrow from it. 

That is the only way you can grow. That is an example you must practice as many transportation businesses fail to practice it. They spend lavishly as money come to them. 

2. The first thing you should do is to make a must it to give your time. The most important is God. The second thing is sincerity and dedication you must give. 

And if you do it, then you are able to get one or two vehicles from a good vehicle dealer or company that you will make installment payments to them because they have confidence in you. 

3. When your vehicle is faulty, give it to engineer or a mechanic and if they tell you the exact fault, instead of telling them to do it, go and get parts yourself. 

4. Drive a vehicle yourself if you want to make more money daily. If you want to give a vehicle out to the driver, you have to find a marshal or a team that will monitor for you. 

5.Take things easy. Don't rush to make millions or thousands at a go. 

6. Find a good and motorable vehicle that a driver won't give you a headache or won't complain about one or the other 

Advice For New Entrants

1. Decide which vehicle you want to run. Be it a motorcycle; be it a tricycle; be it a cab; be it a bus. 

2.Decide which route you want to run. Be it intra-city transport service; be it intra-state or be it mini intra-state 

3. Some among transport route brings you more profit daily than other route in the same city or in the state from place to another place in the far distance. 

Choose which one is better. Choose any transportation route that will bring you more comfort and more peace and best profit daily.

You make more or less profit daily, depending on type of transport route you choose and on type of vehicle you choose to.  

For instance, with Tata Star bus, you make close to 45k daily if you operate a driver, but you make close to 100k daily if you drive yourself. 

And with cab or bus, you make close to 15k or more daily, depending on type of route you choose to drive for plying passengers. 

4. Once you are into the passenger transportation business, you must ensure that you are on the law in everything you do. This will guard you against spending more money on fines.

5. Obey all the traffic rules and regulations. And that you have all the paraphernalia of safety that road officials will look out for. 

6. And that make sure all your vehicle documents are valid in respect to vehicle administration- vehicle license, hackney permit for commercial vehicle, insurance- third party or whichever you have -and your maintenance culture should be high.

7. You must check yourself as an operator. You must learn to be tolerant, patient, considerate in your part and compassionate for other road users. Never overtake whatever you see on the zebra road or the road. Learn to control your emtions on the road.

8. To choose a driver you want to give vehicle out to is make sure that they are certified and qualified or responsible. Make sure that you do background checks on them. 

Even if they have passed out from driving school and a driving licence, you need to ask yourself some questions: 'Do they know all the traffic rules and regulations? Are they a good driver? How long have they been driving? Are they a drunkard or smoker?, Etc." 

Before operating a driver, you need to have a recruitment you would like to recruit them. 

9. When you make a financial negotiation with the driver, make sure that you never be too rigid with them- they should be flexible. Learn to understand times in change while in season. In season, not all businesses are good. 

10. Be considerate in the driver's health on long driving in hours. Follow what the traffic rule said, "if a driver drives for three hours, he should rest for 40 minutes or one hour". 

Because if a driver does not obey this rule, poor handling will set in. Be warned. You are responsible to tell them so or collect a vehicle from them. 

11. You should be focused and have the mind that you should make it. Never over speed, otherwise it may wear the engine off. 

Remember that the money you make from transportation business is not yours. They should go into your bank account to keep it for future emergency or go into some where else to keep it for future emergency when it comes to engine that need money to spend on it or replace it. 

12. Go to experienced people who have been in the business before and ask them for advise on vehicle purchase or any thing you need help from them. Ask them to help choose any responsible driver you would like to give out to. 

13. Drivers and you must not spend lavishly because transport business is not a business where you can spend all what you make; because you can spend all the money now and you get to your vehicle the following day and it won't start- so you must save for the unexpected. Be wise. 

Why People Fail In Transportation Business And How You Can Avoid It 

No matter how lucrative the business is, many owners and drivers fail as the following lists are here as an example you need to avoid it: 

1. They fail in passenger transportation business because they lack vision.

2. They go into the business because of money. They go into transport business in lack of their passion. They go into the business to just eat for their stomach or just get pleasure for themselves, not thinking of future success or of future expansion.

3. They are not plunging it back into the business to expand it each time they are making money. They forget that these vehicles they are using are subjected to wear and tears- depreciation. They fail to refleet their plan. 

They fail to call an accountant to help them analyze the financial report on what percentage they are making money they invest in vehicles for business or they are making money in comparison to what they invest in vehicles.

5. They do not change their routes as they find they do not make money much as they shuffle the route daily.

7. They do not separate themselves from ignorant poor colleagues in the same business. They make a company with negative people for fun in the same business for transportation business.

8. When transport business brings money to them, they sit on it and start spending the money on girls in the hotels, on smoking and on drinks in the bar for joy, not knowing that transport business is not a business where you spend the income like that. 

You have to remember that transport business is like a human being where people get old and get weak, and when someone is getting weak, it will require money.

And when you have spent all the money and the bus is now asking for money and nobody is ready to loan you or spend the money on the machine, problems start coming and people will fail.

Maintenance Of Vehicles

You have two things you can maintain your vehicle in good health: Routine Maintenance and Emergency Maintenance as mentioned to you early.

The routine maintenance generally has to do with oil change, filter change, fluid top up, like brake fluid and the rest. What the manufacturer's manual tell you - some will tell you to service the vehicle after 5,000km mileage you should follow it immediately.

It is not only you should do maintenance, but also you should do regular inspection of the vehicles, both interior and exterior and mechanical inspection. Then these maintenance inspections are all geared to vehicle improvement. 

For instance, if you are using your vehicle in shuffling business from morning to evening, you should service it twice a month daily. Maintenance doesn't cost you to service your vehicle as you think so. 

For about tyres, if a tyre has aged, mileage wise (50,000km), you should change it, even if you think it is good. On every tyre, you will see the expiry date. 

Even if you were not using that tyre, once it has reached the expiry date, you should remove it immediately or the tyre should be off. 

You also need to do tyre rotation every 8,000km - swap them. For inter-state, a very good driver should swap tyres when it has attained 6,000km. That is what transport consultant, Yikarebogha, offered you this and please follow this advice once. 

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoy this article? What do you think you are reading this article on passenger transportation business? Share your thoughts here in the comment box here.

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