Running under your own authority

Now I'm not saying this is good, but, my rep at Coyote told me they have power only loads and you can use the trailer for a week after you deliver the load, so you could tap into the higher paying loads. Worth thinking about.

 

i know landstar has allot of power only loads but for the most part it will be even more difficult to get loads that way

 

So here's the deal. You operate your own equipment. Numbers, insurance etc. You want to haul freight direct for the shipper/manufacturer. You want to avoid giving away money to anyone else. It is difficult to setup with a broker and then when you are getting loaded try to impress yourself upon the shipping dept to add you to the list of carriers. The best way to start is around home. Find companies that ship out of your area to preferred lanes. Figure your availability how many loads per week per month etc and then sell it to them. Maintain that relationship and then work shippers out of the end of the outbound lane. Depending on what your availability is to your outbound shipper determines if you need to find a direct load back to your outbound shipper or can make it a triangle. The goal is to cut brokers out of the equation completely. You will have higher rates than the big carriers so be prepared to justify with exceptional service. (On time, claim free, etc.) There are a lot of furniture makers in GA might try one of those. It is hard if you are the owner/driver/salesman/everything else. But if you want to be truly independent that's the avenue you have to travel. Don't forget that most brokers you set up with have a non compete clause in their paperwork you signed so be careful recruiting a new shipper when under a broker. One phone call from the shipper can get you boumced pretty quick.

 

If you're power only, you might want to check out prime and haul reefer. I use them alot in some areas and they have tons of freight with really good rates, 2.80 - 3.47.

http://advancedfleetprogram.com/requirements/

 

Yeah, 6 years or newer. if you had your own reefer, you could still use their broker service.

Schneider has no year requirements.

 

I guess me and my 28 yr old truck would be s.o.l.

 

I'm not sure how anyone thinks you can survive in this industry without a trailer. Trailers are cheap.

 

50 million huh? I'd love to see where that statistic comes from.

A quick Google search on the topic listed a popular mechanics article stating there are 5.6 million registered semi trailers in the United states. Approximately 3 times the number of registered semi tractors.