Respect my Authoritay!

Okay couple of things and I'm not knocking you I think you've got big cojones to jump into this with as little experience or whatever you want to call it it is.

The first thing is you absolutely have to know who you are working for. You have a business they can be sued you have a business that needs to have an income you have to know where it's coming from who to go after if you don't get paid what the structure is you can't have this cloudiness about yourself. There are way too many ways it can come back and bite you in the rear end.

If you have your own numbers all you need to do is get one of the load boards like dat. You look on it you see a load that you would be interested in if it doesn't have the rate then you call them up and you find out what the rate is. Before you call you look at the mileage for the dead head and the mileage for the trip you figure what it's going to cost you and you figure a price for that that you will not go below. Depending on which dat package you get they will give you averages for that lane of the last 15 days or whatever it is. That at least will give you an idea of what those loads paid recently.

With that being said there's loads could go for significantly higher or significantly lower depending on many factors. You need to know what it cost you to operate and look at the mileage and the load and figure out what you need to do it. Call them and negotiate.

As the others have said you need Adobe fill and sign and you need a cam scanner app. Most Brokers will send you a packet that you go through and you initial or sign wherever they tell you to and you send it back. They will also need insurance information usually they will tell you who the certificate holder needs to be.

Once you send all that back and it's approved they will send you a rate con they will give you the addresses the times and it will tell you what you are being paid and usually will give you information on where to send the bills and what information is required during billing. If you have Adobe fill & sign they will send you a PDF and Adobe fill & will allow you to sign your name on it and date it and send it back.

Read the rate con carefully because sometimes there are fines if you are late sometimes there are fines if certain paperwork is not sent in sometimes there are fines if macropoint tracking is needed and you don't do it etc etc etc. Make sure the correct dollar amount is on there.

Then you run your load. Check in with the broker when you arrive at the shipper check in with the broker when you get loaded check in with the broker when you arrive at the receiver check in with the broker when you are unloaded. Always keep the broker updated and if you have any problem whatsoever getting there traffic breakdowns weather whatever issues contact the broker immediately.

When you are unloaded and you have the signed bill of lading use your CamScanner app and send it directly to the broker immediately. Then do your billing.

Immediately, now, TODAY you must have organization on all of your paperwork. I use fog line software because that allows you to put all of your miles your deadhead miles your ifta Miles your shippers receivers brokers detention it allow you to do your invoices and billing and everything else that you need to do. You need something similar to that.

Go to YouTube and look up ooida educational videos. There are videos there that are a series of I forget how many but it shows you how to set up all of your files for dot.

You must have all of the information exactly perfectly in order including every fuel receipt has your truck number on it and the mileage on it. There are a whole bunch of things that you need to get in order and have correct because when they audit you they can shut you down. This is of the most urgent thing that you can do.

After all of that everyday when you do your trips you'll have the same paperwork to do and you can file your fuel receipts and file your proof of delivery which is your bills of lading signed and your logs if you're not electronic and whatever else.

You really kind of put the cart before the horse but now that you're in the race you better roll your sleeves up and immediately like right now get those files set up and make sure you have everything that you need organized because the worst problem that you will have is if dot feels that your stuff is not in order you're going to be in a lot of trouble.

Keep asking questions and make sure you get everything in order.

 

Generally speaking, what kind of hauls do people do with 26-footers?

 

I and one other driver ran tires, custom and oe wheels, and anything else tire service equipment related for 20 years. We were a two truck operation that covered south and central Tx region. 250 to 400 tires a load per truck depending on sizes to 33,000lb gross. 8 stops a day 10-15 hrs a day depending on the route. 55-60 hr weeks at around 1100-1700 miles a week average. 67,000 miles a year. I did a total of 1,313,000 miles in that time. Home every night and 2-1/2 day weekends off. It was a great gig for us. He left to work at Toyota plant as a final quality inspector when it opened and another friend jumped in his truck and ran it with me till 2016 when the fun was over and we both retired into warehouse management positions and let some youngsters deal with the eld and nanny bs.

 

@God prefers Diesels
I looked this up so you could read it and understand more about brokering and what they can and cannot do legally https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/sites/fmc...l-entity-comp-guide-broker-operations-508.pdf
You can also read this article Take this load and ... follow the rules!
"Under the new law, as of Oct. 1, 2013 a trucker can no longer take possession of freight from another trucker or a broker, a practice known as "double-brokering." A trucker also cannot broker freight without a brokerage license, and the brokerage authority must be completely separate from the trucking operation. The trucker showing up at a shipper's dock must be the same carrier whose name appears on the bill of lading. If not, a shipper must create a new bill with the new trucker's name and identification number and pay just the new carrier. Truckers can accept cargo only with their own equipment."

 

I would take a few days off to heed this advice and complete these steps.

Do you have capital to cover costs for the first 30-45 days without the brokerage service you’re using?

 

That's not bad mine's about $7200.00 a year with a $2500.00 deductible for the same coverage. That includes 1 million auto liability,1 million non trucking liability, 1 million general liability $100 k cargo and bobtail. This is on a 03 -379 Peterbilt and 2019 Wink end dump.
Be happy it's not more.