Taking the leap...

Don't use CFN/Fuelman/Fleetwide

 

Personaly I think anyone it's nuts to try and start a company right now.. All your gonna get from brokers is the crap that falls through the cracks that no one else wants.. You'll never live off of that.. Your going to be paying FULL price for everything.. Fuel, tires, insurance, and be stuck with trying to bill your customers and hope they pay you on time.. Some leases arn't bad.. It's all in what you want to do.. My company for instance registers all trucks in IL, has group insurance that is very reasonable, does all my fuel taxes and does NOT charge ANYTHING back to me (So I am able to buy the absolute cheapest fuel at the pump and not have to worry about it) I get fuel at cost plus .05 cents .. Michelin tires for what you'll pay for a Yokahama.. stuff like that.....

Are you sure you want to do this in these tough times????

Why go with the "Own Authority" thing right out of the gate? You need to walk before you can run..

 

Just got back into my own rig this past May. Replaced batteries, starter, tie rods, brakes, cab airbags, etc, etc,etc,etc,etc....

The truck before was an 09 Pete 386 that had 200 miles on it when I got it last October. It had 112000+ when I turned it in. Got towed twice! Not saying that Pete is a bad truck, but a castraited fleet truck is sickly and will run sickly.

Point is, because of the job they have to do, the extreme temps, the weather, the horrible roads, the stopNgo traffic, the payloads, things are going to break/wear out.

STORY TIME: I was in that Pete with one of those "hotloadsomgdrivercanyoudotheimpossible" loads. Noticed a vibration coming off the left front. Stopped over at the Hook in Joplin and popped the hood. Saw that the tread was separating on my left front. Called roadservice and they told me to take it to the Petro and get it fixed.

Went to the Petro and they told me that my company wanted the tire inspected. INSPECTED? I WANT IT CHANGED!
Well, the tire was inspected "Hey, your tread is separating!" Roadservice then wanted to know if it would pass DOT inspection "No, it will not pass DOT inspection." Roadservice then wanted them to take a picture and email them and then they will make a decision.

6 hours wasted.

All trucks break down. The big difference between company drivers, lease drivers and owner operators is this: When the rig breaks down(and they will), the owner operator does not have to play phone tag with some non driving, bean counting, college educated "sounds good on paper so it must be true" idiot that doesnt know jack about anything auto mechanics or trucking.

Its the only way to truck.

 

OOIDA will do it all. They won't rip you off and will keep you on the straight and narrow. Do it quick. FMCSA is soon going to make getting your own authority a LONG SLOW PROCESS.

 

If you have Kansas and Arkansas on your IRP, they will send you a bill for property tax. If you run miles in their state, you get to pay property tax. There is no extra fuel tax that I know about.

 

I just signed up with them. They forgot to tell me their "In network" is just a bunch of mom and pops, convienience stores etc etc. You know the ones, high fuel prices, no way to check ahead for prices, no showers, no parking, hotdogs and dried up pizza blah blah blah.......

None of the BIG truck stop chains are in there network, thus, you get no rebate and pay a transaction fee. Please, please, someone tell me I got this wrong.