Getting Started as an Owner Operator
Getting started as an Owner Operator is a scary move in a market that’s always moving. Nobody has a blueprint that they share. People think that “if I tell you how I do it, you’ll steal my freight from me” and the idea of that couldn’t be any dumber. There is too much freight. If there wasn’t more freight than trucks, brokers wouldn’t exist and the barrier for entry wouldn’t be so low on both sides. The industry has tons of holes to fill and plenty of work to be done. You want to make sure you don’t fall through the cracks and fail because it’s easy to do and things can definitely turn against you fast.
Ask yourself what you want out of becoming a
Ask yourself “what more am I willing to do?”
Ask yourself “what kind of capital do I have access to?”
Figure out your fixed costs
The first thing to do as a dreaming owner operator is to ask yourself “What am I looking for out of becoming an Owner Op that would be different than working for someone else?”. That answer matters ALOT. Is it the way you treat drivers because you had a bad experience? Is it freedom in your schedule? Increase in your pay? Figure that out because that’s the first thing youll need to reference as you decide if the move is actually for you. If your answer looks anything like “I just want to do less to make more.” you might need to reconsider getting started. Nothing about trucking is and will ever be passive. Even when Ai bots begin to drive trucks, it will never be passive.
The second thing to do is figure out “what MORE will you be willing to do?”. Having another company to handle paperwork, tax filings, repairs and maintenance will make you a Lease Owner and it’s just something that doesn’t make sense unless you’re testing the waters of getting started on your own. As a lease owner operator you’re literally paying someone to do paperwork that you could do or pay a fraction of the price for someone else to do it. Figure out what you don’t want to do and find someone to help fill those holes for you. A dispatcher, back office staff, tax prep, compliance services are all around. Some combine the services even!
Next you’ll need to figure out what kind of capital you have access to. If you’re saving, great. If you’re planning to leverage credit, great. If you’re doing both, amazing! Hell you may even have a truck already and tons of money ready to jump off the porch! All these things are fine even if you have none of them, just start getting ready and stop thinking. Knowing what you have to get started is a large key to success. Trying to jump the gun can have your money spent in all the wrong places leaving you unable to pivot if you need to! You’ll need nearly $10,000 to get started as of Q2 2025 for a down payment on a truck, insurance and tags. Making sure you have what you need is extremely important.
Creeping in next, is figuring out your hard fixed costs. Things like truck and trailer payments and truck and trailer insurance. The biggest part about this is that most owners look over is the COST OF THEIR LIFE (as is). As most people make more money their life style spending creeps up. The BIGGEST MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE IN BUSINESS is creeping in life before they creep in business. As a service based business in trucking you need to make sure you can afford a breakdown because if you can’t then the business hits a hard pause. That’s the last thing you want to happen. To get this done you’ll need to file a for an authority with the FMCSA. If you want to stay in state you can file for a DOT number, if you want to travel out of state you’ll need to file for an MC number which will cost $300.
Once you have all these ideas ironed out, I’m sure it’ll be easy to move forward with actually making the decision if things are right for you to become an owner operator.
