If you own a truck, you can put it to use to help you make money. You’re at an advantage when you own a truck because it’s larger than a car and can help you do more jobs than you could do with a small car.
If you’re wondering how to make money with a truck, here’s a great list to get you started.
Table of Contents
- 1. Be a Mover
- 2. Deliver Food or Products
- 3. Deliver Groceries
- 4. Gather Scrap Metal
- 5. Tow or Plow
- 6. Be a Junk Hauler
- 7. Use Your Truck as an Advertisement
- 8. Deliver Mulch
- 9. Rent Your Truck Out
- 10. Deliver for Amazon Flex
- 11. Get Odd Jobs on Craigslist
- 12. Move People
- The Pros and Cons of Making Money With Your Truck
- Final Thoughts on How to Make Money With Your Truck
How to Make Money With a Truck (12 Ways)
If you want to know how to make money with a pickup truck or regular truck, here are 11 ways to get you started. None of these jobs require much experience or knowledge. You just need the desire to work and the use of your truck.
1. Be a Mover
If you have weekends free, offer your truck and muscles to help people move. You’ll likely charge much less than professional moving companies since you don’t have overhead. Most people would rather give the money to the person working for himself versus paying a large company.
2. Deliver Food or Products
With a truck, you can deliver food with Uber Eats or DoorDash, or you can deliver products like mattresses, furniture, and other large items. This gives you a much wider audience than you’d have if you just had a car.
Ready to get started with your truck ASAP?
Make money delivering food from local restaurants.
3. Deliver Groceries
Most grocery stores offer home delivery now and hire independent drivers to deliver them. You can work for Instacart or Shipt or work directly for your local grocery stores. You’ll shop your customer’s lists and deliver them to their home. Since you have a truck, you have more room for larger orders and can make more money.
4. Gather Scrap Metal
If you have a truck, you have room to gather scrap metal, and it can be worth quite a bit of money. If you’re in the construction industry, it’s easy for you to find scrap metal. If not, but you know what scrap metal to look for that pays the most in your area, you can offer to pick up old appliances, tools, and other sources of metal to make some money.
5. Tow or Plow
If you have a ball hitch or snow plow, you can turn your truck into a workhorse. Both services help people tremendously. Anyone that needs a tow will appreciate your services, and no one likes to deal with the snow. Advertise your services in your local area and watch how much money you can make.
6. Be a Junk Hauler
If you’ve ever seen the prices junk haulers charge, you’ll see why people would rather work with someone hauling junk on the side. If you want to know how to make money with a truck, this is one of the best ways. You decide how much you’ll haul away, whether you’ll limit it to a few items or an entire basement or house.
7. Use Your Truck as an Advertisement
Companies pay drivers to wrap their trucks in their advertisements. This works best if you drive a lot of miles weekly. Some companies also pay by the square foot, and since trucks are larger than cars, you can make an average of $1,000 just driving your truck and advertising for a company.
8. Deliver Mulch
People with big yards often need a truck to get their mulch home in the spring and summer months. With your truck, you can pick up and deliver mulch. If you don’t mind the labor, you can make even more money laying the mulch for your customers too.
9. Rent Your Truck Out
Sometimes people want to rent the truck themselves to pick up their items or haul mulch. If you have days you don’t need access to your truck, you can rent it out and make some money.
10. Deliver for Amazon Flex
Did you know Amazon hires independent drivers to use their own vehicles to deliver products? It’s called Amazon Flex, and it’s only available in select cities right now. All you have to do is reserve a block and make deliveries during that time. Since you have a truck, you can take larger deliveries or more deliveries at once.
11. Get Odd Jobs on Craigslist
If you haven’t searched Craigslist for jobs lately, do a quick search now, and you’ll see how many odd jobs you can likely take because you have a truck. Still wondering how to make money with a truck and not loving any of the ideas above? Jumping on Craigslist may provide you with a solution.
12. Move People
If you’re looking to learn how to make money with a pickup truck or larger, consider driving for Uber or Lyft. You can move people in your truck, making it easier to take larger groups. This is great for people planning bar crawls or other large events where they need a ride but wouldn’t fit in one car.
Need a break from driving your truck?
Make money from the comfort of your couch just for sharing your opinion.
The Pros and Cons of Making Money With Your Truck
Like any side job, there are pros and cons in using your truck to make money that you should consider.
Pros
- You have the equipment to use to start your side gig right away — Any of the gigs above just require a truck and your muscles to get them done. You don’t have to spend any more money than you already spent, and you can make your truck work for you.
- There are many ways you can learn how to make money with a truck — You don’t need special skills for most of the gigs you can do to make money with your truck. If you can follow instructions, lift, and drive your truck, you’re on your way to earning side cash with your truck.
- You control when you work — Since the truck is yours, you call the shots when you will and will not work. Some services, like Amazon Flex or Uber Eats, require you to set your availability, but you’re still in charge of when that is.
- You can earn passive income — If you wrap your truck and do other services, like Uber Eats or move furniture, you can make passive income from the advertising and active income from the deliveries you make. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
- You can earn tips — Most of the gigs that help you earn money with your truck allow people to tip you. So if you provide great service, you could increase your income.
Cons
- You put more wear and tear on your truck — If you use your truck daily and then put it to work for deliveries, towing, or snow plowing, you put a lot of wear and tear on the truck. It may need repairs sooner or have a shorter life.
- Insurance companies may not insure you — If you use your truck for business purposes, your insurance premiums may go up, or the insurance company may not insure you. It’s important to be honest with your insurance company, though, because if you get caught using the vehicle for business but aren’t paying the right premiums, they may not cover any incidents.
- Work isn’t guaranteed for any of these services — Most of these gigs are on-demand services. You can’t control when the services are needed or when you’ll work. If you aren’t available when people need your truck or services, you may not have as much work.
- You’re responsible for your own taxes — As an independent contractor, you must pay both sides of the taxes (employee and employer). Self-employment tax is 15.2%, which is on top of your regular income tax. Talk to your tax advisor about how this may affect your income and tax liabilities before committing.
Final Thoughts on How to Make Money With Your Truck
Anyone can learn how to make money with a truck. It’s easy money, and you can do it whenever you are free. You set your schedule and decide which gigs you’ll take. If you combine your efforts and do many of these gigs, you can turn a nice profit just because you own a truck.