For one- to three-truck carriers
Your Own Trucking Business: Two Ways Forward
Diesel, repairs, insurance and truck payments can take a bigger bite than they used to. Freight rates and fuel surcharges don't always cover the increase.
If you're deciding what comes next, here are two approaches some owners use.
Need steady income while you get caught up?
When a repair, an insurance bill or thin reserves come first.
Sometimes the immediate problem is cash. A major repair is due, insurance is coming up, or there's not enough left after expenses to rebuild reserves.
Some established carriers offer solo and team OTR work using newer company equipment. Others have openings for owner-operators with their own tractors. The work can mean long weeks away and hard schedules, so the actual pay and terms matter.
For some owners, driving for an established carrier for a while brings in income without putting more long-haul miles on their own truck. Depending on the arrangement, the truck may be parked or used for other work while the owner decides what to do next.
Before making a change: check the written pay terms, deductions, miles, home time, and what happens to your truck, insurance and operating authority. Keeping an MC number is not the same as keeping active authority and insurance in place. Parking a truck does not stop every expense.
Possible next step: compare the actual weekly settlement, after deductions, with what you keep now. Atlantic Cargo, an established carrier, is hiring team drivers on its own equipment: see its team driver opening and its team lease program.
Making a living, but spending too much time finding the next load?
When the truck runs, but every load starts the search over.
Load boards can help fill a truck. But depending on them for most of your freight means finding and pricing the next load over and over.
One longer-term approach is building relationships with shippers and other direct freight customers. Repeat business can make planning easier and may reduce reliance on the spot market. It takes sales calls, follow-up, pricing and service, which is hard to do while you're driving.
North Star is developing tools and services to help carriers identify possible freight customers and build those relationships. Identifying prospects does not guarantee freight or payment; customer development still takes work and judgment.
Possible next step: see how direct freight customer development works.
Which comes first?
| Repairs or unpaid bills are the urgent problem | Dependable income and rebuilding cash reserves may come before growing the business. |
|---|---|
| The truck is running and bills are covered | Better freight relationships may be the more useful long-term project. |
These choices aren't either-or. The right order depends on the equipment, the bills, the lanes, and what the owner wants to protect.
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North Star Group
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