Four simple short questions please

1) Depends on the market. Post that truck up and you will find out if it's any good. Phone rings off the hook start dictating prices. Sporadic calls maybe 3 or 4 all day, dictate but don't hold your breath. No calls, you're in a bad market, maybe tomorrow will be better? Or next week, or next month? Who knows. You might book a load in 5 minutes or you might be several days before anything worth while comes up. It's important when you've been several days without catching anything to not lower your standards lest you find you've left out on something to somewhere equally weak and your outbound really didn't justify it. Would you rather work hard at going broke or sit at the house?

2) I'm leased so I get paid every Friday and don't have to deal with invoicing, sorry no help.

3) Total myth IMO I haven't been singled out in the past 5 years as an o/o than I was the previous10 as company driver. Maintain your equipment and don't worry.

4)You ought to be able to. Everyone's results there vary. You can't expect to hit the ground rolling and have a perfect year. There's a lot to learn, mistakes will be made, things will break. If you have a break even year that first year you've done better than most.

Don't hamstring yourself by having set scheduled times to take off. I've left a lot of money on the table due to that. Even the first two weeks of Jan this year there was still plenty of name your rate high dollar stuff, which some of us kind of figured there would be, but I didn't care I still stayed home. Last year July was unusually busy and I didn't hit a lick.

If you're talking 100% brokered freight don't even consider working year round if you want to stay on profitable freight. It comes and goes in cycles, roll when it's there, park when it's not or if you need to catch your breath. With dry van you can count on about 6 or 7 really great months out of the year, a couple or 3 where it's ok, and others it's just the pits.. ..from my experience anyways which is kind of limited 2.5 years and in a funky economy to boot.

 

1. Depends on the market, how early you're looking. Time of day. Is product 'in season' if it's reefer, etc.

2. Not sure what you mean? Usually to negotiate a price is just a few minutes. As for getting paid, most anywhere from 7 days to 30 days. Depends on if the payment/bills are mailed, or direct deposit, comcheck, etc and whether you can fax/email/transflo them the bills/POD.

3. In my time driving leased to a carrier, I had just over 1 inspection a year. Since I've had my authority, I've averaged 2 inspections a year. No real difference in how I was treated during any of them. I think they scrutinized my paper logs less now than before. Guess it's how you present yourself. Seeing how a 'big company' operates, shows how things should be presented to a scale. Get a permit book, keep all available papers in it in clear sleeves. Makes it a lot easier to show all your pertinent paperwork and you look professional.

4. Yes. If you can't afford working only 80% of the time, you would need to reevaluate your business model and pricing.

 

Depends. If I have a friend moving cargo where I'm going to be, I might have a confirmation before I get there and never have to search. If not, I usually have that profitable offer in an hour or three. Once in a great while it might take longer. Sometimes I need a nap and don't look for a reload right away.

If you're talking about collecting, nearly zero. Maybe one in 10-15 loads has something going on that needs hashing out. Normally one to two short calls to square it away.

End to end, maybe 3-4 calls on average about a single confirmed load. A few more that don't work out. A few more to just BS a while and remind them I'm around. And a couple of cold calls from brokers each day. Yeah, lots of phone time.

No. IMO the DOT lawn mower goes after the tall blade of grass. If you give them a reason to look at you, they will. That said, sometimes it really is random and its your turn in the barrel. I have PrePass, personally keep a low profile and run a lot of hours scales are closed. Zero inspections in two years, knock on my wooden head. I did get a quick logbook check/quiz out the window in SC one time. I did my Obi Wan on him and he decided I was not the driver he was looking for. My son, on the other hand has had several inspections. He is young and still thinks a lot of things aren't his fault. He also is known to be the tall blade of grass at times, despite my best efforts to convince him otherwise. They see him coming.

Yes. You are shooting low.