The honest answer to this question is a dull one: you need less than you would to buy a truck, and more than the adverts promise. Let’s go line by line, because the detail is what decides whether you have enough.
The deposit
The deposit is paid before the tractor is handed over and returned when it comes back, less any documented damage. It is not a down payment and not a payment towards the rent: the money is not spent, it is frozen. In the start-up calculation it is the largest line and, at the same time, the only one that comes back to you.
Fuel for the first round trip
You pay for fuel before anyone pays you for the load. That means you need enough for at least one full round trip: refuelling, tolls and, if the route needs it, a ferry. This is pure working capital, and you need it permanently, not once.
The classic mistake is counting up to the first load
You run the first load on your own money. Payment for it arrives on the agreed terms, not on the day you unload. You have to plan up to the first payment received, and that is several weeks further out than it feels.
The buffer
There is always a delay between unloading and payment. While it runs you are already driving the next load — again on your own money. The buffer covers that gap. Its size depends on the payment terms on your directions, not on how careful you are, which is why there is no way to economise on it.
What is not on the list
There is no down payment on the truck, no loan, and no cost of registering a transport company and a licence — the company and the licence stay ours. Of the one-off payments only the trade licence remains, and it costs 1 000 Kč — exactly what the fee schedule charges for filing a živnost on entry into self-employment (Act No. 634/2004 Coll., Sazebník, Položka 24 písm. a) — "Ohlášení živnosti při vstupu do živnostenského podnikání Kč 1000"). Every further filing costs 500 Kč, so "1 000 Kč per trade licence" does not hold for anyone adding a second one.
What runs every month
The start-up calculation does not end with the one-off payments. Insurance advances start running from the day the activity begins, and they arrive before the first payment for a load does — which is why they belong in the buffer, not in next year's tax return.
| Payment | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Filing the živnost on entry into self-employment | 1 000 Kč | One-off, at the start |
| Advance towards pension insurance | 5 005 Kč | Every month, the minimum from 1 July 2026 |
| Advance towards health insurance | 3 306 Kč | Every month |
Both minimums are for a hlavní (main) activity. Only the social one goes down: on a vedlejší (secondary) activity — typically alongside a job — the pension minimum is 1 574 Kč, and for an OSVČ who has not been self-employed in the previous 20 calendar years it is 3 575 Kč, which is still a hlavní činnost, just the starter rate for one. The health insurance minimum, under § 3a odst. 3 of Act No. 592/1992 Coll., does not apply at all to someone who is also an employee paying contributions from at least the employee minimum base. The full breakdown is in Insurance advances: how much and when.
The cut in the social advance is not retroactive
The 5 005 Kč a month minimum applies only from 1 July 2026. January to June 2026 stays on the old rate, and the district social security administration refunds the difference only on a written request filed by 31 December 2026. Nothing comes back automatically.
Sources: ČSSZ — Zálohy na pojistné na důchodové pojištění — "Minimální měsíční vyměřovací základ pro zálohu od července 2026 u OSVČ vykonávající hlavní SVČ činí 17 139 Kč, minimální záloha činí 5 005 Kč"; and Finanční správa — Informace k institutu paušální daně pro rok 2025 a 2026, the 2026 monthly flat-tax advance table, row I. pásmo, column "Pojistné na zdravotní pojištění". That table is the flat-tax regime, but it is the same amount: under § 3a odst. 5 písm. a) of Act No. 592/1992 Coll. the assessment base for the first band is the minimum assessment base under odstavec 2, so the health insurance minimum is identical in both regimes. Anyone choosing the flat-tax regime pays one payment instead of both advances — the difference is worked through in Flat tax or the standard regime.
The whole transition, step by step, is in From employed driver to carrier: the six steps.
