freelance O/O Question

Even if you *have* an Uncle Fred, best to go ahead and have a Plan B.
My Dad bought a White Freightliner back in the 70s, with a hopper wagon, to
run a regular route promised by my Mom's older brother (who was a rat bahsturd anyway).
After the equipment was bought and set up to run, dear old Bro-in-law gave the
run to someone else entirely. He never gave a reason, just shrugged it off and went on to run one of a long chain of his failed businesses.

Short answer: Have a Plan B.

 

Nothing wrong with using brokers......
They placed the phone calls and did the door knocking......

Learn your BEP and then pick your loads........

 

What you need is to get your own truck, trailer, insurance, permits and authority.

Read threads in this section and use the search function. You can read for days and learn something new constantly.

 

How do you plan on getting these loads?

 

Ahroun,
First off we need to reclassify our terms. There is no such thing as a "freelance owner/operator". If you own a truck you are in one of two categories. You either are leased to a carrier and running under their motor carrier authority, or you have your own auhtority and are a carrier (trucking company).
If you choose to become a motor carrier you will need to apply to the FMCSA which is pretty easy to do. Obtain a BOC3, and obtain trucking insurance. If you go the FMCSA's website they have a lot of great information on there and a matrix of what forms you will need.
There is really only one difference between a common and contract carrier after Jan. 1,1996, so jsut select common. Once you have your authority you are a "carrier" not an "independant". People continue to use this "independant" term which is a carry over from the days of regulation. What are you independant of? I know a lot of people use it to mean they are a one truck company or something to that affect. People that have authority will also call themselves O/Os as well. If you intend to market to shippers direct I think using either of those descriptions would be counter productive. If you have motor carrier authority you are a carrier no matter if you have one truck or 100. Then if you are leased to a carrier you can call yourself an O/O. This would remove some of the confusion over what somebody really is.
Now when you start out you will have to use brokers as your ad hoc sales force until you can market enough to glean your own retail accounts. It could take months or years to gain enough customers to never use a broker. However if you do this thing right you yourself will have to become a broker. That is a whole other lesson in itself.

 

To answer you questions on what is needed I recommend reading the first post of this thread at least.

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...-operator/13608-so-you-want-own-your-own.html

Then Networking, Networking, Networking, Networking.

Just to give you an idea. A couple of years ago I sent out about 200 letters to manufacturing companies in our state and local area. We received one call. I knocked on doors of the local companies and gave the best "our business is local like yours" pitch and they treated me like a POS. So just be ready for this.

Now, for a company to move freight themselves.... if they have 20 loads day, easily they'll have to make 50-60 calls if not more a day to trucking companies to try and get them covered. If they use a broker, then all they'll have to do is make one call for 20 loads and now the broker works to get everything covered.

The only thing I wish I could figure out is freight rate matrix... what exactly is the freight going for. How much do they make, how much do we get paid. I have asked to friends that are brokers and they even cannot give me a good answer if at all!!

 

now what your reading is very true, if you get authority it puts you in a position to pretty much haul anything you want BUT you will find you still have to use a truck broker and what they pay is anybodys guess, it depend on what the broker gets the load for and no they wont tell you the truth , whatever it pays or what they tell you it pays they usally take another 10%, now days most are hauling for a buck a mile or less i dont see how but there doing it.

you half to shop the market it and get the best you can, but to haull that cheap your just fooling your self , your not making money.

good luck to you. southernpride