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Hello bjpsindu,

Welcome to ´ó¿§¸£ÀûÓ°Ôº

We would appreciate it if you could provide additional information about yourself and your expatriation plans.

With a better understanding, we will be able to offer more effective assistance.

Cheers,

Cheryl

´ó¿§¸£ÀûÓ°Ôº team

@Cheryl

I am a owner of trucking company in US. I am thinking to start one in Europe. Kindly let me  know how profitable the trucking in Europe

Also i wanna know how easy to start a company with my self as self employed trucker

Appretiate ur response

Thank you

Hi Bjpsindu, at the moment in Europe are missing about 50.000 trucker, so you have a big opportunity to make good business.

Hi,

For many years (25?) I worked for French driving around Europe, EU and further in trucks, it is very difficult to start a trucking company unless you already have some "local" contacts who will give you work. To lease a truck, let alone buy it,  the "bank" will need to see your business plan including work (ie income) already agreed and you'll need to keep up the monthly payments - you will be competing against already established local companies who obviously already service the local area, they will also have local drivers on their books. With a suitable licence you still need to keep up with " continuous training"  requirements and any ADRs for carrying special goods. You'll do all the paperwork in Portuguese and if you buy a vehicle then you'll also need to park it somewhere and get it serviced, insured, pay for fuel before having any income.  Being the EU here any driver from an EU country can work, some of the eastern EU countries where wages are low have supplied drivers to the rest of the EU and though there is a lack of drivers generally the jobs which remain unfilled are the ones most drivers wish to avoid which is contract work through an agency. Stuff like having to accept maybe a 6 hour job 2am to 8am delivering to 6 super markets then a 4 hour job 11 am to 3pm collecting rubbish  then nothing for 2 days. The long distance continuous work is already taken and have 2 person crews to drive so very difficult to find an opening.

@bjpsindu

Was trying to find some old forum discussions on international fleet relocation costs and stumbled across your post. Since it's from 2 years ago, how did the transition turn out? Did you buy your first truck in Portugal yet?

As a fellow US owner in the waste management and hauling space, my biggest piece of advice for anyone crossing the pond is to automate your operations immediately. European bureaucracy is no joke. Over here, we rely on CurbWaste for live map routing and instant customer billing, which cut down our office hours by half. Integrating something similar for automation when launching in Europe is a huge leap forward to keep your margins clear while you adapt to a new market.