A dispatching service for a newbie driver?

U ship! You can be on shipping wars! Haha.

 

I would lease to a company and let them deal with it. It sounds like you won't make money leasing onto a carrier but I looked into dispatching my own loads for my trucks and decided that I couldn't do it - even with dispatching experience. I lack the resources that I have to depend on, which is relationships with brokers/shippers directly. I would never depend on a dispatcher who is taking loads off of the internet load boards, especially when there is no standards for posting loads across all of these boards.

 

Unless you're completely green, save the percentage you're going to pay them and do it yourself. I guess I don't see the point of going through the trouble of getting your own authority, ins, etc and then paying a percentage of most likely a broker load to a "dispatch service". If you're going to do that why not just lease on to a carrier with a fair percentage lease? Then they take care of the safety and compliance BS too.

You will make mistakes that cost you money but their is no better and faster learning tool than the school of hard knocks. Heck, I'll give the number of my contact at Coyote and they can run you dedicated out of Chicago I bet for only their cut to the rate. You won't make as much as playing the market but at least you cut out one middle man.

 

I hope you bothered to get a good trucking-knowledgable accountant lined up. It's going to be tough in the beginning without having some dependable direct-haul accounts on at least a few ends. Until you develop a history, you're going to have to deal with some less-then-respectable brokers.

I hope you know what you're doing. Report back in 12 months and let us know how you fared.

 

I would say after the initial setup to get the trucker accountant but I found out when I started to form my business and lost my old accountant (who was an accountant for a manufacturer) that the things that were suggested that I do was too costly and wouldn't benefit me in the long run. One other thing I found out is that people don't understand how to use an accountant, they think it is all about numbers but a good one can guide any type of business.

 

..........HA!

 

First question is+ how long have you been involved in trucking?
Second is= Why in trucking?
3rd is do you have any customer or people skills?
If you have not been in trucking for more than 5 years you are headed for failure. Drive for someone else for at least 5 years. Learn the cycle of freight.
Brokers and agents to avoid at all costs, Brokers and agents to use before you have to reach in YOUR pocket, Especially flat bed. It runs hot and heavy from April to late October. then is dead .

If you don't have a wife or family member to dispatch you more than likely your going to fail. Period. You cannot afford at today's rates to give an ungodly Percentage to the broker that is probably the 3rd one in the list to take off the top then you get yours.
There are so many load boards some agents will dispatch off of several of them , (I call them pajama agents)then give the original agent his cut then take theirs, then you get left overs. Example. Load is posted for $2.85 a mile. Then it gets picked up by second or third agent ( broker). You call and are offered the load for $2.25 a mile. That agent with the $2.25 a mile is going to take his % of that $2.25 leaving you about $1.10 a mile when it is all done.Who got the cream off the top.?? NOT YOU.
If you don't have even the slightest idea of how the trucking industry works your going to fail. You have to understand it, Know how to work in it's boundless daily changes, your going to be a very unhappy person.

If you want to to make better money go to a step deck trailer instead of flat bed.. You can haul for the most part every thing a flat bed can haul plus a lot more. Your options are greatly increased and that is giving you more ways to earn more money for basically the same cost of investment.

You must be able to learn to read the industry. You must be able to know whether or not to take that good paying load. Not all good paying loads are really that. Case in point. You take that $4 a mile load to BFE. The loads out of BFE are running $ 1.35 to $1.50 for 44,000lbs must tarp. Are you really making money on the good paying load to BFE? No your not due to the increase in over head OUT of BFE. You have to learn where to and where not to run and to be able to make the decision to not take a load simply based on rate. You have to learn to make a decison to either haul cheap or be able to dead head out and make money. Some times a difficult decision to make.

Customer skills.
If you are getting your own authority you should have already taken on and secured some customers of your own. Set your rate that actually gives you a profit. Walk into the customers you want or have hauled to or from and secure your rate. KNOW your costs of doing business so you can negotiate your rate intelligently. You will not get ahead of the game by using agents or brokers as you will give away at least 30% of your earned money. Your authority, Your truck, Your labor, Your costs Should reward you with more profit.

Trucking is a business. You must look at it as a business or you will have no business in a very short time. You need to have tucked away in the bank at least enough money to keep you afloat for at least 6 months . Reason? You could fall a break a leg, family emergency. Replace an engine. ( $20,000 for that. Accident that keeps your truck down for a lengthy amount of time for repairs. You have to be ready for that or you will sink.

With todays ( 2013) new tax laws you MUST have an accountant that is up to date on the TRUCKING regulations. . The new tax regulations are nothing like we have been used to over the last 20 or so years. ALL NEW. ALL Encompassing but not beneficial to us any more.