Reputable Carrier that allows self-dispatch on DAT/Truckstop?

Good questions and a new one for me in there too.
I can do fuel cards so no out of pocket for the OO there. I am still factoring to maintain cashflow. (yup, another pass through)
As for payment, we factor each load, there's no incentive not to. We reconcile each load when the cash comes in so not weekly or bi-weekly but as fast as the POD comes in, invoice sent, payment received, bills paid. That includes the driver.

We need an escrow for potential backcharges. I'd like to say I can just cover it, but that's not realistic. Maybe some day. Factoring is expensive enough, but adding no recourse adds another couple percent. A good escrow can also help with unexpected repairs since it's the OO's money.

Insurance doesn't require a downpayment for adding trucks/drivers. But I would need to "get ahead" of the bill by withholding enough to pay the next bill, not just the one past. That needn't happen all at once.

I'll ask about a milage program. It's something I've been stressing over, insurance is required to get the plate, the plate is required to get rolling. but onboarding time can incur costs before the wheels spin making that first week start from a hole. I want to protect cashflow as much as possible.

I don't want owners to pay to go to work, except stuff that's their responsibility like plates and NTL. I think that's hokey. Also don't want anyone to see their entire pay sucked up in deductions for the first couple weeks (I've seen that more than once). I know I need some operating capital, but it's not unlimited so the truck's gotta pay for itself.

The rental program is the new one. Definitely is a concern about break downs under load. I hadn't considered this option, any suggestions?

 

Well if an owner has a poor driving record then that would be reason enough to not bring them on. Bad drivers will cost you more than they make you for the most part.

On the livestock at 85/15 his 15 was the trailer that I pulled, all insurance other than what I needed for my truck, all the back office stuff like IFTA and what not, and pay that was a couple weeks behind when I hauled the load. He reimbursed for all trailer washouts but I paid for keeping the outside washed because I was usually washing the truck a couple times a week. I also paid to keep the front end and the wheels polished. But he paid for anything actually maintenance related. At any given time there were only 4 or 5 of us on his authority.

The dry van at 80/20 was basically the same. I only paid for the insurance I needed on my truck. Everything else was covered by them. They were roughly 50 trucks when I leased on, about 75 trucks when I left.

I don’t see any benefit to bringing trucks on simply to run spot freight. I always wanted access to freight that not everyone has access to. With livestock I had enough friends and phone numbers I could keep myself moving at first, then I got hooked up with a couple different companies and ran pretty much exclusively for them for 3-4 years. Food grade pneumatic was 100% freight the owner of the trailer had. The 80/20 dry van deal was mostly their freight, they only had to get broker loads to get me toward home and back out of the house because I didn’t live where their freight was. The dry van mileage rate deal was 100% their own freight. If you had loads and needed trucks it would be a different conversation than you only offering authority to guys who want to run the load boards. But that could also turn around if enough guys leave the industry and spot rates shoot up again. I guess nobody knows what the future holds.

 

We all start somewhere. Good drivers can make mistakes too, it was a personal acquaintance.

Contract freight comes after a fleet and then helps build it. But until there's a fleet there's the load boards. We're all praying they flip.

Thanks for the insights.

 

Pretend that you are going to run it all legal, even though many carriers don't.
How is your fuel card set up? Credit account? Can it raise high enough to add trucks? Pre-paid? What kind of discounts?
Who is doing the IFTA reports?
You say factoring is pass through. Is that in the %? Charging factoring fee's to them isn't legit. Reg's is 15 days max.
You say escrow account. Do you know what a legit escrow account is? I know a carrier now that is in trouble for calling it escrow.
Set up with Penske, Ryder, ect. That increases insurance a few bucks.

 

Don't need a fleet to get contract freight, just need to provide a service they need. That requires 100's calls, 10 that will talk to you, one that will try you out. LOL

 

Carriers are required to pay in 15 and brokers get whatever they can squeeze into the ratecon. That's why factoring is big business. Factoring can be passed on as an admin charge as long as it's disclosed in the lease. I know it impacts the bottom line, but I'm a transparency nut. I want to know what I'm paying for and where the money goes. Carriers getting 25-30% can wrap all this in, but the expenses still exist. No carrier is paying more than they take in, for long.

