Considering Running your own Authority? Playbook for Authority

JoBernard

Active Member
Considering Running Your Own Authority

Here's a very general idea about how much it'll cost to start running your own authority. It'll give you a good foundation of knowledge to add to your experience. You can do most of the preparation work for yourself and it won't be too hard or difficult, just apply yourself and meditate on the instructions given at every step in the process and you'll do just fine. I've always said, if you're not willing to focus in on the details of the paper work involved with starting to run your own authority, you're probably not ready for the additional focus required to be successful at running your own authority.

General Cash Outlay for Operating Authority
300.00*** MC# FMCSA Application
1250.00* Insurance Primary Liability and Cargo
1000.00* Down Payment on a new to fairly new Trailer
500.00*** Tax Tag Title
100.00*** Compliance Services providing Consortium for random drug and alcohol screening
100.00*** If you chose to use a Compliance Service to set up all the other compliance paperwork
12.00***** New Mexico Weight and Distance Application 2.00 and 10.00 per Certificate
10.00**** New York Application and Sticker*
20.00**** IFTA Application and Sticker
3,500.00 Roughly is the cash layout in general on average to make the switch
Heavy Highway Use Tax may or may not be due, as already owning your truck you should know by now it's about 550.00 annually Form2290
-************* California State Application is no charge if you have not run miles under you authority
-************* Kentucky's Application is free for the KYU

Any one of these may have change, but these prices are fairly current at the time I'm posting the material 1st QRT 2009
One of the first things you'll want to concern yourself with is what is my responsibility at the Authority level, what should I expect to earn and HOW" am I going to do it. Here's a few things to keep in mind and a little bit of what happen to me at the Authority Level

III Business responsibility:* This includes but is not limited to the previous responsibilities of the load and the unit, the total responsibility for the creation of the business, the structure of its services, the range and scope of the business, the choosing of all services to the business, all legal requirements, employment requirements, compliance requirements, record keeping e.g. maintenance, driver logs, qualification and medical/drug and alcohol screening and random test, filings, taxes, penalties, legal injunctions, negotiating of all contracts involved in the general day to day business, setting rates, finding loads, gauging the market, research and development “which is by the way is what you’re doing now, permits, buying and selling of equipment, trailers and other load securing devices, recovery in breakdown situations, training, office and location, rents, utilities, and all other overhead financial responsibilities, and the list goes on and on and on.

One of the main things to continue to bear in mind is, If you have all this double the responsibility it should go without saying that you should be paid double of what you are paid at the company level. I did nothing but math and Spreadsheets the whole time I owned equipment, and over and over again I found that those that did not have a working knowledge of the market were paid as such that after their expenses they were making in most cases half of what the company drivers make. I'll be showing you some of those numbers. Point is it should never be and the shame is that in an average market with a high demand for truck it never should happen.

Authority stage: The decision to get my own Authority came as somewhat a surprise and carried its fair share of a mystery to me; I had left Panther thinking the grass was greener on the other side over at Tri-State. It wasn’t, I think maybe I could have stayed but I was already use to freely finding my own loads, at least outside the service area and sometimes inside all depending on the situation but there was, let’s just say, a different kind of environment there for that. So it got me to thinking, maybe God is putting out a challenge for me, and as you can tell I’m always up to it if the Lord “opens the door” so I check the bank and they said “No!”, I was some what relieved . I’d just stick it out and who know what the future would hold. But I remembered I’d been with the Credit Union for a long time, so I thought Why not try, turns out, they help me get the loan for the trailer. So the door was open and three weeks later I was on my own Authority and the Lord bless me to learn so much I can’t list it all here, so I decided to write a book, so here it is.
 
I live in NY, I had to pay $1500 for the truck registration and $550 Highway use tax (the little sticker we used to have to stick on the bumper) I still have to pay the HUT even though they do not give out the stickers, that is on top of your list, plus a few other things
 
The thing is both those items a lease operator should already be actively engaged in doing, so I didn't see the need to tell you what you already know. If a company driver is looking at getting his own authority "SOMEBODY" oughtta sit him down and talk some sense in his head, Okay, Jo Bernard
 
Forget about a book son, I didn't even know I clip that into the post, but since I did I apologize, Jo Bernard
 
One of the other important things to consider is the market: usually the fourth quarter is the strongest quarter, the guy or gal that get's their authority close near the beginning of the fourth quarter has a little better advantage than the guy that starts like in the first quarter. That's very important, but if the market is just dead anyway there's just no way you should be looking at running your own, unless you have a sure exception to the rule.......that's my take on it, Jo Bernard
 
Boy are you way off!!! Don't know what state your in but my ifta sticker only costs $2.00 That said, When you lease on to a company and they say you get .93 cents per mile when the load pays $2.00-$4.00 per mile thats all you get. How is that better than being on your own when I get get the $2.00-$4.00 per mile? I talk from experance been on my own for 11 years now.
 
the NYHUT is $550. had to pay in in order to drive in New York state. they use to have a sticker that you put on the front of the bumper, red otange blue whatever the color was that year, they did away with the sticker but you still have to pay the tax, if you get inspected in NY, they run your registration and it tells wether the fee has been paid or not
 

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