new owner operator

I would suggest that you get in touch with the DOT. Don't tell them that you are already using the truck. I hate to say this but you really shoulda looked into this stuff BEFORE you bought a truck.

 

Lawyer and accountant..

 

You might want to try the "Ask An Owner Operator" forum in this group for your questions.

 

So you bought a truck and now your almost broke? I don't wanna be harsh but, don't you think you should have done some more check'n on costs before your almost broke? Trucking costs money, if you don't have any~you can't do it legal. Your just one of dozens (hundreds?) who have posted on this forum with the same problem~getting in over your head and then wanting help. No amount of advice will buy your plates, insurance and the dozens of other things you need.

 

Your chances of success are pretty slim to none if you bought a truck before driving for a years first but you are probably currently finding that out. Check out the OOIDA website you will find everything you need there. If not they have a link for whatever you need. Good luck my friend!

 

Y'know, some here might have the idea that the OP should get some kind of praise or pity. I don't. In fact I wish he'd go out of "business" real soon and here's why:

Some years back up in Maritime Canada (where I lived at the time) I started a small one-man trucking business. I started off with a 1ton equipped with a sliding deck and did it legal and proper. I got proper authoritys or all 3 Maritime Provinces. I got proper insurances including cargo insurances. I had both a lawyer and accountant on retainer.

Started off doing junk cars like OP but soon expanded to pretty much anything I could fit on the deck (with proper weights naturally). i went between 12x20 baby barns to farm and forestry machinery to industrial machinery to.... you name it.

In year 3 I bought myself an old junked KW and spent the next 2 years building it into a 10 wheeler flatbed, all cash money out of my own pocket. I built my market share from the ground up and worked my butt off proving myself.

The whole time I had to contend with people doing stuff for a case of beer and 50 bucks with an old dump truck or such. Well, to make a long story shorter in an election year the Maritime Govts decided upon Deregulation to "Help Maritime Trucking". You gussed it, overnight I had 20 of these clowns running to my customers with "bargain rates". On top of that the big flatbed carrier in our region started chasing the small freight that they previously wouldn't touch at rates that even I couldn't afford to match. Sound familiar?

The ultimate came when one of my customers; a hog farmer who used me to transport equipment between 3 big farms he owned around the Maritimes, hired one of these "bargain haulers" to transport his big 4wd tractor for him.
The "bargain guy" didn't even bother to chain the rig down (didn't need to he said). Yup, the tractor came off at speed and crushed a car... fatally.

Turns out the "bargain guy" had no drivers licence (suspended DUI), absoloutely no insurance and was half in the bag (with open liquor) at the time of the accident.

Now I obviously don't know the OP. He may be just dumb. But it's people like that who wind up all over the 6 o'clock news when the inevitable happens. They do nothing but make it harder for the small independants and real truckers.

 

I don't feel sorry or pity. I had a lady pilot car driver last summer who told me a story about a "bargain guy trucking company" who came across the center line and crashed into her. He had no insurance,tags, or money but, the implement company who's load he was hauling was found at fault at trial. A multi million dollar verdict because of a bargain on the rate.

 

im thinking about becoming an O\O but im gonna take my time and get stuff as i can afford it. i can get contracts for hauling salt and gravel fairly easily as i live next door to a mid sized excavation company and one of my former bosses used to haul salt. but my biggest problem would be the insurance and tags and what not.