What if the truck itself was the business?
In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack Carr breaks down five specialized truck businesses he’d consider starting: septic pumping, roll-off dumpsters, street sweeping, tree service, and hydro excavation.
These aren’t generic trucking businesses. They’re specialized assets solving problems that homeowners, contractors, property managers, utilities, and municipalities already need solved.
Jack covers why specialized equipment creates a barrier to entry, where recurring revenue comes from, how one truck can expand into multiple services, and how to go from owning yourself a job to building a fleet, hiring operators, and creating a real business.
In this episode:
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• Septic pumping and installation
• Roll-off dumpster businesses
• Street sweeping contracts
• Tree service and bucket trucks
• Hydro vac and hydro excavation
• Recurring B2B revenue
• Scaling from one truck to multiple crews
• Why specialized equipment can create a competitive moat
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SPONSORED BY QUICK STAFFERS
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There is a weird category of business that I absolutely love. A business where the truck is the storefront. So today I'm breaking down the five trucks I would look at if I wanted to build a trucking business. And I'm not talking about buying a pickup truck or another generic delivery service. I'm talking about specialized truck that solves ugly problems.
Number five on the list, septic, the septic pump truck. Let's start with probably the least sexy business out there. It is the dirtiest, it's the grossest, and that's exactly why I like it. Because more than one in five homes in America is on a septic system and it needs to be pumped. That means that there's a massive installation base already out there, and they all need to call somebody. After you get the first truck, you can start to expand on this business. It's not only septic pumping, it becomes septic installations and grease trap pumping. So eventually you can add septic repair and full system replacements. So pumping gets you to the customer's house, but the customer relationship opens up everything else. And this is one of those industries where nobody grows up dreaming about getting into. This is the feature though, not the bug. It's the ultimate dirty business. Nobody's getting into it, and there's tons of money in this industry.
Number four, the roll off dumpster. This business is so simple. Contractor is demolishing a kitchen, the builders need to clean up a job site. They need a box to throw things in. You have a box to throw things in. They fill the box and throw things in it, and you pick up the box and take it to the dump. That's the business. It's so simple. And that's what I really like about the roll-off dumpster game because even though it's a density game, there is some recurring contracts you can put into place. But once you get multiple trucks going and you have all these routes and you have all these recurring contracts, it can become a business. The secret here is not having the prettiest dumpsters in town. It's answering the phone. It's dropping the dumpster when you said you were gonna drop it and picking it up when the contractor needs it gone. Be boring, be reliable, build
the density. Number three, the street sweeper. You guys might think I'm crazy on this one. It's so often overlooked when they hear street sweeper, they think it's only municipal contracts. There's shopping centers, warehouses, apartment complexes, HOAs, industrial facilities. And unlike a lot of these like one-time project businesses, street sweeping itself lends to recurring contracts because parking lots don't stay clean, like they just don't. So you're not inventing a problem and then convincing people. Like the problem is already there and it recreates every year, especially in locations that have tons of leaves or tons of storms. But this is a great aggressive B2B play. You go after the property managers, the paving companies, the general contractors and municipalities, shopping centers, and stack enough of those recurring contracts together and you build some tight routes, you're creating a great business. There's some great ones out there that have popped up in the recent years that people are building wildly online. Go check
them out.
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two, the tree service bucket truck. You need tree trimming, and this is where the bucket truck comes in. You can work on tree trimming, you can do tree removal and storm cleanup and deadlim removal. But if you can get the licensure or you want to be in this industry, you can even be B2C and work directly with homeowners. And here's where I think the business actually gets interesting is the bucket truck can be the beginning of the operation and not the entire operation. You can start stacking equipment and crews around it. You get the bucket truck, you rent the chipper, then you get the chipper and you rent the stump grinder. And eventually you have multiple crews running continuously. And now instead of selling your time, you're dispatching specialized crews into a market and suddenly creating tons of jobs. The truck gives you the access to this work that you wouldn't have otherwise. Number one, the Hydrovac truck. The Hydrovac truck is basically a pressure washer and a giant vacuum. Hydro excavation allows you to expose or daylight underground utilities way more precisely than digging. If you think about who buys this service, it's utility contractors and directional drilling companies and municipalities and plumbers. So you're essentially selling a specialized service to other businesses that already have the work. And that's my favorite contractor because it's very rare that you're going to get stiffed by a utility company or a municipality or a utility contractor. And the truck potentially does even more than excavation only, depending on the equipment, these trucks can perform just like a myriad of industrial vacuum capabilities. And so now one specialized asset can actually provide several different services to multiple customer groups. And that's the common thread with every truck on this list is the truck itself is not going to make you familiar. It's the business you build around the truck. If you want a great job, these will provide you wonderful jobs for your family. But they're also amazing opportunities to build a business where your equipment can solve a mandatory problem and you can teach an operator to step in after you get out of the field. And the best part of all these businesses are and all these trucks is that there's specialized equipment, which is a moat. Yes, it's harder for you to get into the industry, but that means it's harder for every Joe Schmo to get into the industry as well. These are real businesses where you can really create generational wealth. And one truck's a great job, it's great for you and your family. And five trucks can really become that business that you're looking for. If you like what you heard, if you like any of these trucks or you disagree with me, leave a comment down below. Like, subscribe and share. And we'll see you on the next one.
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