I'm not trying to imply I can offer more than anyone else. Just trying to be clear about it. Trust is really the only commodity I can offer, and that only comes with verification.

I ain't got ticket money so I only run legit. Solid logs, trucks that pass inspection (holding breath: knock on wood)

The biggest reason for not wanting to wrap everything into a percentage is that number isn't static. If you have a killer month and make double the money, you're paying double for the same expenses. It can be nice on those bad weeks, but like I said, carriers can't run at a loss. I think fixed expenses should be fixed deductions.

 

Why should an owner be forced to pay for factoring because you don’t have the capital to pay what is owed them? Get an operating note from a bank instead of paying a factoring company. If I’m on an 80/20 deal and the load is $1000 then I get $800 and you get $200. Factoring is your choice and should come out of your $200.

My opinion, the more things there are to watch on a settlement sheet the more opportunities there are for the office to make “mistakes” that an owner might not catch because they didn’t look at every little thing. It should be cut and dry. 80/20 or whatever is agreed on. Why do you care if the have a good week and your 20 is larger than normal? That also means their 80 is larger than normal. I was never concerned about what the other person’s cut was. As long as the money to my truck was good then that’s all that mattered to me. Let’s say that there’s an absolute banger of a week where the truck grosses $15k. I really wouldn’t care about your $3k because my truck would be getting $12k. It’s the cost of doing business.

 

Again, legit.
Admin charge is a flat dollar amount, not varying for each service. So it would be X$ every settlement, regardless of amount.
Admin charges must be for each thing, not lumped together.
Other charges I.E. fuel card must be disclosed. Comchek charge.

So are you charging the O/O for all the pre-employment costs? Pay that upfront if they don't qualify? Charge them later?

Problem I have, and most O/O's I know have with a separate insurance charge is paying double if you take a couple of weeks off.

 

I feel the paying double thing, but i get no break for downtime from the insurance company. I'm kinda hoping as I grow there comes with it some flexibility.

One thing I'm learning about offering lease-on is the money talks. The pot is what it is because rates are what they are so how much of that pot can I offer the owner without going belly up seems to be the name of the game. I haven't fully flushed that out yet but it can't be more than 100% to be sure, which many ads seem to offer.

I'm just looking at the math. When expenses are extracted via percentage you will overpay every time you earn more than the baseline. From my perspective, this should incentivize earning more. Likewise, when expenses are fixed, the owner will pay a larger percentage which would serve to disincentivize unproductiveness (more importantly immunize the carrier from losses). It's a win win if the goal is to earn money. If the driver just wants to camp at truck stops it's not the best deal.

There is no perfect structure because there is no universal opinion. If you don't mind paying extra for convenience I reckon you'd look for a different lease agreement. You make me wonder if I should offer either/or...

I can't be all things to all people and I can only appeal to people who want a lot of autonomy and have trust issues. I don't have perks like contracts, yet. I do know that I have to count every penny while driving because rates haven't turned yet. I expect there are some who think like me and want total transparency. Time will tell.

 

I think you're trying to make your cost/profit steady, there is no "baseline" when it comes to O/O's They'll be plenty whose idea of good will balk at your fixed costs because the insurance payment will be far more than the higher percentage. You have a few claims and insurance goes up 10-20-30% Not everyone out there wants/needs to work 52 weeks a year. You going to hire and then terminate someone because they don't want/need to work as much as you think? Seen plenty of times of people trying this. You need the big fuel discounts(cost+) big discounts on parts/repairs, far lower insurance (than you stated) and most important cash on hand. If you have to factor because credit isn't good enough for a LOC, then you're operating on a day to day basis. No invoices going out, no money coming in. Think of all that take of a couple of weeks. before Christmas to after the new year. Couple of weeks with only 1/3-1/2 the money coming in.

Not trying to beat you up, just a dose of reality