New O/O

Your authority is not regional your IRP is

Im not quite sure if you have enough industry knowledge to operate under you own authority, but you would be wise to contact OOIDA for assistance in this its a little more expensive but they handle everything...it takes about 3 weeks to complete

During that time do some research on how to handle brokers and choosing your own loads...it would have been easier to have a plan in place before you purchased a truck it wouldn't be so stressful, but slow down take your time, study, research, then move foward.

You need to decide what type of freight you want to haul, general, refer, dump, specialized/heavy haul all of this affects you decision...coming from a farm and the military where is your base experience

If Malone accepts you you are going to run into the same issues because there is not a lot of hand holding over there

 

I'm trying to figure out what money reserves you have?

Also it seems you blindly bought the truck without having it checked first by a mechanic or a dyno/ECM dump and other things to make sure you won't be doing a rebuild soon?

 

I ran with Schneider for 8 months to add recent otr experience to my resume and then started paying for my truck. You can pretty much lease on to any of the big name companies. But get your own base plate, so you can leave when you get ready and/or run while your working on getting your own authority. Just got mine last week. Been getting phone calls out the ying yang from companies I've never even heard of. JB Hunt has a program that pays 1.65 a mile which ain't much but it's no forced dispatch and no strings attached. But I'm gonna do regional seasonal produce to start me off.

 

hmm, CRST Malone (I believe) pulls a flatbed. Cargill, is an owner operator only Company. They pull meat loads from out of their plants. You wrote 5mos. otr. But did not clarify if your Army MOS was driving a Class 8 combination vehicle. Cargill Meat Logistics requires 2 years OTR, but, I would do some arm twisting if your army experience, i.e. MOS was driving Class 8.

 

I agree with Clasix1055 and Ridgeline,

It seems you kind of "jumped the gun" a little. Driving for the military and the farm are totally different scenarios than owning and operating your own truck. You may be better off driving for a company for a year or two and learning the business. In that time, you may want to figure out what type of freight you want to haul as well. The old saying is "hauling brokered freight all the time with make you go broke in no time!" If you have your own authority and are going to totally rely on load boards and brokers, you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to establish customers of your own and use the load boards/brokers as a means to fill the gaps. Not as your sole source of income. You could also obtain more seat time driving for a company and then weigh the benefits of leasing your truck on to them. I'm not trying to discourage you in anyway it just seems that you have good intentions but haven't thought things through. It's almost like buying a used farm tractor and having no field, farm, crops or livestock to put the tractor to good use.

Owning and operating a truck in this day and age is a very tough and competitive business. Notice I said "Business" If you have the experience, can handle mechanic work, have a business mindset, keep exceptional records and like working your tail off, well your more likely to succeed than others. There's more to owning a truck than just buying one and putting it to work. My suggestion is sell the truck you just bought, gain more experience by driving for someone else and/or a company, read up on everything you can find about the trucking industry, ask questions, try to establish your OWN customer base and then look into ownership.

These forums are good for learning and finding info. A few questions though and a very basic steps in truck ownership....Have you figured out what your cost per mile to operate the truck will be? How much will you set aside from each load for maintenance? What will your ROI be? How much do you need to earn to pay your own personal bills? Sole proprietor, LLC or DBA? If you do decide to setup an LLC and you are the only member, the IRS will view you as a "disregarded entity". What type of freight are you going to haul and what freight lanes do you want to run? Do you have enough cash flow to cover daily and monthly expenses? Most companies pay you on 30 or 60 day pay frames. You could easily be in the hole $15,000 for fuel alone if you do not get paid for 2 months.......Just some things to ponder.. Good luck with what ever you choose to do.

 

Having Your Own Authority: There are a myriad of problems when going thru this route: Ques: Today, do you have an opinion on something totally superficial by how your truck looks. Rephrase: can you change your leaf springs out simply because you want to, whether by a mech. or doing the work on your own?

Perhaps you've already decided, appearances are not your priority and revenue is.

My Point will be missed;

1), Brokers, worst case scenario you get stiffed. No reason, just plain fraud by the Broker. What recourse will you have, whom will you talk to, how long will it take to get your money. Knowing answers to some of these questions, the value of the brokers bond, and periodically checking to see if the brokers insurance has expired could be helpful.
But, the question is do you recognize the value in the brokers bond & expiration date. (no where did I write about Law Enforcement, FMCSA, or Civil Court and the IRS, (IRS: i.e. is your loss deductible, and/or, did the broker claim the extra income on his taxes...what will you do about it.)

2), Mechanic's: you didn't write about your trucks motor, transmission: sensor failures can have mechanics replacing the wrong parts. Where, you'll be replacing several parts over a period of time and never of resolved the cause.
Sample: I had a sensor go on my transmission: this affected my truck to not start, since it was a sensor after a period of time, the sensor will simply reset and the problem will appear to have been corrected. i.e. by the Mechanic whose shop is now working on your truck. Myself, I've replaced entire ground cable, starter/solenoid, alternator, ignition relay, key ignition switch, over ride switch: several times a wrecker was involved, all times the dealer was involved. There's a lot of new parts on my truck, problem is fixed, but the issue was mechanics and them not focusing on modeling the problem.

Today, those "dealers, I don't return to.

Parts, how long will they last, is, there another way to do business besides OEM.

Sample: Tires: how long will they last? what can you do to increase the length of life of your steer tires. Perhaps, having an OPINION on how your truck looks has value: Michelin tires are expensive, but, the tire alone does not increase its length of life: Balancing Beads, or, tires balanced works, tire rotation i.e. what's the interval (left-to-right & flip tires on its rim, the inside of the tire goes to the outside of the rim) Tire Pressure, (good air gauge used, (yours) checked at cool periods. Shocks, can influence a tires life, how long will the shock be on your truck before you replaced it. Or, will you wait till it leaks. (Opinions again) Style of Shocks have an influence, Hydralic (OEM) vs. Nitrogen gas...ques: is the a meaningful difference in performance, cost. Alas, What about those Steer axle Leaf Springs: Metal vs. Composite, why choose one vs. the other. Perhaps, the correct answers from some of these tire issues will extend your steer tires life from 110K to 250K miles. How much does a Set of Steer tires Cost?

This issues don't even address: record keeping for your IRP plate, (let the audit decide if ur IRP record keeping is good enuff. IFTA taxes are filed quarterly. Fuel purchase broken up by state of purchase, gallons used. Pay $50 penalty each time ur late. Several States have extra taxes simply for driving thru their Great Jurisdiction: Kansas, N.Y., Oregon, NM, Arkansas...

Record Keeping takes several hours a week. Finding Loads takes 10-15 hours a week. Then driving 3K miles a week takes time. Your Health-what about your health...nutrition, reading on better nutrition takes time. Also, work-outs take time.

Pause, take some extra time before getting your authority...

 

Crst Malone might be right up your alley to start, since you live in the same town. I hear good things about them. They are not the same as the van side.