[cableclown]

I use to drive otr,in the middle the 90's,i had to get out for personal reasons,and went in to cable and DTV then Heating and air,and always have worked for myself,Iam tired of what ima doing now,and went and gto my Class A back with all my endorsement and waiting on hazmat. BUT i would like to start a new company retrieving abandoned trucks, where do i begin i been making calls,but like what kinda insurance,and license plat for the rig i will drive back.I am from MN i was told from the MN DMV that if i get a MN transit plate,it will not be recognized in all states "is there some magical plate that is recognized by all", NOW WHAT. I do know i need to get a dot and a MC number, i learned from the fmcsa today and insurance. what would be a good rate to charge,.I cant sleep trying to thin and put all this together. I guess i would not mind driving local or line,but my experience is from 16 years ago and good luck getting back in with no recent exp.BUT i did ace all my writtens and road test i did not even drive the truck once and passed everything. thanks for your help if some driveaways could give some input would be great

[Malaki86]

Sounds like a good idea, but:

most larger companies pay their own drivers to retrieve abandoned trucks. They charge the abandoning driver $500 or so for abandoning it, then pay the retrieving driver their regular pay rate for the drive there and back. I've retrieved a few trucks in my day and I definitely didn't see $500 - maybe $100, at best. The company pockets the rest.

So, why would they want to pay a private company $2-3 per mile for the same thing, when they won't get to profit from it?

[mgfg]

Cableclown,another issue is that now you need to be drug tested and have an application and all the other paperwork on file for every carrier you retrieve trucks for because you are driving their trucks.

[YerDaddy]

The trucks you'd be retrieving would include vandalized trucks and ones who's driver died in it.

If you ever heard about the England truck someone left at T/A Franklin, TN you'd know how nasty it could get!

[Malaki86]

When I was at USXpress, I was sent to do a recovery - the problem was that the truck was sitting in the middle of a river. Another driver said he was sent to Miami to get one, but when he arrived, the truck was stripped to the frame & cab.