How Hard is it to Find Freight to Deliver for Owner Operators??

Hhhmmm...Let me see:

1. get a CDL ...........................................................................................[✓]
2. drive some one else truck ..................................................................[✓]
3. break someone else truck/tranny/trailer/door/bumper .................[n/a]
4. drive for a few months ......................................................................[✓]
5. buy a truck .........................................................................................[✓]
6. find loads ............................................................................................[working on it]

I guess you dont have to do step # 3 UNLESS you are a complete idiot or just filled with malice.

 

step # 3 will happen, 99% ! it's not related to idiotism . just not enough experience.

 

First thing is that there are different terms being used. An Owner Operator has a truck. He could also have a trailer. He could also have his own authority.

Let's assume you are asking about someone who is a one truck company, an owner operator with his own authority. What happens first is you use brokers to find loads for you. That means load boards. Dat and truckstop seem to be the best out there. That opinion is based on my own experiences and I have not experienced all of them. Brokers also have their own load boards.

Your first year of having your own authority you are limited as to what brokers will do business with you. And you have to remember brokers are folks who take a piece of YOUR pie. It is up to you to keep as much of the money as you can. For instance. All of the brokers offer Quick Pay for a small percent. Like 4 percent. That works out to 48% annual interest. Avoid it if you can.

What I did is this. I got my truck, through Lone Mountain. I leased it on to a company out of Henderson, NV. It took me 2 weeks to figure out that was a mistake. The gal did not have her own freight she was just booking loads of load boards and charging me 25%. I was also paying to rent the trailer that she was renting. So, I got my own authority. I did not have a trailer so, I became Power only for Pam. They were paying less then I needed. So I went to USA Truck. Also Power only. While working for those two companies my authority was aging. The folks at USA Truck let me use their trailer and find my own loads if they did not have anything for me. This happened maybe 4 times and always on a weekend. I used Coyote to broker me loads those times.

Then USA Truck changed the person I was very happy with as a dispatcher. I did not like that so off I went on my own. I rent a van for $350 a month from Jim Hawk Trailers. I used CH Robinson, Coyote, Pam, USA Truck, Pepsi, and a few others to broker loads.

I use DAT as a first load board. I should have gone with Truckstop.com first because it is hard for me to learn to seperate systems and DAT is easier to use. Anyway, the advanced version of DAT gives you market rates for the last 15 days on the different lanes. I start off the bidding by adding 15% to the going rate. Also, I look for ones that are already offering a rate that is greater then the market rate. I always check to see if there is a load I can get coming out of the area I am headed into.

Never let a broker know you want to come home. Never haul cheap.

If you are one truck, then you have a hard time getting freight without using load boards but you need to try. Small local companies are you best bet. Find a company that supplies a repeat run and price it right.

Using load boards remember the further out you book a load the less money you will get for it. Same day or next day loads pay the most.

I am sure there is more but I have typed too much already.

 

@Wooly Rhino ...awesome post.

That's the game plan I'm following actually.

Going to do a lease on, then see what happens, before I get my own trailer, if need be.

 

I'd like to add that there is also a pretty good chance that the first time you book a load going from point A to B with a broker. Well, the rate you got the first time on that particular load will likely be the same rate you're going to get if you pull that same load again. Unless they are getting desperate of course.

TLDR: If you shoot yourself in the foot the first time, you're going to hang yourself the next time.

 

Wow, Great info

 

Plus one on basically everything Wooly Rhino said. It’s tough just starting out, but it can be done. Don’t run that cheap garbage at 1$ a mile if you are an O/O. You can’t afford it.