How To Successfully Start Your Own Trucking Company

With the jobs being scarce lately and chances of employment being harder, there’s always a point where you might find yourself considering joining the ranks of The Self Employed. There’s no doubt that getting jobs is harder than you can imagine. However in this time and age, it’s no longer difficult to start a business of your own. In fact this is the best time for you to consider starting your own business and being your own boss. With that being said, one of the diverse fields of business is your trucking companies. There’s no economy without trucking companies. Whether these are interstate or intrastate, trucking companies will always be in high demand. In order to start one, you need to first register yourself to get an MC number.

Forming a company and getting the trucking authority

Before you can even think of operating a trucking company you need to comply with all of the requirements of FMCSA also known as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. For that you need the following legal requirements:

MC Number: This is a unique identification associated with your trucking company required for interstate trucking authority and carrying interstate cargo.

USDOT Number: This is a unique identifier of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that collects safety, information and crash investigations.

Operating Authority: This must be received by hired carriers from the DOT. This determines the type of cargo that you are allowed to carry

Heavy Vehicle Use Tax: This is the tax that is imposed on the trucking companies to fund highway programs.

International Registration Plan: The IRP is meant to distribute the registration taxes for the entire distance fee that are travelled in each state.

International Fuel Tax Agreement: The IFTA between U.S states and Canada is to report the fuel that is utilized by the carriers in each state and determine their taxes accordingly.

BOC-3 Filing: The carriers need this filing for legal proceedings. This requires designating a process agent in each state for your representation.

Drug Testing: As the name implies you need to ensure that you are negative in drug screening to be able to comply and stay within legal lines.

There are of course other federal and state rules and regulations and you may get a full list of links at The U.S Small Business Administration for regulation and compliance standards.

Did you know that by forming a trucking LLC you’re dramatically increasing your liability protection by creating a separation between yourself and personal assets? This can be filed on your own or through any good LLC service like ZenBusiness (or other Northwest LLC alternatives).

Finding loads for Hauling

The next step is to find loads for hauling. Online load boards can be a good way to start a hauling. Load boards allow you to establish relationships with brokers and shippers. Building clients is the only way to actually find loads to haul. Though in order to begin any of that you first need a clear knowledge of who you are hauling for. For this purpose it is necessary to assess your clients. The best way to do this is by checking up on the credit of your customers.

Financial Management

The most crucial to all businesses is financial management. You need to be able to understand your expenses. These expenses include the insurance payments, fuel expenses and other expenses as well. You need to be sure of all the salary and tax deductions and how much your business is going to cost you. Business is all about profit. A good financial management ensures a profitable and flourishing business. The most important part of cost management in trucking businesses is that of saving on fuel. Saving fuel can really help manage your cash flow. You need to calculate all the taxes and payments that you will be making beforehand. This also means having a clear vision of your profits and loss. Planning your finances ahead of their time is the only way to ensure that you have a clear hold upon the profits that you had anticipated.

Conclusion

Before getting into the trucking business it is important that you develop a good plan to start a successful trucking business. Other than fulfilling a number of legal requirements, this business like all others requires hard work and dedication. Cost management is typically crucial to all businesses and this implies here as well. You need to make sure that you go by the book and follow all the steps to really become successful.