Need some owner operator start-up advice

Will try to keep this short. Basically I'm searching for information on becoming a owner operator. For four years I was a independent contractor for FedEx Ground, so I know most of the little things involved in maintaining your own business. However, what I am worried about mainly with owning my own truck, is getting the lowest interest rate and how to get jobs. I'm pretty new to trucking in general and have done some research about "load boards" and whatnot. The few I have seen it appears you pick your starting city and where you want to go. Now I can't believe it would be that easy, as a pure independent I'm guessing I would have to call the company, make a pitch of some kind, maybe even haggle, and would I be at a disadvantage being a new driver? Or would they even care as long as I had the truck? Or should I just forgo all the independent stuff and join with a company or a broker of some kind? As for the interest rate, I'm not sure if I could get financing from the bank for a small business loan, or even refinance my house considering the very low rates on that. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, sorry for the long rant, haha. Thanks!

 

Thank you very much for the advice guys. I'm not all that good with forum boards, but I'll get better. I have about 11k set aside, so I'll need to work on that. Thanks again you two.