Like we said earlier, $300 bucks. That includes Authority. US DOT# is free. UCR (Unified Carrier Registration) this replace's SSR, is $39 dollars for 1 truck. That's it. You did say without permits and insurance.
But anyway, HUT is like $8 bucks, and so is IFTA. 2290 as mentioned earlier is $550 for 80,000 gross weight. That one goes to IRS.
It is really easy to do online. (get your authority, that is) Just make sure your ready, because you must have insurance within a certain amount of time or you will loose authority. If you decide to get authority, all the phone calls will come in offering services for saftey audits and drug testing. Be leary of all services, they will try to sound like they are the DOT but they are just companies charging a fee for the services mentioned. You will need to shop around for a good price for a service if this is what you decide to do. OOIDA has many services for cheaper then most. Joining a drug consordium (this is required for carriers) they offer a decent rate for members. Also like G-man said, the Boc-3 process agents they file free for members. I said they charged a small fee, but I forgot it was for free for members. After doing the process, I would definitely recomend doing it yourself. Very easy. Even Pepe can do it. :P

:lol: :lol:

You can do the entire process on line with a credit card. All you need do is go to the fmcra website, fill out the application for authority, pay your $300 filing fee and you are on your way. That is all these services do. While you wait for your authority to be processed and mailed to you, it is a good idea to go ahead and get your process agents set up as well as your insurance. I would not start paying premiums until you get notification from the Feds that your authority has been granted. If you don't want to join OOIDA and get them to file your registered agents there are services you can pay to do it. I have seen some that charge about $35/yr. OOIDA membership costs $45 and they do it for free.

Keep the info comming! I'm getting PSYCHED! This sounds like a small challenge and I love challenges. When all is said and done, I believe I'll feel like I've really accomplished something!

Hi Goldie,

The other guys have covered the authority topic pretty well so I'll chime in with the money part if I may. I always say you need $100,000 to start up. I think you an expect to earn $30,000 after expenses and before income tax. you can borrow a portion of the 100,000 of course but the finance charges will come out of your pre tax profit.

IIRC you are in the NJ area and you like your home time. This can work in your favour because nobody likes to go into NJ, NYC and Long Island. Rates are above average here. If you operate within 500 miles of NJ, I'll wager you can get over $2/loaded mile with a step throughout the spring, summer and fall. You should be able to figure your income from there.

From what I've seen you would do well to have two or even 3 trailers. Flat or step in the summer and a reefer/van in the winter. I don't know anything about reefers and vans but I get the general impression that they are both getting higher rates than decks right now.

If you can't afford multiple trailers (understandably), then buy a deck in the spring of the year and budget to take the winter off. It's not worth running for peanuts in the winter. And forget running south....there's no money in that.

Hope this helps.

Coming in-yes! But coming out, is a different story! :sad:
The good thing;-you wouldn't be sitting in a some s$it hole truck stop, looking for the freight. You'll be home... :wink:

Fred,

All this Authority stuff is if you want to be on your own. If you lease onto someone such as TMC, Steve or Pepe, then a lot of this isn't needed.

You can also wimp out like I did and go onto www.dotauthority.com. Click away on the menu, give a credit card number and have everything you need done in less than 10 minutes.

If you are a OOIDa member they will charge only 150.00 to do all the authority process AND they will take care of your BOC3 form. Just don't go with their insurance since several shippers will not accept it.

you can keep any truck loaded year round with a good rate if your willing to do your homework and run.


when i`m out I run every available minute I can as hard as I can, its a job not a holiday my theory is why dick around and take my time when I can run harder and make more money but I dont stay out for weeks at a time because i`ve got myself a little niche market in the oil and gas industry hauling generators and drill pipe and whatever else they can strap on me and keep under 100k, yeah I had some connections in the industry but i`ve sent alot of guys who knew nobody to companies and they`ve gotten loaded just fine.


when I first started out I wasn`t in steves boat I had I think 8k in the bank and a paid off truck I spent a few years building so I had to run alot and maybe I hauled some shit freight but I got money to start coming in and I started making more connections then I had from being a mechanic, I learned who not to run for where freight was dead what areas paid killer money to run into and nothing to get out etc


the point of my babbling is do your homework and you`ll be fine.