Only someone in your line of business can really help with your specific questions. So far doesn't seem to be any truckers to help with your questions, so I will offer my opinion and ideas. All I know about trucking is how to track shipments with Pro numbers,wait for my shipment to arrive so I can install my equipment, and how to make claims for concealed damage.
Quite honestly, these are aspects of business that you should already have some idea how to tackle if you have been working in this line for some time, let's call it experience.
Even if you knew how to get started, wise advice will be to contact an attorney for help with the contracts. My guess will be that he will ask for sample contracts that pertain to the business line.
Beyond that, the attorney may be able to help with other aspects of startup, however, this may become expensive, and better handled by yourself, let's call it sweat equity.
Locating brokers seems to be the life blood essential to having work. This is marketing, locating and attracting customers that need your services.
Doing web search for trucking brokers found:
http://freightfinder.com/trucking/trucking-broker.cfm http://www.business.com/directory/tr...ation_brokers/
I am not too keen on just using the Internet with finding all the business I would need, I am of the mind set that personal face to face deals will lead to long term relationships in business.
When I started my electrical contracting business, I already had customers in mind, (never took one customer from current employer) where to find them, how to make contact, how to get them to tell me what they needed and how I could help them. This took hours of phone calls, letters, appointments, lunches, etc. to get the opportunity to work for them.
I had all the permits and licenses in place, had the proper insurance policies, tax ID numbers, an office and warehouse, and a clerk to answer the phone while I was out meeting with clients, running jobs, and actually doing the work. Starting up a small business, no matter the industry, means a lot of lost hours, 18 hour days, missed suppers with the family, dedication to what will seem at many times a lost cause.
I had an attorney on retainage from the very beginning, however he only was helpful with setting up the corporation. The most important person to have on board from the beginning, and consult with every month is an accountant.
Money is every businesses life blood. You need to know how to make the money, the accountant will help with how to use the money to keep the business in business. He can give forewarning when the costs are not in line with income, and will certainly help when, hopefully, there is more income than costs.
I also did a web search "starting a trucking business", and found a wealth of information such as:
http://www.truckingsuccess.com/start...-business.html http://www.truckinfo.net/
Even some books at Amazon about how to get started:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/157...lance&n=283155
Also did a search for "trucking owner/operators associations" and found the following:
http://www.ooida.com/ http://www.truck-loads.net/associations.asp http://www.aitaonline.com/page98.html
I admit that I have no idea what I am looking at, or how to determine if this info is of any worth. This I will leave up to you to sift thru, extract what is helpful, and see if better ideas can be found to help direct you. I know you have heard this cliche before, Think Outside The Box, but belive me, doing just that will give you the edge over your competition.
One thing I realized before starting my own electrical business is that even thou I thought I was the best electrician around, good electricians were a dime a dozen, and I needed to find that one thing that set me apart from all the others. That did not mean I was going to win the Nobel Prize, but, I was able to , day by day, insure I had a reason to go to work the next day, and along with developing those personal relationships I spoke of before, I was able to build a company that was respected by my peers, and trusted by my customers.
So many times I thought, punching a clock for someone else sure seemed like it had it's benefits, while I was working late into the night while my employees were home with their families, having fun on the weekends, so many sacrifices to be made. But the rewards were definitiely worth the effort.
So I wish you luck, your line of work is no picnic, but like I said to my self, this is all I know and love. You have a long road ahead of you, and I will commend you for asking the questions before just jumping into the fire. Do your homework, talk to everyone you can think of for ideas and stragedies, and keep on trucking!
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