Hey Experts!!

I am an owner operator currently work for a small company in Chicago. I live in LA County California. I own a big rig and have all my numbers (MC, US DOT). I am trying to start my own company and subcontract other owner operators to drive for me. Can anyone give me advice on how to get started? How do I find brokers in different states that can provide me with sufficient loads for my drivers. How do i write up contracts for my employees? Do I need to hire a lawyer to do all the paperwork for me? Please any info would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys.

FreightByTom

Starting your own trucking business is a large undertaking. I have worked with many trucking companies over the years and have found that you have to have a good checkbook or a great relationship with your bank. With the rising cost of fuel (today the price is $4.79 a gallon) it is a good chance that you will spend a great deal of money before you will get your first paycheck. In my experience a Freight Broker, like myself, pays quicker than if you go directly through the customer. A carrier can take up to 90 days to receive payment from a customer, while the usage of a Brokerage firm tends to pay immediately after all the paperwork is recieved.

If anyone would like to recieve more informaion or be helped with finding loads or trucks for that matter, respond back to this posting or e-mail me at [personal email address removed for privacy]

Thank you for your time,

Tom

Clough

Great and well-intentioned answers in different posts, Tom! However, I did need to remove your email address in order to protect your privacy. People who spam others send out "spiders" on the Internet looking for exposed email addresses such as yours, and we don't want you to get spammed because of posting yours on a site such as this that gets really excellent exposure when people do searches for things on the Internet.

PanaSeaA13

Funny you ask. #1 challenge in starting a trucking company is loads. Do you have contract any where ? See I have small trucking company, but we recently lost contract and have not been able to find new freight. So when I say you you need loads I'm not kidding. If you got the freight, then you got a start. The other problem is equipment, no one wants to loan small trucking companies a dime and this is a real challenge. as far as the rest like, operating authority, Insurance, and saftey req. are easily handled if you got the LOADS.