Flying Cargo???
 

Quick question…

How difficult is it to fly cargo having your own aircraft. For example, say if I want to buy my own Navajo, and fly under UPS, FedEx, or some other cargo company. How hard is it to get a contract with them? How would one go about the process in finding out more info about it.

Fedex feeders lease their Caravans from Fedex, I think....

Its not difficult to fly cargo-getting your 135 certifcate is.

1) Get your 135 certificate.
2) Bid a lower price for the route than the previous holder.
3) Fly that route under the terms of the contract until somebody that completes steps 1 and 2 repeats the process.

It would be almost impossible for one plane and one pilot to fly a Fedex or UPS contract. For example, what about when your aircraft is down, or you are sick? You may be able to fly on-demand freight, checks, etc.
I doubt Fedex or UPS would want a navajo. The loads would be bigger, and I imagine they would want turbine equipment.
BTW... Insurance for FAR 135 is FREAKING EXPENSIVE!!!!! Owning a 135 company will consume your life.

UPS and Fed Ex contracts don't go to the lowest bidder, they go to the operator who can meet the time frame reliably and reasonably priced. A single plane won't cut it for many of their markets.
135 is not easy, cheap or necessarily profitable. It takes a long time and a lot of hoops to get a certificate. You must comply with the feds, insurance companies, the irs, and local airport operations to begin with. I wouldn't say don't do it, just that you need a lot of time, money and aspirin to make it work.

Gauley,

UPS has a Caravan and 402 fly in to STL every night from Poplar Bluff, MO and Kirksville, MO respectively. The 402 replaced a Baron. There are a number of "feeder" routes out there that are up for grabs. They are both flown by small companies, but even these companies have a number of aircraft and pilots. In many cases those piston twins are less expensive to operate than a Caravan.

I think this saying applies for this thread...

"How do you end up with a million dollars? Start with a billion and open an airline!!"

Good luck to you sir!:)

Pilotpip:

Cool. I had only seen UPS and Fedex Feeders fly airplanes like Caravans or a Shorts. I know various piston twins fly hard every night flying for a living, I just didn't know about UPS and Fedex.

Thanks

That's the truth. Emphasis on money. I watched a friend try to start a single pilot 135 operation on the cheap. He was dialing up credit card balances before he even got his plane home.