5 Ways To Make Extra Money With Your Pickup Truck

Between the years 2015 and 2019, there were about 14 million pickup trucks sold in the US. Yes, they can be expensive and yes, gas efficiency in a pickup truck is horrible; but did you know that you could also make extra money with your pickup truck?

In fact, there are multiple ways to earn some extra cash with your truck. Whether you turn your pickup into a snow plow or a delivery truck, you could earn a couple hundred dollars a month – or more – with these side hustles!

The five ways we are going to cover in this article are:

  1. Towing Service
  2. Garage Sale Deliveries
  3. Snow Plowing
  4. Scrap Metal Pickup
  5. Small Business Deliveries

Let’s go a little more in detail as to what each of these ways entails and how to get started with them.

1. Towing Service

This option definitely applies to bigger trucks that have some horsepower, and you’ll be in good shape if you already have a winch and/or heavy-duty tow cables.

Tow truck picking up and towing old broken down car on a roadside

This option basically entails starting your own towing service. And if you’ve ever had to have your vehicle towed, and your insurance didn’t cover it, you’re well aware of how expensive (or, if you’re the tow truck driver, lucrative) this can be.

How to get started

The first thing you would need to do in order to get started is make sure you have all the right tools for the job. Those could include:

  • A business license (if applicable)
  • Proper insurance that covers business use
  • A tow hitch
  • High-quality tow cables

You’ll also want to know how much weight your truck can pull, so you don’t end up damaging your truck by trying to tow too much.

After you have all those things in order, the next step would be to get customers. Here are a few ideas that might help:

  • Ask friends/family to spread the word
  • Advertise locally on social media
  • Distribute business cards
  • Hang up flyers in grocery stores and supermarkets

Once you start building your business’ reputation, you’ll start to see a steady stream of people with less and less work.

How much can you make?

As a business owner, you would be in charge of setting the price. Typically, the average tow costs between $2.50-$7.00 per mile, and some companies will also charge a base rate on top of that.

What are the startup costs?

One startup cost would be the increase in your insurance that would come from covering your vehicle for both personal and business use.

Another would be the cost of a tow hitch and tow cables. These can easily run you a couple hundred dollars, but you don’t want to skip out on this part, as they’re integral to your success!

2. Garage Sale Deliveries

Most people know that garage sales can have great knick knacks, but they can also have great deals on full-sized furniture as well. 

garage sale sign in front of house

And, while some people might want to purchase furniture pieces, they might not be able to fit them in their vehicle to bring it back home. That’s where you – and your truck – would come in!

How to get started

The only thing you would really need to do to get started is to find customers. The best way to do this would be to go around and find people hosting garage sales, give them some of your information, and offer to deliver items for their customers. 

This way, if the people show up to the garage sale in a small car want to buy, say, a living room sectional, they don’t have to be hesitant about how they will get it home, which will also lead to a sale for the garage sale host! 

How much can you make?

How much you make would be entirely dependent on what you charge. You could charge per hour or per delivery, depending on the size of the item. You could even charge per mile, depending on the distance.

The great news is that there really aren’t any startup costs involved, so you would be making a lot more profit right off the bat with this side gig.

3. Snow Plowing

This idea is limited to a seasonal side job, unless you live in a place that gets a lot of snow year-round. However, this could be an extremely lucrative job, especially if you lived somewhere where it snows a lot.

Pickup truck plowing snow

The main way you would make money is by plowing driveways for your neighbors or private roads that aren’t county maintained. Of course, for the latter option, everyone on the block would have to chip in, but it’s not as uncommon as you might think.

How to get started

The first thing you would need to do is get a snow plow attachment for your truck, if you don’t already have one.

Then, you’ll want to advertise to get customers. This should be fairly easy, but here are a few ideas that might help you get started:

  • Offer your services to your neighbors directly
  • Post flyers around your local area

A bonus of this job is that the roads don’t stay plowed, so as long as it’s snowing, you’ll have a potential customer base.

How much can you make?

On average, a person pays around $20-$50 per visit. So, if you plowed 20 days per winter, that would be $400-$1,000 per winter per person.

Alternatively, you could contract with people. You would charge an agreed upon price – say $300 – per season and would plow that person’s driveway as much as needed.

The pricing of this method usually increases or decreases depending on the driveway’s dimensions.

What are the startup costs?

The most obvious – and main – startup cost is the snow plow attachment, and that can set you back a couple thousand dollars.

4. Scrap Metal Pickup

Scrap metal can be a very good way to make money if you get enough of it. The bigger the items you can pick up, the more money you can make.

Waste Skip full of scrap metal and junk

If you have a truck, you can easily pick up bigger things to scrap, such as kitchen appliances and water heaters. You could also get a car trailer and tow away scrapped cars.

How to get started

Getting started is easy. You simply go around and pick up junked metal, then bring it to your scrap yard and get paid for it.

Finding the metal is the hardest part. Here are a few good places to try out:

  • Local repair shops
  • Construction sites
  • Craigslist
  • Dumpsters

Just make sure you ask permission to take things if they belong to someone else or are on someone else’s property, like construction sites.

How much can you make?

How much you make varies based on what you scrap. 

If you junked a car, you could earn a few hundred dollars per vehicle. If you’re just collecting random metal, the average going price is about $10 per 100 pounds.

5. Small Business Deliveries

Some small businesses would be able to get more customers if only they could deliver their products, but maybe they don’t have the time or money to hire employees.

Close-up of back of pickup truck with bed protector and rolls of sod in the back with the tailgate down

That’s where you would come in, as an independent contractor, and offer to make deliveries for them!

How to get started

You would start by finding a couple small businesses that might need delivering and approaching them in person. It helps to look professional and have a business card on hand.

You’ll offer them your services and inform them of your pricing. If they’re interested, they’ll either let you know on the spot or contact you later on.

You’ll want to make sure that you update your insurance to cover business use in your vehicle if you do end up getting hired. 

How much can you make?

How much you earn is dependent on what you charge and how frequently you work.

Here are some common ways of determining pricing:

  • Base rate: You set a rate per delivery
  • Per mile: You charge per mile driven (can be used in conjunction with a base rate)
  • Per location: You charge a set rate per stop you make

Either way, you could turn this into a full-time business if you had the customer base, or just keep it as a side job!

What are the startup costs?

There are only two major startup costs you have to be concerned with. One is the increase in insurance rate, and the other is business cards.

Thankfully, business cards can be cheap, and that is optional if you really didn’t have the money.

Either way, most of your earnings would just be profit.

Conclusion

There are lots of ways to make extra money using your pickup truck. 

No matter which one you pick to earn some extra cash, just make sure you’re following all your local laws and accounting for the cost of gas and wear-and-tear on your vehicle.

Some of these options can even be used in conjunction with others to maximize earnings – and these are by no means all the possibilities. You can always get creative and come up with your own, too!

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