Trucking Company Guide
Decide honestly which business you actually mean — freight brokerage, owner-operator, or small fleet — before spending a dollar on a truck. This 16-page guide covers the real capital ranges, the federal registrations you can't skip (USDOT, MC Authority, UCR, IRP, IFTA), and the one number — cost per mile — that decides whether a load is worth hauling — plus working templates to run it with.
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What It Covers
The real difference between a freight brokerage, an owner-operator with one truck, and a small fleet — three completely different businesses with wildly different capital requirements, and why picking the wrong one first is the most common way this fails. The federal registration floor (USDOT, MC Authority, UCR, plus IRP and IFTA for interstate work) that has to be in place before the truck purchase, not after. Why operating expenses, not the truck itself, are what actually sink undercapitalized trucking startups.
Working Templates Included
- Startup checklist
- Equipment and startup budget worksheet
- Load pricing and estimate template
- Customer invoice template
- Trip and load log
- Shipper and load lead tracker
- Compliance and fleet-safety check
This guide gives you the framework. A full plan for this trade isn’t written yet. To find out whether it can work in your own town, Make It Your Town ($49) gives you a market-check file right away, then I research your trade and zip code and email you what I find. 7-day refund, unless I’ve already emailed your research. Refund policy.