home based selection

Yes, base plates will be cheaper in IN vs IL. But when you are talking about solo shop it really makes very little difference in your CPM. You will see large companies setting up shop in a state so they can take advantage of this. A $1000 a year difference on 5,000 trucks is real money. But on a single truck that is less than $.01/mile to you CPM.

Plus base plate formula is so complicated that it can be a challenge to nail it down.

And the IRP process is such that you really do have to have residence in the state you are looking to plate in.

 

Years ago it used to be much easier for a single truck operator to do this. Oklahoma was a state that most used to base out of without a residence because it was cheapest and easy to do without having a physical residence or place of business there. I don't know the exact details of what happened but other states that were losing revenue to this practice, Illinois being one of the biggest complainers (and possibly/probably mega carrier lobbying state legislatures to hook small operators with yet another cost disadvantage), put pressure on states like Oklahoma to become more stringent in their residency requirements thus ending this practice. So like Bill says, the only companies that do this are mega fleets with a physical presence, as in drop yard, warehouse, etc, based in the state they plate out of. A good example of this would be Chattanooga, TN carrier US Xpress whose base plates are Oklahoma. I won't say it's not possible but there are cost hurdles now making it impracticle so I don't believe there are many single truck or small time operations based in one state running plates from another anymore as used to be commonplace.