Running the Business · Part 6
Supply-house credit at scale, the fleet, and inventory: the second truck's paperwork and the parts on it
The second truck triples the paperwork of the first. This lesson is the three systems that grow with the fleet: supply-house credit when three people are buying on the account and the limit has to carry a $30,000 month; the fleet itself, including the rule most plumbers discover from a CHP officer, that a service truck with a gross vehicle weight rating over 10,000 pounds makes the shop a motor carrier that needs a Motor Carrier Permit, a carrier number, and a terminal inspection; and truck inventory, the parts that make a call a one-visit job and the count that keeps them from walking away.
What the full lesson covers
- Credit at scale: one account, named buyers with limits, job numbers on every ticket, the statement reconciled to the job folders weekly, and a limit request made before the big month, not after the ticket is refused.
- A truck with a GVWR over 10,000 pounds (most three-quarter-ton and one-ton service bodies) is a commercial motor vehicle under Vehicle Code 34601; operating it for the business requires a DMV Motor Carrier Permit and a CA carrier number (34620), commercial registration, and puts the shop in the CHP's Basic Inspection of Terminals program with driver and maintenance records.
- Every truck is lettered to B&P 7029.5 (name, address, number, 1.5-inch letters) the day it goes into service; every driver is on the commercial auto policy.
- Truck stock is a list per truck, built from the price book's most common tasks, counted weekly, and restocked from the account by job number; the shop stock is the bulk buy and the warranty parts.
- Financing a truck: the payment is overhead in the worksheet; the lender is a loss payee on the auto policy; and the personal guarantee on the loan reaches you like the supply house's does.
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More lessons in Growing the Business
- 1Hiring under AB 5: the ABC test, why a 1099 helper is a lawsuit unless they hold their own license, and the construction subcontract exemption
- 2Employees: wage and hour, overtime, meal and rest periods, final-pay rules, and the workers' compensation class code
- 3Apprentices and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards: how a small shop trains its next plumber lawfully
- 4Adding classifications: when to add the B, the C-20, or a second specialty, and how the exam waiver works
- 5Systems: field-service software, the price book, and dispatch. What to buy, when, and what it must produce
- 6KPIs: average ticket, close rate, gross margin, and the three numbers that predict failure
- 7Supply-house credit at scale, the fleet, and inventory: the second truck's paperwork and the parts on itYou are here
- 8Becoming an RMO for someone else's company: the liability you are taking on, and the only version that is lawful
- 9Selling or stepping back: what a plumbing business is worth, what a buyer is actually buying, and what the license will and will not let you transfer
- 10Template: the hiring checklist (AB 5-safe), from the decision to the first day
- 11Template: the new-hire packet index
- 12Template: the monthly KPI sheet