No experience but getting Authority

I posted a thread on my research for drug compliance under ask an owner operator which was likely the wrong area, but here is a link to it.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...ing-cheapest-random-drug-test-consortium.html

I should go back and make a small correction on one part of that which is the 7 panel test that was on special. That special was actually through a company called walkinlab.com - they don't have a random program unfortuanely. However, Labworks is still my favorite and the cheapest by far and they have a random program.

I took the advice of one of the responders and started contacting local hospitals to see if they had cheap drug compliance programs. First most don't do it and secondly the few that do are about the same price as labworks, plus you have to take you test at that facility which would likely not work out well. There are also small clinics, that have random program, but I based on a conversation with one I get the feeling they will need to call you in a lot to make money on those test

My thinking is that once you get your pre-employment drug test and enroll in a random drug program then it is more of a matter or typing up your own policies based on the pdf's you can read at the DOT. Pay particular attention to those list of fines they have at the DOT site, the vast majority don't look too expensive to me.

The compliance companies are always to scare the hell of you about how severe the fines are if you mess up

Search for Foley Services on the forums and you'll find someone whom had a bad experience with them.

Although at one time, I really thought about going to Foley, but I'm too much of a do it your=selfer at least at this point plus I tend to be a skeptic to all these salesmen calling about every day since i applied for this authority and Foley was one of them. Foley seems to be one of the 2 big companies out there that do this, but I still say they may be over complicating this process.

I am researching DOT compliance companies. Here is a link to one I found.

http://www.foleyservices.com/index.aspx

I understand I can do it myself cheaper, and one day possibly better. Right now I don't want to. I want to run the truck. I am not married, I have no children, I do own a home. I don't want to run the truck all week or all month and then spend every minute I am home filing papers or basically doing the office work. I will need to cut grass, shovel snow or well....it's home ownership you get the idea. Plus at some point there needs to be time for grilling and beer drinking and having your feet up. Nobody wants to work 24/7/ 365

Depending on the costs of some of the services these types of companies provide will depend on whether or not I use them, and eventually one day if all works out I can ween myself off them. The initial start up can be so overwhelming, that paying for some of these services will ease a little of the burden allowing me to run the truck.
[/QUOTE]

 

If you are in business you will have to deal with paperwork. I think one reason some people give up their authority to go back to being an owner operator who is leased to another carrier is the paperwork. Some don't like to deal with IFTA. There really isn't that much extra paperwork to running your authority than leasing to a carrier.

 

Coming out of my audit I learned something about drug testing random programs that I never thought of. Like other things in life, size matters. OOIDA is the largest and signs up more drivers in a year than an other group. They have to test 50% of the group on a yearly basis. Every new entrant counts AND every test for cause counts. BUT if you are not showing enough randoms your system could get invalidated. It is your responsibility to make sure that the program you are a part of is valid.

So while saving $25 a year on a program may seem like no big deal, the chances of getting a random may be higher and you have to make sure that you trust the system you are in.

Other note, how often does your company pull for testing? Monthly, quarterly? As an owner operator that owns the company you will find out at the beginning of the month or quarter that your driver (that is you) needs to be tested by the end of the month or quarter.

So the good news as an owner of the company and the driver is that you have a bigger window to schedule your random if it comes up.

To watch out for is if you have a group that does quarterly and they are small, DOT has figured out that a much higher percentage of O/O that are tested and fail or refuse to test after an accident belong to these groups. And they are cracking down.

 

I am also in the process of getting my own authority, and want to thank all of you for the contributions of this thread, it has been most helpful.

I have everything completed, truck is getting an inspection and getting all the bugs worked out while I am waiting for my MC number to go active. It should be any day now, at this point. I still need to have some signage made up...

Very exciting time, no doubt - I'm just wanting to get out and find some work already!!

Keep the journal going Red, its fantastic!

Your loyal fan!

 

Finally getting a little time to update. We're now a few days into our second month. The insurance and loan payments got made, fuel hasn't been a problem, and I'm steadily improving my load shopping skills. This weekend, I'll be getting some law and order in place with our bookkeeping. I've pretty much decided on an approach but just haven't had the time to sit down and get it done. I finally got two 800 lb gorillas off my back in the last two weeks, which is a huge relief. One was filing our income tax and the other was completing a bunch of training requirements to renew a professional certification for my day job. Admittedly, I waited till the last minute on both so shame on me. I won't be able to get exact p&l until I get the accounting setup complete, but here's the bar napkin assessment.

