About to recieve authority need honest answers

Is it difficult? No. Time-consuming? Yes. Frustrating at times and initially? Yes. If you are willing to learn new stuff and don’t give up at the first sign of trouble, you’ll be fine. It gets better the longer you do it. You’re in the right place. Always seek help whether it’s here or with OOIDA, and never stop learning new stuff on how to become the best owner, dispatcher, etc.

Once you sign up with a broker, also sign up for their QuickPay. Those 15k ain’t nothing. You can cancel QuickPay once you are more financially stable. I had more money saved up, but even I used QuickPay for a couple months. It was a good move.

OOIDA has some free educational videos for newbies. Watch the ones relevant to your business. Also, become a member with them.

 

It definitely helps if you had prior experience booking loads. Just know that freight should pay $2 a mile up to $3 a mile plus and that anything under $2 is pushing it low. It will take time to book yourself worthy freight but sometimes waiting a little can pay off.

Your in AZ, so I suspect outbound freight will be pretty much trash, BUT maybe you can get in the loop of dedicated freight OUT, like once a month that’ll put you in the Midwest or northeast. Let’s just be frank, there’s more freight where’s there’s more population. So outbound to a stronger market, work those markets for 1-3 weeks and go home. Your “go home” freight should be a strong money maker for you because a large majority of independents don’t work AZ because of the simple reality there’s not much coming out.

Truckstop.com & dat is a good start. Good luck. And my numbers earlier is based off flatbed numbers. We tend to charge more and keep a slightly higher average than van. Some brokerages will require 3-6 months active authority, some 1 year. Many don’t. Try not to book yourself to tight on preloads until you get a better feel for who’s who, and the current environment which changes ever so often. Good luck man.

Edit: Welcome To Broker Credit Check is a pretty good website to check credit. It was almost spot on with the RTS credit checks I used to run. This cross referenced with Ansonia off Truckstop.com usually gives a pretty clear ballpark of who your dealing with.

 

Az has tons of freight, you will do just fine . Yes , some brokers will not work with you .

 

For now. The inbound/outbound rates change every few weeks. Florida had some very good rates these past few weeks. It’s gone now.

 

When I first got my authority I ran into a few brokers that wanted more time in business so I politely told them that I understand and that I would contact them again in about 6 months, some wanted a reference or two of other brokers I've hauled for, ch Robinson is a good one to sign up with right away, in my area there was plenty of 2 dollar a mile loads to pick from off of their website, mainly if a broker I called seen that I had the proper insurance in place they let me haul for them, needless to say, I was always able to find good paying loads even though my authority was new, I guess it really depends how busy your area is, I'm based out of Chicago so there are tons of loads available, if you where based where there isn't a lot of freight, then yeah you might have trouble finding anything good, what I love about having my own authority is that it's really up to you, want to succeed, you will and you'll find a way, want to be lazy and slowly watch your business fail, then you will, it's all up to you, good luck out there and feel free to pm me with any questions!

 

If you join OOIDA you get a discount on the DAT loadboard. OOIDA will also do some of your required filings for free. They also have a drug testing consortium you can join which satisfies the FMCSA requirement.