Hi, I just have some questions for people who are on the load boards. I am working for a company right now as an owner operator and I am just wondering if its worth it go over to the load board instead of underneath someone ? I would like to be going over the boarder as well - i cant access what loads are on there because I would have to sign up and pay the fees and get the insurance. Thanks guys!
From my own experience, getting your own authority and pulling freight on the spot market will always be more profitable in the long run than leasing to a carrier. You’ll need the upfront costs of apportioned plates, insurance and permits though. Do you have your own trailer or will you be doing power only?
That is a very difficult question to answer. That's really an individual thing and there are so many things to consider. What would the cost of your insurance be? What lanes are you running? Do you have a trailer? What type of freight are you hauling? Are you able to make lots and lots of phone calls and do billing and follow up with people? Are you organized with paperwork? Depending on the company some people do extremely well leased on. I think only you can answer those questions.
You lease to someone you are stuck pulling their freight, and with whatever rates they want to show you after chopping some off through their brokerage, I wouldn’t rely on just a load board, I’d try to find local brokers/small companies to work with or direct work, I don’t even rely on one trailer, I have a flat, reefer, and a dump, dump and flat is local work and seasonal, reefer while is some nights in the truck, is easy, but personally I like to mix up what I do, really all depends on what you want to do
I recently went from Lease OO to my own authority and had to use the load board for about 4 months starting up due to waiting for a slow contract to get approved. A few things from my experience. Many brokerages will turn you down if you don’t have 1, 3, 6 months of authority. But some won’t - find those, and make good relationships. This was my biggest challenge starting off. But I found the ones that let me work right away, I stuck with them and found good loads and lanes. I am home daily (Midwest) no questions asked, and I made it work. But it takes a hell of an effort to ensure appointments are set and I had to reject most of my offers if they wouldn’t make it work. The person that said your own authority is more profitable than Lease OO - I would agree. But you need to heed the advice of having all that startup cost and also the huge increase in insurance. Also the expected loss in income as you try to figure out WTF you are doing in the brokerage world. It took me about 3 months (which is when many people gave me work due to having 3+ months of authority). I thought about it for a year but I am 100% satisfied that I made the move. 7 months in and I have no regrets at all. Think over it hard, run the numbers, and ask yourself if you have the grind to make it work and if you go for it you wont regret it.
