Why not get your own authority if your o/o?

IFTA is easy to do yourself also. May add.. get your own plate. Watch, and see some own authority folks not making all that great p/mile rates. Another thing..if you are doing great with own authority and have your own customers you probably wait 30, 60, 90 days on your money. Then factoring comes into play and loss of more revenue cause you need $$ flow. Better have a excellent back up truck and driver, so if you get sick, or want a vacation the customer still gets service. Cause you are married to the job.

 

No one is ever really free in trucking. Always have to answer to someone.

 

I've been leased to 3 carriers now. 1st carrier took 35% of the line haul and had 99% customer freight. Pulled their trailers with about 90% drop and hook. It was self dispatch and at one time the best O/O program around. I hear it's getting back to being what it once was. Easy system as the company took care of all the administrative tasks except your bookkeeping. Company did have tighter regulations on some stuff than the FMCSA allows.

2nd carrier took 25% and handled all the same administrative tasks but I had to rent a trailer or buy my own. They had very few customers in my division. Had more freedom from regulations than previous carrier.

Current carrier takes 13%, 10% for them and 3% for factoring. They have a few customers but not in the areas I run. I pull 100% off the load boards. I pay every expense that I would if I had my own authority but through them the insurance is way cheaper. They only handle the safety department and billing of the administrative tasks, everything else I keep up with.

Do I make more money this way? Good question. Yes and no. I give up 20-30% to the broker and then 13% more to the carrier and I pay all expenses. When the market is good, yes I make more money with my current carrier. When the market is bad, like it is now, I probably don't make more and maybe not even as much as the guys leased where I used to be leased. I could make a little more under my own authority, that 10% would be nice to have but I'd spend 5% of it on the increase insurance cost.

So why would you just not stay leased to one of the other carriers Ron? Because I like the flexibility I have now. Pulling from the load boards I have access to freight going in and out of my home that I didn't have access to when I was leased onto the other carriers.

I've thought about getting my own authority just to keep the extra percentage and I might some day. In another year I'll be able to get instance rates for a 2 year old carrier and not as a new entrant so that will help lower costs dramatically.

Make no mistake, giving up 25-35% to a carrier that treats you good and has a good customer base will usually make good money consistently and sometimes better money than running the public load boards.

 

That just says it all, right there.100% Accurate

 

A legit argument can be made that if you don’t want to grow a fleet, then it’s much easier and less stressful to remain leased onto a carrier. If you plan on growing a fleet, then independent o/o is the way to go.

Being an independent o/o will free you from big company rules and policies, but now you have to worry about the DOT in ways you never thought possible. When I was leased onto a mega carrier, I had almost no exposure to DOT because my truck and trailer had the company’s big logos. Now, I have to deal with DOT stopping me randomly on the freeway and more inspections at the weigh stations, and that’s with a PrePass account. It’s very possible this will reduce after my USDOT is older than a few years.

 

Well the issue i see if you want to grow a fleet with your authority is you have to pay a lot of liability and cargo insurance per additional truck you add on.
That is per truck,
Unless there are any insurance companies that dont charge you those insurances again per truck??


Now some people lease on and they don't deduct this from the driver.

 

A one man show doesn't need ELD, correct? Or did that change?

 

All trucks with engine manufactured after 1999 are required to have an ELD.

 

It didn’t change because it was never true. Just a trucker story.

 

Talk on the forum before the law kicked in was that one man didn't need it. So I don't know.

We don't have them. We also haul AG so we get the 150 mile radius.

I think locals don't need it unless they have trucks that go outside the 100 radius. Or have trucks that are long haul. I know one large construction company has them. I"m guessing they have double bellies going out of state for material. Or they could be using for time clock purposes. Another company we work side by side with has a couple of long haul trucks. So they have them.

We don't have them so I"m not aware of the full regs.