New o/o needs advide

Count me in

 

That's cool another younger one wants to get in the business. Started driving at 21 now 26. Like everyone else said the insurance will be your biggest hurdle. Bank some dough for 4 years and keep a spotless record and at 25 you should be good to go. Still gonna pay a high price. But that gives you plenty of time to learn the ins and outs. Who knows by then you might change your mind.

See if you can get a local P&D gig or food service. Pretty much all food service companies will train you. You'll make almost 2x what you'd make OTR

 

progressive only wanted my first month when I started last year

 

My insurance quote was $19k plus if paid up front and $23kish paid out. They offer 15 different payment plans to half down all the way to down and 11 payments. This was progressive. I do have 1 speeding ticket. Drops off in October. I have been a progressive car insurance customer for 20ish years.

 

it went down slightly when I bought my own trailer and put non owned interchange as secondary so it will be like 22k

 

$1700 a month....when I was leased onto carrier I regularly gave up $1300+ a week in my %....so $5000+ a month given up in my 74/26% to lease on somewhere or roughly $2100 a month for insurance and my own trailer....

 

Call around and get some quotes... then call around and see who will lease you on as a rookie... it is how it is first year. I actually just saw a post today where someone let their authority lapse for 45 days and now every broker sees them as a new carrier. I doubt the insurance was crazy high but there are steps to crawl up the ladder.

Key is don’t be a fool and have a $3k tractor payment because you have to look cool or have the latest and greatest, don’t go buy the full aluminum $45k stepdeck either. Have a lot of working Capitol in the bank and as a good man told me be prepared for a lot of no’s...

Now without all the high dollar payments for a new 389 etc that insurance payment ain’t so bad. Then 2nd year it should drop and third year a lot more.

start up is not cheap!

 

Btw, I just picked up some nice American made chains and binders from a hotshot guy who went belly up... had a brand new dually Superduty... at 30k miles up in Washington st Tranny the went out. By the time he was back up and running his goose was cooked. He got ride of everything cheap.

I asked if he was leased on or had his own authority? He was leased on. He got 72% of every load. He also paid all insurance out of pocket, along with that new truck and trailer payment. Not a good deal. The insurance for him as hotshot was probably as much as you see quoted here for big rig.