Starting a small business

[11b1776]

If you can call it that, I am wanting to do some hauling/hot shoting. I want to know about paperwork involved or where I can go to learn about things like a business license, DOT numbers, taxes involved, you know the exciting stuff. It would be ran out of my house, just a truck and a few trailers, on the side, I have a full time job, this is something I like, trying to make some scratch out of it. Thanks in advance. Disclaimer; If you don't have anything positive to ad, please keep it to yourself, or start your own thread

 

[Belthos]

You may need a commercial drivers license depending on the rated weight of your trailer and truck.
If you are required to have a CDL you will be required to pass a dot physical, this is if you are working across state lines.

You will be required to operate under the hours of service if you are involved in interstate commerce. Look up dot hos.
If you do intrastate only then you will operate under Oklahoma's dot rules and I can't say much about that.
All of my experience is Interstate coast-coast CDL in a class 8 truck, almost always pulling a reefer.

I know about driving a big truck, I know very little about the rules regarding pickups and hotshots.

Because every single state has different laws regarding what you can do, you are probably better off having a CDL.
At the very least if you try to do without one make certain you research the state laws of every state you may do business in or you can get into serious trouble.

There is a cdl defense lawfirm here in oklahoma city that I highly reccomend, because you will find that you are seen as a traveling cash register if you have out of town, out of state plates and the laws in many states make it severely expensive. I had to fight a ticket in Ozark, AR that I won, but I paid $800 in legal fees to avoid a $100 ticket. If you get a ticket it raises your insurance rates and worse if you get pulled over again in the future you are far more likely to get a ticket instead of a warning if you have a history of tickets.

Fyi the ozark, ar speed laws allowed them to charge you by the pound of the gross weight of your vehicle for any ticket involving a commercial vehicle traveling over 5 mph over the speed limit.

If you are operating under the federal hos and I'm pretty sure you must to be legal, you will find that you cannot legally sleep in your truck unless it has a sleeper berth.
The dot strictly defines what a sleeper berth is and you cannot fit one into a pickup, what this means is by law you must sleep in a motel and save the receipts for it because they can and will ask for them if you run into a diesel bear, vehicle enforcement.

If you are counting on sleeping in the truck to save your money it will put in violation of the hours of service.
If you are involved in any accident and you have falsified your hours, you are done for. They have cracked down on that with a vengeance and it means that even if a drunken teenager who is high on meth slams into you while you are parked at a red light, you will find that in our legal system the fact that you violated the rules means you could not legally have been there for the addict to run into you, you can literally be made liable for all costs including manslaughter charges for him running into you.

The trucking rules have draconian penalties because governments think truckers and trucking companies are made of money.

There is a 100 air mile radius rule that allows you to skip keeping a logbook if you start and stop at the same place everyday.

It is now illegal for you to use a cell phone while operating a commercial vehicle.

Make sure you know the rules on load securement.
Weigh your load everytime unless you know from experience what it weighs and how it will axle out. Not only must you remain within the legal limit for your vehicle, you must make sure you do not violate axle weight, they love giving you ticket for this and if you cannot get the load legal, they will hold you and your vehicle until you can hire someone to come out and fix it, failing that they like to impound things.

If you start your own company you will still have to be subject to random drug testing, you can join a group that will handle that for you for a price.

If you aren't familiar with the hours of service you should look them up and research it. It's not rocket science but it causes trouble for many truck drivers and can be difficult for many people to grasp.

 

[Disgruntled Computer Tech]

This is relevant to my general interests as well. Tag!

 

[BikerHT]

In addition - insurance would be another consideration. Depending on who your clients are, some will probably require more insurance coverage than others.

 

[Belthos]

You will need to look into getting your own operating authority unless you intend to lease on to another company.
You will to read up on base plates and permits.
There can be separate insurance required for when you have a trailer and when you do not.
Insurance that covers you when you are loaded and pulling a trailer doesn't necessarily cover you when you are traveling empty or without a trailer.
You will need separate cargo insurance.
You need to pay for IFTA tags and certificate for your vehicle, International fuel tax association.
Some states require separate fuel tax certification like new mexico.
You will need a permit book with your insurance, ifta, permits and what not so you have it all in one place, additionaly your cdl and medical certificate (it's recorded electronically now but you may still need the physical certificate, this is new)

Do you have any physical disability? (I'm not asking but you need to know this)
Diabetic requiring insulin?
Missing any body parts, any prosthesis?
Have any field of vision problems, in other words is your peripheral vision excellent?
Will a dot doctor consider you to be physically fit? If you fail the physical you cannot operate a commercial motor vehicle that requires a medical certificate in interstate commerce.
Angina
Medical conditions that in any way affect your breathing.

Those can disqualify you.

Certain other medical events like heart trouble, high blood pressure, diabetes that is controlled without using insulin, sleep apnea can require yearly medical testing and proof that you are stable.

If your cargo is hazmat, you must have a hazardous materials endorsement, this requires local/state/fbi background checks and fingerprints pretty much like getting a ccw permit, you must undergo the entire background check every time you renew your license and this costs half a day to get go somewhere and get finger printed and you must submit the checks around 6 months earlier to homeland security to ensure you get a paper back from them that says more or less "Bob is not considered a threat to national security at this time"

You don't want to find yourself on the road with anything hazmat without the endorsement.
Operating a commercial vehicle that requires a CDL without having the CDL on your person (They lower the penalty if you have it but just not with you to a fine) is a felony.

Each separate violation of the hours of service runs between $1000 and $11000 per occurrence, the way the rules work it's possible to violate 2 or 3 of the rules at one time and each one is a separate charge.

By the way if you are notified of a drug test on a random you have a very limited amount of time to get to a testing facility and then you must Pee in that cup within 2 hours of.
You are required to IMMEDIATELY proceed to the testing facility and if you are performing safety related work at the time, that must cease at once.
In english this means you cannot use the commercial vehicle to get to the testing facility if you are under a load. You could drop the trailer if you can find a secure location and take the pickup.
If for any reason you do not get there in time and pee in the cup within 2 hours of arriving it will forever go on your record that you failed a drug test.
You might as well have been caught with heroin in your urine, because you will be lose your insurance and your license.

The biggest problem I see with doing this part time is your costs for Operating authority, Insurance, membership in an association for drug testing, truck/trailer payments remain the same if you work 1 day a year or 365. Unless you intend to explore this as a full time occupation your costs may be prohibitive for occasional hauling.

Trucking is regulated out the butt. This is just what I can think of off the top of my head and I was always a company driver. You would do well to find some owner operators and get their input.

 

[11b1776]

Wow, thanks for the great info! I did plan on a Class A CDL, testing with my truck and trailer. I knew there was alot of fees and permits involved, along with insurance. I was hoping with a very small operation that it would be easier to be legal.

 

[ki4ppg]

as far as the sleeper in a pickup (4door) can be made legal with very few modifications to the rear doors....there are cheap KITS to do this to make it legal

 

[romanleader]

There is a great resource at NSU BA here: http://https://www.osbdc.org/center.aspx?center=64020

 

[11b1776]

There is a great resource at NSU BA here: http://https://www.osbdc.org/center.aspx?center=64020

Link isn't working for me.

 

[11b1776]

as far as the sleeper in a pickup (4door) can be made legal with very few modifications to the rear doors....there are cheap KITS to do this to make it legal

Yes like http://crewcabsleeper.com/

I am looking to stick closer to home, Oklahoma and its surrounding states, unless the money is just really good, or all I can get is long runs. I want to start small and go from there.