Operate Under My Authority

It'll be difficult as a seasoned owner op will command salaries often times over twice that of a company driver in profit. It'll be even worse if you don't understand how to find freight, how to collect money, how to deal with accounts, etc.

 

I think it is a very interesting idea, and I do think it is possible, but there are a few things to consider.

First of all, you need to find an owner operator that is leased on somewhere that wants more money, and would like to move toward getting his own authority, or somebody that has their authority that is tired of doing all the administrative stuff. There are companies that do exactly that; owner operators lease on to them and they do the follownig: driver records, safety program, drug testing, IFTA filing, carrier/ broker packets, billing, and maybe a few other administrative things that I am not thinking of.

These companies do not dispatch - the owner operators find their own freight. When the owner operator finds the load he wants, he calls in and the owner (authority holder) takes care of booking the load. The rate has already been negotiated by the owner operator so there is no negotiating. If you have another job, this could be a problem, because you have to be there to take the call and book the load.

If you can work this out with your other intended job, I think this is possible. These companies pay 90% to the owner operator and just do the office work. If you were seriously going to do this, you may want to consider doing this full time because it can be very lucrative. If an owner operator grosses 4 to 5 thousand a week, you get 10%. So $500 per week x 10 owner operators is $5,000 a week. It is so lucrative that there are guys that just troll on trucking forums pretending to be helpful just so that they can recruit. And as far as I know, the owner operators pay the full amount of their insurance, you simply do the administrative stuff. If I didn't have a brand new engine coming for my tractor, I would seriously consider this...

Ok, so you need an owner operator, or several. My advice is to find a good, safe owner operator, and pay him 95%. I think that most owner operators would find that to be a pretty good deal. I would be interested myself, but it will be a while before I am ready for my authority. The next thing is that you need either a guy that will definitely stay until you do whatever it is that you are going to do, or you need several. I say that because if they leave, you have no insurance, and your authority will not be active. I don't know exactly how that works with it being suspended, but you really want it to stay active.

Also, as a new authority, some brokers will not work with you. This owner operator needs to understand this, and that is part of why you are paying him 95%.

I think that most of these companies did it the opposite way. I think they were trucking companies at one time, and they realized that there is more money in just doing the office work than running trucks.

But I think that if you have the right people and the right timing, this could work

 

I would be extremely leary of entrusting my numbers (if I had them) to anyone. No matter how well you think they check out. This is your company, reputation, and safety scores on the line here. 10 years ago no-one cared if your logs were hot or non-existent- lots of experienced drivers nowadays can't seem to catch on with the times. I would wait and activate the authority when I was ready to go. Doesn't take much to screw up your safety rating but sure does take a long time for it to come back down. Lots of people will not load your truck without a good rating.

 

Rollin is certainly not wrong. Your scores are very important. But, it depends on your perspective.

If you are considering this as a business, all business is calculated risk. We all have to take that risk to make money. Every motor carrier that hires a driver takes on that risk. Every motor carrier that leases someone on takes that risk. Every insurance company that writes a policy takes that risk. It's even a risk when you lease on to someone. Or work for a broker. Or drive your own truck down the street. It's all risk.

So the question becomes risk vs. reward. If you decided to start a business of having owner operators leased on under your authority, then the return has to be greater than the calculated risk.

The example that I gave you above of $5,000 per week is no joke. $20,000 per month x 12 months = $240,000 per year. With no equipment. And if you are a good PR guy, the sky is the limit. MILLIONS are possible. No wonder these guys leave no stone unturned in regards to recruitment.

And what is required to run that business? The same as a broker. A phone, a fax, computer. You don't even need a bond. When you get really busy maybe some software. You could probably even run it out of your house and have your family help you as you get busier.

You would probably make more than a good broker, with so much less work. Just imagine if you could have good PR and the owner operators just come right to you... I really have to think twice about all of this...

 

you list yourself as a student. The smart thing to do here would be to forget about authority and lease to a good outfit like Mercer Packard Art Pape or Farm2Fleet. Learn all you can and let yourself some time.The authority thing is no cake walk by any means,

 

In trucking what you don't know can really put the hurts to you.Look at it this way in order to win the superbowl you have to learn how to play football before you would want to build a stadium

 

That is where I am trying to go with this