How To Start a Trucking Company Your Step-By-Step Guide To Starting a Trucking Company

How To Start a Trucking Company is a guide designed to help anyone who is interested in starting a trucking business. In this guide you will learn how to operate your company the right way. This guide will take you step by step through the whole process, from start to finish.

Whether you decide to start with one truck or 150 trucks, you can use the information in this guide to put you on the right path. This guide discusses the first step to take after you have made the decision to open a trucking company.

You will learn how to obtain the paperwork needed to apply for your company name as well as Employer Identification Number. You will be given tips on how to advertise your company and advertise for drivers. New rules for the trucking industry are in a section called CSA 2010, giving you the new information from FMCSA and how it will affect the way most companies are operated.

Information pertaining to driver qualifications, physicals, and experience will be discussed. In this guide, you will find out how trucking software helps your company with dispatching, inventory control, personnel time sheets, drivers and equipment. This guide will show you how to obtain freight, the contract with certain customers and how to write a proposal to a company to haul their freight. Analyzing your competition is a great section that tells you how to search for the freight you want to haul and see what other companies are also moving freight for that customer.

Before you do all that is mentioned above, you must first write a business plan and calculate you start up costs. This will be discussed in detail in the first section of this guide. You will find out what the differences between S Corp, C Corp, and LLC, which will be the best for your type of business. There will information on how to apply for financing from SBA and grants from other government agencies and private financing.

By the time you get to the end of this guide, you should be able to follow each step and have your company ready to open within a month, if not sooner. Good luck!

About the Expert

Marilyn Coleman is a former professional truck driver. She started out as an administrative assistant, but felt like something was missing. She followed her dreams of becoming a professional truck driver and became an owner-operator. After talking with her father, who drove for 25 years himself, she took the step and has been driving for 17 years.

During her long career as a truck driver, Marilyn traveled all over the U.S., met some interesting people, visited some interesting places, and learned a lot about the industry. As an owner-operator, she ran a small business with just one truck. She learned how to dispatch and deal with brokers, shippers, receivers, and other drivers. She no longer drives, but still keeps up with changes in rules and regulations in the trucking industry so she can inform her friends about those changes.

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