Getting my own authority....sick of this crap.

[axe]

You don't have to have insurance to obtain dot MC numbers.You just have to post insurance before they become active. Takes about 3 weeks to post with the feds. One day for the state. You could get numbers and insurance and run in the state you are based in on the same day, just can't leave the state until insurance is active with the feds. Have helped guys become active in state of Tx in 2 days. TQL are not crooks. 2nd or 3rd largest broker in US. Have done business with them for years and never beat out of a dime. You will need them and CH just starting out. Huge freight base. I load 2 vans, 1 flat, and 1 reefer on a daily basis. Negotiation on ppm is not what it used to be. They got a price and won't budge until crunch time and then they'll pay what it takes to move it. To many trucks that will haul it cheap. The more you haul for said broker, the more they will pay you. CH has 3 tiers, depending on how much you haul for them. Being brand new you don't have much bargaining power. That's were knowing were to go and not pays off. How you want to run? Will you go to CA? Run NYC? Stay out for 14 to 21 days? Do you want to be home every night, these are very important to think of. Find someone successful and follow what they do. I stay out 3 weeks at a time but when I go home I stay for a week. Don't like the drive bys, come home Fri and leave Sun night. Like to come home and stay a while. Everyone is different. That's what's great about running for yourself, you can do and go were you want. Another option is find someone to run under there authority. Not lease to them, but just somewhat borrow it. We have had guys do this. They pay there own insurance book there own loads. Do what they want, and pay a percentage of flat rate on loads. If you are going to factor, as Waterloo said, check out the contract closely. Some have steep fees for closing account. Some you have to factor everything you haul. The one we use is for fuel card discounts mainly. You only factor what you want to. If you haul a load for a broker and don't want it factored they will bill the broker and when paid will pay you. This cost 5.00. Once you factor a broker, you have to factor every load from said broker. For instance if you haul 10 loads a month for CH you have to turn in all to factoring company but do not have to factor them all. You can haul for other brokers and be paid directly but once you turn load in, you have to turn all of them in. Spot factoring. Not everyone offers it. I have done business with our company for around 12 years. Factor Loads. Not the biggest, but a great one. Some factoring companies won't factor a lot of small brokers, or only certain ones. This limits who you can haul for. Some are recourse and some are non recourse. If you factor be CAREFUL. They are some that are very crooked. Kinda like having your truck worked on at Haggs or going to big name stealership. I love to see guys go out on there own, and have helped quite a few do it. Hope this helps. Don't mean to be long winded just sharing my experience. Let me know of anyway I can help