Truck Ownership and running my own GIg.

Hi I will be very honest with the route we took
1. LOTS of hard work - 24/7 oncall for the first 3-4years
2. Before you go out on your own - work as an O/O for a smaller company (there are honest ones out there) - this way you will learn all aspects of the business side - not just the driving and route planning
3. Start with one truck and traielr and have someone in the back office for paperwork / appointmnets and billing (you CANNOT do it all)
4. Hired a company to do all the lic for us the first year and then once we knew did everything ourselves ... even the IFTA / Carbon Tax etc.. no need to hire someone
5. First six months were very hard - as no one wnated to give a new company a chance - so we got refrences from shippers/receivers we had worked with previously as to our reliability (not back soliciting - just references)
6. Made sure we chose the loads carefully as non-paymnet would ruin us... so only reliable shippers/brokers

The rest as they say is destinty...I wish you luck

 

You couldn’t pay and get better advice than what Prairie Trucker just laid on you there for free. Number 2. should have a couple of exclamation marks, for a couple of reasons. First and probably most important, working as an O/O on a fleet you’re operating on their credit and it insulates you from that bad load that could be the end. Non-payment is for the carrier to fight out with their customer, you’ll get paid. If not you shouldn’t be working there anyway. And it gives you a chance to build a relationship with your bank for whatever business entity you’re operating while you stack some money in there. You’re going to need lots to go it on your own. This is what crushes a lot of start ups. My trucks are out today, I’m going to have to pay my drivers when they get back, for my fuel at the end of next week, and I’m getting paid 30 to 90 days from now. In this business that can turn into out kicking doors in at 120 pretty quick. To be safe, you want 4 months worth of your total operating costs in the bank before you even think about it, unless Uncle Bigbucks already armed you with a suitcase full of cash to operate on. For a new company credit is pretty hard to come by for the first 5yrs without exposing yourself personally. And that’s to be avoided if possible. Picking a carrier to work for deserves some research. Ideally you’d want to be at a smaller outfit where you see the guy who’s name’s on the door on a regular basis. The more old school that dude is the more likely he’ll be willing to share information and teach you the finer details in all this ####. Very best of luck to you.