Just gettin started.

You are going to need the money to buy a truck outright, a repair fund, fuel fund, and also money to start the business and get your authority. Lone Mountain won't even lease a truck to someone without experience.

 

You will have to start out on the loadboards and calling the brokers for loads. Eventually you will have a rapport with certain brokers and they will call you. Yes, some will work with you right away, most after 3 months, more at 6 months, then a year, etc..

 

You're wasting your time and about to lose a ton of money. You have zero time behind a windshield and know jack squat about the industry. The failure rate among guys with 10 or 20 years experience is really high. So you have no practical experience are going to get your authority,work loadboards and make a go of it? Let us know how well that works out.

 

No one is saying it CAN'T be done, but you are behind the proverbial 8 ball in your current situation. No experience (don't even have a CDL yet) and a major mark on your criminal record. Just those things alone will make it difficult for you. Add in the fact that (with no experience) you really have no idea what the daily/weekly/yearly grind of OTR trucking is all about. The failure rate for just company drivers in their first year is phenomenal. You want to break into the industry with 2 strikes against you before you even begin. I wish you the best of luck, but understand that you face a major uphill battle.

 

Rollin said it can't be done... (LOL)

I was simply listing the "negatives" you're going to face. I believe that people can accomplish ANYTHING if they're willing to put the $$ and the HARD WORK into it.

I'm planning on "jumping in cold" myself at the beginning of next year. The major difference is that I've had my CDL for a number of years, I'm doing a butt-load of research on the BUSINESS SIDE of the business, and I have both clean driving AND criminal records.

So again - I'm not saying it cannot be done - just that you will likely not get a hire-on (as a company driver OR an O/O-Lease) from most companies, with a 5 year old, 2nd degree felony for drugs.

And that, despite what you may have asked for, insurance-wise - FULL TRUCKING LIABILITY (the kind you need to operate under your own authority), is either INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE, or just not available to someone with less than a year ON THIER LICENSE. I KNOW - because I tried to get it 3 years ago when I got my CDL. Strangely enough - most insurance companies don't look at "documentable experience", but a date of licensure.

Which is not to say I haven't driven a TT in those years - just not FULL TIME or full time OTR. I've done some local stuff, and some "special trips" for friends - but nothing that's going to give me that 6 months-1 year that most "major carriers" are going, in order to require to lease me on with my own tractor/trailer.

I suggest you do some "bone-ing up" on the sticky'd threads here, and you'll get an idea of which direction your "due diligence" needs to go so you can get all the information you need to get going.

So, as long as you go in expecting the "going to be tougher" than most with a clean record - HAVE AT IT - and please keep us posted on your progress...

Rick

 

You need to take constructive criticism for what it is. I used that to motivate myself for almost everything I ever accomplished but I've never jumped into anything headlong blind and ignorant. If I had a dime for all the jokers out there who tell me they can keep me busy.

 

please, please, please make sure you get some learning in. I've been studying for close to a year to be an o/o and Getting your own authority itself is a massive undertaking. Make sure you know what is involved. There is a lot you will be responsible for, permits to run in each state, filing IFTA quarterlies, joining a drug screening program. You have to make your own safety dept. even if you are a 1 truck owner. Not to mention truck, liability, bobtail, and cargo ins. Join ooida they have a whole dept. that will walk you through the whole process and help you file paperwork. And you get a dot audit after 18 months.

I am leasing onto a company for my first few years just to ease myself into the o/o world. There is a LOT to learn so be prepared.