5 Things New Owner Operators Need to Know

If you’re a new owner operator, congratulations! Owning your own truck is a huge accomplishment. But being a new owner operator comes with its own set of challenges. Here are five things you need to know as a new owner operator:

1. Shippers rarely offer dedicated lanes to truck owners who have five or fewer trucks

In the trucking business, consistency and predictability are the two most fundamental keys to success. When you wake up in the morning as a new owner operator, you want to know where your truck is going tomorrow. You can’t do that without having dedicated freight.

Unfortunately, shippers are hesitant to give out dedicated lanes to owner operator with fewer than five trucks. This is because they don’t want to be locked into a contract with someone who may not be around for very long.

As an independent contractor, you’ll need to develop strong relationships with brokers. Most owner operators work through freight brokers to get their freight. You’ll need to be prepared for long periods of downtime.

2. Running by your own DOT authority is expensive.

If you’re planning on running under your own DOT authority, prepare to have your mind blown by the price of insurance. Insurance companies are in the business of managing and mitigating risk. When you come to them as a brand new business owner operator with a brand new truck, they are going to see you as a high risk. As a result of that, they are going to charge you a high premium. This premium that they will charge you is going to be much higher than you are expecting.

How Owner Operator Truck Drivers Can Avoid High Insurance Costs?

If you want to avoid these high costs, the only option you have is to lease on with a carrier. You can explore different options. Most carriers you choose to lease on with will require you to pay between $150-300 a week for your insurance.

If you lease on with Value Truck, you will only have to pay $37.50 per week for insurance costs. We guarantee that you cannot beat that weekly price for insurance in the event that you choose to lease on with a carrier.

3. You have to secure parking for your truck, which can be difficult to find.

When you purchase a truck as an owner operator, you will likely have to jump through hoops to try to find good parking for your truck. Despite what you may think, semi-truck parking is not readily available. In fact, it’s becoming an increasingly scarce resource as the days go by.

How Do I Find Parking For My Truck as an Owner Operator if I Lease on With Value Truck?

One of the benefits to leasing on with Value Truck is that we give you guaranteed parking at any of our 8 hubs across the country. That means you won’t have to worry about securing parking for your vehicle. You can simply show up at our hub and we will take care of the rest.

4. There’s more to running a trucking business than just driving.

Besides driving loads and delivering them from point A to point B, there is much more involved in being an owner operator truck driver. There’s a lot of back-office paperwork that has to be done that you can’t take care of while you’re on the road behind the wheel. Because of common time constraints, it’s extremely valuable to have a team behind you when it comes to making sure that you are on top of paperwork management. They are able to handle the important paperwork deadlines while you are able to focus on driving.

At Value Truck, we don’t just have a single individual running point on paperwork. We have an entire department that handles everything from accounting to billing, and dispatch.

5. Owning a truck is one of the most surefire ways to gain financial freedom in America today.

This truth comes with a caveat. Owning a truck is not necessarily easy. There are many challenges to be prepared for. You will be responsible for accumulating customers, handling administrative duties, and managing your own compliance with the FMCSA. These things require work, effort, and knowledge, and can be overwhelming to tackle from a research standpoint. If you are able to manage all this, you can make a lot of money.

But here’s the catch. You are actually able to short circuit having to do all this by leasing on with Value Truck. We handle all of these challenges for you, expertly and in a timely manner. And you don’t have to worry about the headache of figuring out how to manage each tedious task that can bog you down with work and keep you from getting on the road and making money.

Value Truck makes sure that you stay compliant with the FMCSA. We handle all the administrative duties, and we already have a built-in customer base for you to plug right into.ng point on paperwork. We have an entire department that handles everything from accounting to billing, and dispatch.

Ready to lease on with Value Truck today? Fill-in the contact form below.