Profit (listed as ROI in the business model) is zero. We won't be taking that 7-day cruise off our first month profits LOL. Actually, the plan is set pretty low but I'm expecting a zero nonetheless. That was expected due to getting cash flow going and stabilized, along with start-up costs. Everything budgeted in the business plan is annualized, and we all know that doesn't line up day by day. Routine expenses are getting covered and our son the driver is getting paid, and tax deposits are getting made. The average balance in the bank account is now starting to creep upward. Personal "loans" we've made to the truck business are getting paid back as well. Right now I'm about 80% satisfied we're on track. I'll be 100% when I get the accounting set up and am able to do some deep dives on budget funding.

We had the truck PMd at 10k miles with no issues. At the same time we got a lucky break on an a/c service. Turns out one of the service ports had a bad shraeder valve, so a cheap fix and recharge for ice cold air. On our first frozen freight we weren't comfortable with how well the reefer was holding temps below 32ºF. Another lucky break, the dealer was able to repair the swing door latches to seal the doors tighter. I was expecting to have double the bill to get the doors resealed, but they said we didn't need it. On a different pass through home, I noticed a belt squealing when the reefer cranked up. I got into it and tightened the alternator belt. I may have him take it up to Gainesville this weekend for reefer PM at the Carrier dealer as I've got him loaded home this trip and it is probably getting close enough to get it done.

Over the past month, the truck's been inspected 3 times. First was a roadside level one with a warning about the temp plate on the trailer. No report was issued and he moved on without asking for it to avoid further trouble or escalating the tag issue. He got pulled for a level 2 due to a headlamp out in broad daylight. Stuff happens. Continued with the lights off to the next truck stop and picked up one for $18 and a spare just in case. Another roadside level 2 in MO for no good reason. That one was at 15:00 and the only thing they complained about was logbook not updated since 06:00 same day. No violation, just a warning. The pre-pass has paid for itself already with many, many scale bypasses. Replacing the drive tires was a worthy investment. I will probably do the trailer tires after we swallow our 2290 and IRP renewal next month. I'd rather handle it in one whack versus hundreds at a time as the crappy recaps on there pop one at a time.

I am slowly getting mad load finding skills. Well not as much as I'd like, but I am getting better at spotting profitable loads and knowing where to put the truck to get them. Pointing back to the "no experience" thing, I'd say the biggest wildcard has been multiple stop loads. I've had to get good at running the miles, routing, and times to figure out if a run is going to be profitable. And do that while I'm on the phone keeping the broker busy while I'm running spreadsheets and pc-miler. There have been days where I score a great load with one call, and other days where I've burned up the phone all day to get the next one. I'll say it again because it bears repeating: I have a great deal of respect for those of you that run your business from the driver's seat. There's an incredible amount of legwork required to keep the truck loaded and moving. Now that I'm doing repeat business with a couple brokers, I'll start training my son to do some of his own load hustling. Especially when he might be sitting at a truckstop empty. For now, I'm handling it because I'm not at the point where I can give him good direction.

One last thing is something I wouldn't have a problem with if it were me driving. Last week our young driver had to take a lesson from the old man. He had a mishap at a retail delivery. Not a major incident at once, but a series of minor screw-ups that snowballed. I'll set the stage. I'm sitting here in my home office, mindin my own #### bidness, working at my day job when my phone rings.

For 15 minutes I listened to this store owner unload. He was pissed. After all the madness and mayhem, it turned out to be a few small things. Had any one of them been avoided, the whole mess would not have happened. Turns out, our son got lazy and got boxed into a parking lot. After some unsuccessful backing, he proceeded to exit the lot across a grassy median. The store owner came out raising hell and my son caught an attitude since it was "just some grass." That persisted through the unload starting. That was when my new best friend called me and interrupted my peaceful day. The first thing he expected was the same attitude from me. I let him down. After he finally wound down, I apologized for the incident, assured him that's not how we do business, and offered to make it right. By the time I got to that point he was starting to breathe again and eased up. He put my son on the phone and I told him calmly to check his attitude and focus on being quiet, helpful, get the delivery done and get the hell out of there with no further delay or problem, we'd talk it over later. After a while, my son emailed me pictures of the tire tracks through the grass and I called the store back. That conversation went a lot better since he wasn't expecting me to follow up and now didn't have to waste his time taking pictures for me. Long story short, I'll end up paying for the landscaper to shovel some sod and possibly fix a broken sprinkler head or two.

