Owner operator authority and new CDL hire

As long as you have your CDL and Medical Card you can work for anyone that will hire you. The real question is do you really want to work for them. A LOT of megas will hire straight out of school or zero experience drivers and so will some very small owner ops. If you opt for the very small owner op, make sure of a couple things:

1. He's legit and does the whole hire process right and is a for real authorized motor carrier with the required DOT Authorities and insurance policies.

2. He's gonna pay you correctly - in other words it's not an under the table deal, and paychecks will clear the bank.

3. He's gonna keep up with and report your experience you gain with him to another company when they send the form to him for pre-hire reference check if and when you decide to go somewhere else. He HAS to respond to the inquiry fairly quickly or the company requesting the information will just pass you by.

4. Make sure he's not gonna put you in a rattle trap POS. I'm not sayin' it needs to be a nice shiny pretty, but make sure it's in decent shape. It really sucks to be stranded broke down or shut down by DOT at a roadside or scale house inspection because the owner doesn't keep the equipment up.

5. Get a REAL clear understanding about who pays for damage if you have an accident that's your fault, like dinging a fender or bending a bumper hitting a stationary object. A lot of the small guys have the driver pay that so they don't have to file an insurance claim or pay the deductible. I'm not saying that's all bad. The first time you pay for a bumper will be the last time you ever hit a pole or something because you misjudged your nose swing. That's for sure, but have a real clear understanding up front.

5. Lastly and most importantly, make sure he's gonna run you safe and legal. A lot of small outfits struggle to make ends meet so they bend the rules big time to be able to generate enough revenue to pay the bills and make a profit. The problem with that is that it's YOUR arse on the line when the shi+ hits the fan. No matter what ANYONE tells you, the law will say "he wasn't in the cab with a gun to your head, YOU chose to do what he said to do, YOU are accountable civilly and criminally". Keep in mind what we term Regulations and Rules are in fact LAWS and if you don't follow them you are breaking the law and if you get caught YOU will be the one to pay the price because YOU did it.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of really good one and two horse outfits operating off the kitchen table that do a really good job and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that and it can be a great way to gain experience - if it's run right. If it's not it can be a nightmare and you'd have been better off going with one of the megas and eating a crap sandwich on their rookie boards till you got the experience to get the job you really want. Just look real carefully before you leap. I wish you the best of luck and remember YOU are the captain of the ship and no matter who owns the ship or how many they have, YOU are ultimately responsible for the safe and legal operation of the ship you command.

 

I don't see why not as long as his insurance approves you.

 

With zero experience, his insurance will either not take you or they will charge him an outrageous amount. I've been looking around at insurance here lately and I have a little over a year with a spotless MVR. No wrecks or tickets or anything and some are still quoting close to 20k and some over 20k for a year. The owner would have to pay that insurance, pay for maintenance, take his cut, then pay you. The more he is paying for insurance means the less his cut or your cut will be and I would be willing to bet that his cut wouldn't be the one that was less. If it's someone that is trying to help you out that is one thing but if its someone who is trying to make money with another truck, I don't see where it would be beneficial for the owner.

 

The short answer is no. Sorry, but that's the case.

The long answer is the insurance you will keep hearing about is called Commercial Trucking Auto Liability and the Motor Carrier is required to carry it in order to get and keep it's Authorities (USDOT and ICC/MC). The Motor Carrier (trucking company or owner op) applies for Authorities using form MCS-150 and they issue the USDOT and ICC/MC numbers (called dockets - we refer to them collectively as Authorities) but they don't activate them until the insurance carrier the Motor Carrier gets their policy from files a 91X filing with FMCSA certifying they have issued the Motor Carrier a policy that meets the minimum required by law ($750K for non-haz, $5M for haz). What people will talk about being approved by the insurance company refers to the insurance carrier's requirements for the policy which may include "a driver must meet the following criteria" clause in order to get a better rate. It's kinda like adding your kid to your personal auto policy when they turn 15 and get their learners permit. Your policy may say OK, but not until they take driver's ed. Until they do we won't cover any accident they are involved in. So you CAN let them drive - the LAW doesn't prevent it, but you'd be crazy to because if they get in an accident the entire cost of the accident will come out of your own pocket. Same principle. Unfortunately in private auto you can get insurance on yourself so you are insured no matter what vehicle (you are insuring yourself, and any vehicle and any owner are covered) you are driving (the infamous SR-22) but not in trucking. Not that I've ever heard of anyway and I did Risk Management (in house Insurance Manager) for a company that would have LOVED to have been able to get out from under the insurance regulations by having the drivers insure themselves in some kind of SR-22 deal.

Whoever has the USDOT Authorities and ICC/MC docket HAS to be the one to carry the insurance. Sorry Dude. Nice thinking, but unfortunately doesn't work that way in trucking. Your MVR (motor vehicle record - driving record from DMV) age and experience are the three big factors insurance companies look at. Also keep in mind that from now on: ANYTHING YOU DO IN A PERSONAL VEHICLE GOES AGAINST YOUR CDL ALSO.

If you want to work for the guy, just have him fax a copy of your MVR to his agent and ask if the insurance company will cover you. He's gonna need a current MVR for your driver file anyway. If this is his first driver hire, PM me or e-mail me, or have him do it (smbrown@homesc.com) and I'll hook him up with a cheap "kit" that will have everything he needs to make sure he's meeting the regulations for hiring a driver so if he gets audited he won't get burned. You can get them real cheap (like $20 per) from companies like JJ Keller, OIIDA probably has a lot of real good stuff to help him too. I say this because it sounds like he's a friend of yours and you guys wanna get together and truck, which is great but there's a lot to it and if you don't do it right you can get your arses in a real sling in a skinny minute. It's not hard to do or expensive to do it right so you might as well just do it right from the start. It's just a matter of knowing WHAT to do. I'll be glad to help with that.