Small Transport Business Ideas with Low Startup Costs

Building transportation, logistics, or ride-hailing empire as big as Uber and Postmates is not an overnight job. Such businesses take a considerable amount of time in planning, development, and marketing. Nevertheless, there are small transport business ideas which allow you to establish a profitable startup in a considerably short span of time.

The compilation of this list of the most suitable low-cost business ideas follows a wide-ranging criterion. The criterion parameters are shared below.

• The list only considers the potential businesses with planning and development cost under $100,000.
• Although on-demand taxi services like Uber and Lyft also fall in this cost range, yet this article lists overlooked ideas.
• The return on investment should be quicker. There are business models with immense growth and revenue generating potential but requiring excessive time to become profitable.
• The industry should be far from a point of saturation. In essence, the availability of a business should not be higher than its demand. Otherwise, your startup will be facing fierce competition from industry leaders prompting you to quit.

On-demand Peer-to-peer Car Pooling Business

This kind of transportation business is gaining momentum in the wake of rapidly growing traffic problems. Over 80% of the commuters are the alone riders. In essence, most vehicles carry only a single person. Thus, out of every 100 cars traveling on a highway, over 80 cars will have single passenger. Ride-hailing and taxi services also carry this drawback.

Peer-to-peer ride-sharing services present a fruitful solution. It enables the passengers to book seats in a vehicle instead of reserving entire vehicle. It is different from public transit in that the stations are dynamic. Via was the pioneer rideshare service while the growing need for this service prompted Uber to introduce UberPool. Other ride-hailing giants are also following the suits.

Bike Rental Service

Bikes can also be used to develop an identical business to carpooling. Governments and local administrations in all US states are promoting the initiatives which are ensuring to preserve the environment. If you intend to further reduce the cost of operations, peer-to-peer services will be suitable instead of owning a fleet.

Bikepooling services are the most effective small business ideas with low startup cost. Starting such a business keeps operational costs very low while the revenue is relatively higher. Research indicates that the average occupation time of a bike is lesser than that of cars in rental services. Thus, customers are more likely to find an idle bike than a car.

Travel Agency

The revenue of travel industry in the US alone is projected to reach $17.3 billion in 2020 – up from $12.2 billion a decade back. Marketing of travel agency is the most significant factor manipulating the probability of success. You do not need to own vehicles. Instead, partnerships with transport giants can provide you a cost-effective alternative.

Besides, you need to have deep roots in the industry associates. For instance, top travel agents collaborate with restaurants and hotels to ensure mutual growth. For this reason, 78% of the revenue in this industry depends on the commission acquired from associates.

Waste Disposal Business

The startup costs are not as low as peer-to-peer models, yet the return is notable. Environmentalists report that the amount of waste will grow by 70% yearly in the next three decades. The total volume of waste already crossed 2 billion tonnes in 2016. Almost all areas in the US and Western European metropolitans require businesses to make arrangements for appropriate waste management.

Thus, the corporate sector pays a considerable amount to waste collection and disposal companies. Your initial investment in this sector would be higher but soon you will reach the breakeven point. Thus, waste disposal is one of the considerable small transport business ideas.

Intra-city On-demand Courier

The delivery services including Postmates and Grubhub are on their way to becoming startup unicorns in well under ten years since their inception. E-commerce and on-demand grocery businesses supplement logistics business ideas. Despite their fast growth and widespread operations, they are still lagging behind demand.

Restaurants are swiftly adopting the on-demand models owing to the relentlessly growing demand. Firehouse presents one of such examples. This fast food on-demand remained a dine-in facility for almost two decades. However, it started on-demand services at the beginning of this decade and managed to grow the revenue by manifolds.

Non-emergency Medical Transportation

Like the waste collection, NEMT is among small business ideas having low investment. However, you may keep the cost lower by choosing not to own vehicles. Instead, you can connect the customers with service providers in the area. In doing so, you can keep a part of the earning as commission. Stat is a startup which provides such on-demand healthcare services.

Its growing demand indicates that these services will be among the most sought-after services. The chief reason is the increasing median age of the US European population.

Although you may also choose to provide emergency services, yet the cost of operation will become intensely higher. NEMT, on the other hand, allows flexibility of time. Passengers in such services may not always be patients or senior citizens. A range of business ideas originates from NEMT model.

For instance, Zūm is an on-demand rideshare service, particularly for children. The startup providing services in California managed to raise $40 million in funding. Apart from enabling children to visit amusement parks, Zūm also offers to pick and drop services to schools.

Try our Free of Cost On-demand Innovation Platform

Selection of a suitable business model is first but a significant step in becoming a transport tycoon. Each of the above small transport business ideas has massive growth potential due to impressive rate of increasing demand. The second step is the planning and execution of the selected model.

CabStartup ensures that your transport business ideas meet the right execution strategies with state-of-the-art technologies. Try our free of cost on-demand transportation platform right now.