Go here to get your authority
Registration & Assistance: USDOT Number/Operating Authority - Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
They take Visa and MasterCard. As soon as you pay, you will probably recieve a phone call from a process agent to handle the rest of your needs. And you will need to have your cargo and liability ins on file with the feds before you will be issued a DOT or MC number. No insurance, no number, and no refunds. Get your insurance first! The whole process takes roughly one to two months to complete.
You will also need a receipt for your 2290 payment to get your plate, at least it is like that in MI.
Expect to pay roughly $2000.00 for your tractor license plate if you plan to run the lower 48. But you can pick and choose which states you want to operate in and save a few bucks.
IFTA stickers are free, but you need to track all of your miles for every state you travel so you can pay those IFTA taxes quarterly and purchase next years plate. Keep track of your mileage! I found the easiest and cheapest way was a pad and pen. Much less likely to be lost like on a computer hard drive failure or USB thumb drive. Write it down. Make yourself up a trip sheet to track all miles and expenses, and use one for every trip. You will also need these for your safety audit, at least I did.
Insurance (cargo, collision, liability) will run you somewhere in the area of $8,000 to say $12,000 a year depending on your driving record and area you plan to work. You will need a minimum of 10 to 20% down, and expect to make payments for 9 months unless you can pay cash, which I would recommend.
Insurance, shop around for cargo, you will need $1,000,000 in liability and $100,000 cargo, any less and few will touch you. Call Progressive for your tractor and trailer insurance, they are very hard to beat. And Progressive does not handle cargo ins, like I said, shop around for cargo. And stay away from OOIDA for cargo insurance, as some outfits like LandStar will not load their freight on your trailer, and I believe Prime and a few other big guys will not honor OOIDA cargo ins. And they tend to charge a bit more for the same coverage you can get elsewhere for less money.
You will also need to join a drug testing consortium. Call around to your local clinics that handle the drug testing in your area. Stay away from outfits like Foley Services, they will rape you. My local clinic, Concentra, out of Detroit, put me in a pool for random drug/alcohol testing for free, I just had to pay for the pee test if I was selected.
Also, check with any local trucking associations in your state in regards to what you will need for your safety audit. The rules will be changing here very shortly, really do some research on this and utilize any trucking groups that have some clout in your state. Do not depend on these boards for your information when it comes to your first state audit.
That is all just off of the top of my head. Did you say how you are planning on getting your freight? Are you going to use direct shippers in your area, or are you going to pimp off the load boards like Get Loaded and TransCore? If you are pimping off of the boards, figure a dollar a mile or less depending on the area you are in, if there is any freight at all.
Are you going to Factor your paper? Do you have a trustworthy way to credit check the brokers and shippers you are going to be dealing with? You need to look at this very carefully. You must credit check EVERYONE!!!! I don't care if you use the same guy every week, credit check them every time you use them. Credit check, credit check, credit check!!!!! It is nothing for a brokerage to go t-ts up out here at the drop of a hat, and that includes direct shippers, do those credit checks as you cannot afford not to!
How do you plan on getting paid? Mail in your bills, using multiple brokers or rely on an outfit like CH Robinson for all of your freight and their QuickPay?
I wound up factoring along with my credit checks, through Apex Capital. Check them out, along with their fuel card, look at their FUEL CARD! Their fuel card will cover their factoring rates in many cases, and you will have cash in hand to keep the wheels rolling.
When I hung up my authority, my payments to Apex from the brokers were running on average 53 days. That means, that from when I sent my paperwork to Apex and it was sitting on their desk, it took an average of 53 days for them to see any money. I had a few that were out over 120 days, and these were from some big brokerage houses. And to let you know, most all of the brokers I used have closed their doors. I tended to stay with the little guys, they liked good service and understood trucking and its expenses. The big guys moved freight for the least amount of dollars possible. I hated the big guys and tried to stay away from them unless I had an in like I did with CH Robinson for my flat bed.
How will you pay for fuel? I would say you will need at least $1000 to $1500 a week for fuel, and if you have to wait an average of 53 days to be paid... Do the math, 53 days is near two months. And do not, do not rely on credit cards to pay for fuel! You will be under water so quick it will make your head spin! Get a fuel card from Apex or one of the big boys that you pay weekly with no interest. And I hope you have stellar credit, because you will need it. Credit is very very tight out here, trust me on that.
Good luck!
And on edit: Just to let you know, that my break even with all of the expenses with having my own authority were around $1.30 to $1.50 a mile give or take with the fuel spikes. And that was before I put a dime in my pocket, ate, showered, etc. And my equipment was paid for, tractor and two trailers. Some food for thought.
Good LUCK!
Or you could...
