want to become an OO

Plus! You better have a nice little (big) savings, for the oh! Craps!

 

let me put my two cents in here. I strongly suggest you drive for a company for about a year. her is why first of all your going to make mistakes lots of mistakes don't feel bad we all do. its a learning curve the first few months and then it continues even after years of experience. when starting out your gonna have late loads your gonna have minor screw ups. better you not have your own name on it let the company take the heat.

once you get your 1 year of experience lease on to a company and learn that side of the business do that for 6 months or so then when you feel your ready you can get your own authority however I warn you that is completely different then leasing. there is alot you need to learn before running your own equipment learn on someone elses dime cause if you don't i promise you will waste a ton of money trying to wing it.

 

I'm thinking we're on a ride to TROLL-HATTEN, always seems to be an outrageous story, and always gets sincere and thoughtful responses. And the poster, under many different names, always seems to have just joined the forum, within days of posting.

 

Maybe try Schneider since they have an 0/0 division.

 

Schneider requires a year experience to be an O/O with them unless you were a company driver with them. They will consider letting their company drivers go O/O after 6 months experience.

OP, your first question points out how little you know about the business. A dispatcher does not carry insurance for a truck, that is provided by ether the truck owner or the owner of the authority that you are running under. A dispatcher is just someone hired by a company to assign loads to the companies drivers.

As for your second question, I know of no company that will allow a driver to run under their authority without at least a year experience (with the exception of Schneider as I said above). You might find a small carrier that will but most will not even consider it due to insurance costs and the possible hits to their CSA scores with an inexperienced driver.

As for the last question, you could get your own authority and you will find some brokers that will work with you but it will not be easy and your insurance rates will be very high.

 

"If.....the truck payments weren't too expensive, I would keep the truck and trailer, park them, find a good company that would let me lease on as an o/o in the future, start working for them as a company driver to get more experience in, then once I had the experience lease my truck on with them."

This is probably the most effective path, and the best advice, for you, Sponge. There are some helpful comments, like Reefer's remark. I'm sure that with a truck and trailer there's work for you. Got your CDL? Call truck licensing service if you want an authority/insurance/ifta registration. I believe you can find a package under $1,000 that will get you rolling. If you have clean paper you can work the load boards and start pulling freight. If you have cash on hand, which I sincerely hope you do. If you want to lease on to a company to stabilize your business, get on the phone and start working that way. Good luck to you!