Truck went down mid-season while running solo — how do you protect your schedule?

Hey, without knowing the particulars, I try to always have a spare vehicle, even if it’s a cheap **bleep**( which I know really isn’t a thing anymore), both for situations like this and helps with insurance rates. The higher the vehicle to driver ratio the lower risk of wreck/damage. Plus keeps wear and tear down, works for business and personal

Ugh! I feel you! My work truck is an old Mazda and she decided not to start on Monday. I know what the issue is, but can't get it fixed right away. So I cancelled my Monday clients (fortunately I only had one scheduled!) and borrowed my friend's farm truck for the rest of the week. It's hard! My personal vehicle shot $#!+ two weeks ago, so I was down to just the work truck. In a perfect world, I'd have a reliable and efficient personal vehicle and a reliable truck for work. That way I could at least meet my obligations, even if using my personal vehicle for work isn't ideal. I wish I had some advice, but know you're not the only one struggling with this issue!!! 

This post is literally my life five days ago — my truck lost a wheel two blocks from home. Snapped almost every stud. I managed to get it back on with the two that were still holding and crawled home. Suspension was worn out.  Fixed it myself with an oxyacetylene torch and a grinder because waiting on a shop wasn't an option — that would've cost me more time than the repair itself.

My backup was my personal Ram 1500. Threw the trailer on it and kept running. Probably pushed it a little past what the manufacturer recommends, but the schedule didn't stop.

The honest answer to your question: as a solo operator you can't fully protect yourself from this. What you can do is have a backup vehicle capable of doing the job, know how to fix things yourself, and have the kind of schedule flexibility to absorb a half day without it cascading into a week of chaos.

What I'm taking from it — I'm looking at replacing the older trucks with something in better condition. Time spent fixing equipment is time not making money. At some point the "cheap" vehicle costs more than the reliable one.

Great question , I try to have a log of various work crews I've worked with . Whether its roof , concrete or even my field .   So if a job i have going on I cant get to it or im over booked or my own crews cant catch up - i use sub contractors. Sure I may pay a bit more than in-house but only use crews i trust , because we get to complete job in time and leave a satisfied customer with potential referrals or repeat work and good reviews . 

But another note is try to have a back up vehicle of course. I understand sometimes our budgets are tight but when time is fit spend couple of grand on a decent truck and have a back up or even start a repair crew for small jobs and if one of our big jobs gets delayed , here comes repair crew to assist