When I called my son back later in the day, he got defensive expecting me to chew ###. Again I let him down too. I just asked him: what got the ball rolling? After he went off about the parking lot and cars in the way, I just stopped him. If you had just called that receiver and asked if there was a certain way to pull in to unload, you'd never have gotten jammed up. And everything else followed that. OK, he got that. I told him call your next two stops. Not an option, just do it. He agreed.

Then I asked him to look on the BOL and read the name on the top. He did. I asked him is that the name on the rate sheet? He noticed it wasn't. So I told him how this would play out in the worst case.

The receiver only knows his home office contact and the name on our truck. The consequence isn't going to be just one pissed off store owner. Nor is it just one broker we have the load from. The shipper is huge and probably dealing with many brokers on all sorts of different loads. If this guy calls in and complains, we'll get blacklisted on a whole lot of stuff. I had to bring his attention on the fact that his fairly simple f*k-up could have major consequences way beyond a landscaping bill. And pointed out that if I was getting paid for the butt kissing I did on the phone, I'd have been making $10,000 a minute. So I told him son, you better get your businessman face on when you're out there wheeling this truck around. Think farther than the end of the parking lot when you're making decisions on how to handle a problem. And if you just can't think up a good decision, pull your GD phone out of your pocket and call me to do your thinking for you. I never raised my voice and I had the same impact as if I'd have punched him in the throat.

OK.. so that was long winded, but therapeutic for me LOL. The moral of this story is that the Devil is in the Details. Sure my experience is limited. And you might be a company driver for a decade thinking you're ready to make the plunge into getting rich as an o/o. Let me tell you, as soon as you think you have this business whipped, you'll get a call like I did.

 

You are certainly getting off to a rousing start. Three inspections in your first month. I think that your son learned a good lesson in customer relations with his recent experience. You may not be getting rich, but neither are you going backwards. It is always good when you can start out and be able to pay the bills. Finding good paying loads will get easier once you gain some experience and make a few contacts. There are times when you will spend a lot of time finding a decent paying load. Other times your phone will ring off the hook with good paying loads. Good luck getting the books put together.

 

THREE inspections in one month! Did he break a mirror that had a reflection of a black cat in it?

I think your son should get a bonus for not finding out what car belonged to the manager and driving over it like Big Foot.

And Red, if when paying the landscape bill it includes a large rock designed to make truck drivers go postal and you pay for it you will be banned from this forum.

I think anyone that has driven for more than three days understands your sons frustration. My wife has become a very good listener when I get that way. Because as you pointed out, we still need to keep the customers.

But just once I want to back into the front of a store, throw the load out the back and bully some clerk into signing the BOL. I think that would hold me for a week.

But sounds like you are doing well. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for the lols guys...

This is my first week with my own authority and things are looking good, its finally nice to have a freight bill in my hand and have money moving in the other direction,, well potential energy at least. My truck is getting surprizing good fuel mileage, its almost so good I dont want to talk about it, like a pitcher with a no-no hitter going, however there are some issues with the exhaust, which makes me furious since the truck had a very extensive annual and the system was completely rehabbed. Unavoidably, the truck has been on I-20 in LA, which can beat the ever loving crap out of everything. I will take a page from Red and calmly approach my mechanic when the truck returns.

Which reminds me, I'm thinking of signing up at the local community college for courses in heavy duty mechanics. Being better versed in the nuts and bolts will go a long way.

As far as my model, everything is going to the company war chest except the obvious payouts. I need to find an accountant that has some experience with truck taxes because thats my blind side at the moment.

Its looking good guys, that nasty winter bottled freight up and its exploding right now...

 

It is good to hear that you are up and running, Jopper. I am glad that you are putting money back. Freight is moving, but with fuel going through the roof, the economy could stall. In fact, I expect that to happen. I would put as much back as possible. I am sorry to hear about the exhaust problem. You are right about I-20. Louisiana can be especially rough. Good luck.

 

Thanks Gman

Fuel prices; its like the feeling you get after you hit your funny bone, first you get pissed, then you curse and stomp around, and then it goes numb and tingly and you move on...

For me, I'd rather see oil excavaters on every corner rather than some poor soul with "I will work for food, family hungry" signs.

My rates will slide up right long with fuel prices, so in the end its the consumer that gets hammered, which could soften our economic recovery, it we are indeed actually recovering.

Who ever runs on the I'm going to drill anything and everything will get my vote, no I'm not talking about Billys personal policy!