Own Authority!

I know at least 6 guys that do that. We do our own construction hauling in the summer and lease to someone else in the winter doing propane or heating oil.....

 

Maybe there is a legal and proper way then...or maybe nothing bad ever happens and nobody knows any better. I don't know.... I just said what I was told when I wanted to stay leased until receiving the letter that my authority went active. Still paying over 20G with the MC# sit idle so that it gets a little older sounds like an overkill. Unless he can pay a fraction of it while he does what he wants to...

 

I don’t tell my insurance agent, it’s none of their business but I know others have.

 

Move.

my insurance is a little over 12k/year,
1 truck and trailer.

 

Yep, probably a PA thing.

How old are you and what's your record like, etc? My authority was new about 3 years ago and I paid about 15k the first year. It's half of that now with one ticket on my record.

 

38, 20 years exp, 1 ticket “Failure to obey traffic control Device.”

Basically I wouldn’t slam on brakes for a red light in a 65 mph zone, with no one there at the intersection.
Only ticket in my lifetime

 

Outlaw...

 

There are a number of ways to approach this business method. I did exactly what you are asking. I leased to J.B. Hunt while I allowed my authority to mature. Sadly my insurance premium didn’t go down once my authority matured. The reason being is that once I began running under my own authority, my insurance liability increased. It went from $750,000 to $1mil liability, cargo, and trailer interchange. However, if I kept liability down to $750,000 my premium did go down to $800 a month. I’m based out of Harrisburg, PA. If you are quoted $2,700 a month from the start, make sure it’s full coverage. Keep it for one year, shop around after that. The first year is the most challenging and full of valuable lessons.

Now why would anyone do this while leased to another carrier? There could be numerous reasons why. I did it this way for my own reasons. Some didn’t agree but who cares what someone else thinks. My vision for what I’m trying to achieve for my company is my vision alone. I’m not trying to follow after anyone else’s vision. Where all in the same industry but no two carriers are exactly the same. You said you researched before moving forward with your plan. Did you research how mega carrier’s started? Did they all start the same way? I’m sure if you did include them in your research you would have found that they all had different beginnings. I know O/O’s that are millionaires now and only started with 1 truck and others that don’t even have a CDL and have no interest in ever getting a CDL license. Some started young and others started when they were much older. Not everyone goes to the auction to get their first truck and not everyone drives for 20 years before starting their own business. Get where I’m going with this?

You have your own vision. Come up with a plan of action and get to work materializing your vision. It won’t be easy. Have the right people to talk with because this is important. Be careful who you share your vision with. I suggest you also research the beginning of McDonald’s to understand why it’s important to have the right people in on your vision. Some are dream killers and others are dream stealers. Just be careful and never give up. The only failures are those that have completely tossed their vision aside.

Anyways, know why you are doing things the way you’re doing them and make it work. It won’t make sense to most but it #### well better make sense to you. Remember this, every millionaire who started from the bottom was told that their vision made no sense and they should do something else because it wouldn’t work. Find a way to make it work for you and the success of your vision.

 

I'd like you to clarify one thing, please.
Were you actually leased on with J. B. Hunt, e.i. operating under their authority - using their insurance, IFTA account, safety compliance etc. or did you participate in their Power Only program which utilized your authority?
If the latter then you were not "leased on" per se but rather exclusively dedicated your own authority to hauling their freight.
In any case, while I still insist that it is at least problematic to remain leased on while keeping your own authority active, it is more than possible to do an exclusive work for another carrier e.g. JB Hunt or Prime but then you are not leased on, you operate under your authority.
You do manage your own safety, IFTA and your own insurance is at stake while you do the work for them.

 

Once someone gets their authority active, there is a little need to worry about its not being mature enough. Enough brokers will want to work with you, especially in a bull market as we've seen recently.