Owner/operator with no experience. What are my chances?

It’s certainly a lot to learn. Even with 10yrs in the business doing all sorts of hauling it was a lot to learn. It’s a butt ton of money getting started...insurance alone was $1800/month with a clean record and there aren’t options until you’ve had your authority for 1yr+ accident/claim free.

Unless you want to pay someone to dispatch or have a wife at home to also help you’re looking at 90-100hr work weeks. Finding a load and a brokerage that will book it for you without having your authority 6-12months narrows your options as well. Call the broker get the green light they send you paperwork, you then call insurance and get them to send a cert to broker they send back paperwork you sign and send back then they send the final rate con. Can’t really do all that driving down the highway not to mention the time you spent on the board finding it to start with...then you’ve got to print out and file BOLs for each load along with printed logs for your inevitable DOT audit...doesn’t sound like a lot but if you are doing stepdeck/flatbed or LTL/partials it’s definitely not hard to be at 10-15loads per week if your are using all your deck space as much as possible.

You’re also going to have to send in your rate cons BOL etc to your factoring company for each load to get paid. You can try to collect from people yourself if you’re okay adding even MORE work on to yourself and have enough money to not get paid for loads from 14-90days after delivery...burning $1,500 or so a week in fuel will really put a dent in that bank though with no funds rolling in. Get a company credit card purchase your fuel on it and pay it every week you’ll have enough credit limit to put a new motor on it before you know it.


that’s just a few small parts of the big picture to pair with your 70hr clock each week...I could type a novel on all the crap I learned in 2yrs time. I’m single no kids worked 70-100hrs a week for the past 15yrs and it was a lot of work for me. You’ve REALLY got to want it and be willing to put in the work. Also I would have a truck paid off minimum if not trailer too and 50k+ starting money.

Also if you are seriously interested in it check out Kevin Rutherford on XM radio or on line the guy is a wealth of knowledge and you can get a ton of it for free just listening to his show while you drive.