Be Your own Boss as a Trucker

What is your favorite part about being a trucker? Is it living life on the open road? Is it the freedom to set your own schedule? Maybe it’s something else. There are many people who don’t understand what it’s like to live as a trucker. While there’s a lot of freedom, it can be one of the loneliest, frustrating, and underappreciated careers out there. Sometimes there’s long hours, little pay, or a lack of respect from dispatchers or employers. If you’re frustrated working for your current company, it may be time to start your own trucking company, where you can be your own boss. The best thing is, you don’t have to start your new business alone. Motor Carrier can help.

Advantages of Being Your Own Boss

If you become your own boss with your own trucking company, you can choose your hours, your haul, and how you want your company to run. Here are just a few of the other advantages of running your own trucking company.

Control Your Assets

If you work for a company, the truck you use might not be yours to own. In fact, some trucking companies make it almost impossible to come to own your own truck, even when it’s leased to you. However, with your own company you can choose whether to lease or own. You decide what to invest your money in and where that money goes.

Choose What You Haul

There are a wide variety of goods you can choose to haul as the owner of your own company. Here are just a few of the types of material and trucks you can choose to haul:

• Refrigerated Trailers
• Dry Vans
• Flatbeds or Lowbeds
• Tankers
• HAZMAT
• Timber
• Hotshots

What you choose to haul also determines what registrations and endorsements you need to get started. For example, if you’re planning to haul hazardous materials, you’ll need a HAZMAT endorsement on your CLD. If you have any questions about what licensing you need, we can help.

Tips for Starting Your Own Trucking Company

While starting your own business can create a lot of freedom for you, there are also a lot of potholes to watch out for, too. There’s a lot of paperwork involved, and it’s important to only fill out the registration you need for your company to save on starting costs. Here are some tips you should follow if you’re looking to start your own business.

Take the Time to Plan

The best thing you can do before starting your own company is to plan. Here’s what you need to know about starting your own trucking company. Write down the type of business you want to register for, where you want to haul, what you want to haul, and how you’re going to get the funds to get started. The more you plan, the better chance you have at getting your new business started without problems.

Don’t Expect it to be Easy

There are a lot of hurdles you have to get through to actually start getting your business running. You have to worry about the paperwork, money, and actually finding hauling jobs. However, you don’t have to start your company alone. Motor Carrier HQ can help you every step of the way.

Don’t be Picky With Hauling Jobs

Once you start your own company, it may be hard to find hauling jobs. New companies don’t get to be picky at first because they don’t have the reputation to choose. If you reject a job, you may find yourself without work. As you build up your company’s reputation, you may find you can pick and choose more jobs, but you might not have that luxury at the beginning.

Invest in Good Trucking Insurance

An important part of starting your trucking company is to have the right insurance. Starting your company without the right insurance can cause delays in obtaining your Motor Carrier authority. It can also become a huge problem for your company if there’s an accident or issue with your load. Find an insurance company that specializes in trucking insurance. If you need help with insurance, we have specialists to help you find the right company to work with.

How to Get Started

Are you ready to get started with your new trucking company? Once you’ve registered your new company as a business, fill out this simple form and we can get your MC and DOT number within an hour. If you have any questions on how to get started, give us a call at (866) 739-2032!