Careers

It takes more than just a rig and a trucker’s insurance policy in order to call yourself an owner-operator in the truck shipping industry. In fact, there are a number of considerations you need to carefully think about before you actually go from being a commercial truck driver to being both the owner and the operator. After all, you will definitely want to enter this booming industrial field, with your trucks in a row, perfectly capable of competing or joining with other service providers.

Find the best trucking insurance

A matter of fact is that finding good trucker’s insurance, and then being able to effectively secure a loan for your new 18-wheeler is simply not enough, in order to establish a sustainable and profitable business endeavor. In order to make the process of switching from a commercial driver to an owner-operator, you should follow a number of considerations and make sure you do everything correctly. In order to help with this task, we will provide a couple of tips throughout this article, with which you should form an overall decision-making framework, and make well-thought and informed choices.

Important considerations

Before you do anything else, make a highly detailed personal assessment and use it as a basis for all your decisions.

Deal with the challenges

Becoming your own boss in the truck shipping industry will open a whole new world of opportunities, as well as situations that you will not be able to avoid. Keep in mind that many owner-operators spend their entire weekends in truck stops, without any proper or necessary physical exercises, suffering from low of poor food intake, and experience a plethora of various industry – specific situations and scenarios.

Physically and mentally fit

In order to become successful in this field, you need to be sure that you are both physically and mentally capable of dealing with all the challenges of truck driving in the long run. You also need to be sure that you will know how to avoid being overwhelmed with bad credits, unpaid expenses and other unfortunate scenarios associated with a failing business.

In order to assess your capabilities and determine just how well suited you are for this kind of a job, try asking yourself the following questions?

• Are you willing to co-operate with other trucking companies? If yes, make sure to know more about them, by reading, for example, Status Transportation reviews, or some other impressions.
• What is your preferred driving style? Do you prefer driving every second, minute or hour that are allocated to you by the FMCSA, so as to maximize and optimize your production – or are you more of a laid back type of driver?
• Do you have any family members at home? If yes, how important is it for you to spend your weekends with them? Always keep in mind that long distance trucking can seriously affect one’s private life.
• Do you have any health issues, and how is your health in general? If you suffer from some chronic health conditions, you should perhaps opt to remain a commercial driver. Always remember that health insurance is extremely important because large numbers of professional truck drivers are usually unable to properly manage the expenses of health insurance.
• Are you well familiarized with all the expenses and costs associated with supplemental cargo insurance, public liability trucking insurance and a host of other insurance types? If not, make sure to go through them in great detail before making your big decision.