How Do I Start a Trucking Company?
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Getting authority is administratively straightforward and takes a few weeks. Making money in the first six months is the hard part, and it’s the part most people underestimate, mainly because brokers won’t work with a new MC number for the first 90 days or more.
The paperwork
- Business entity. LLC or corporation, registered in your state.
- USDOT number. Free, applied for through FMCSA.
- MC number (operating authority). Filing fee, and it takes a few weeks to become active.
- Insurance. $1M auto liability and $100K cargo are the common minimums brokers require, often higher than the legal floor.
- BOC-3 process agent filing. Required before authority activates.
- UCR registration, annually.
- IFTA if you cross state lines.
- ELD, installed and compliant.
Regulations and fees change; verify current requirements with FMCSA directly rather than relying on any article, including this one.
What it actually costs
The filing fees are the small part. The real costs are the truck, insurance (markedly more expensive for a new authority with no safety record than for an established carrier), and working capital.
Working capital is what catches people. Brokers pay on net 30. You’ll pay for fuel, insurance and the truck payment weeks before any of that money arrives. Budget for running several months of costs before the first invoice clears, or arrange factoring upfront.
The first 90 days
Most brokers apply an authority-age threshold, commonly 90 days and sometimes six months, driven by their insurers rather than by preference. Which means your first quarter is a structurally worse market than everything after it.
Plan for thin revenue rather than being surprised by it. More on getting through it.
Own authority, or lease on?
Leasing onto a carrier means freight from day one, no authority-age problem, and no back office, at the cost of a percentage and much less control.
Own authority means keeping the margin and choosing your freight, at the cost of the first 90 days, the administration, and doing your own dispatch.
A reasonable path is leasing on first to learn the business and build capital, then getting authority. It’s slower and considerably less likely to end badly.
Know your cost per mile before load one
The most common way new carriers fail is running loads that look profitable and aren’t. Work out your cost per mile before you book anything, and evaluate on net revenue per mile including deadhead. How to calculate it.
Where Hey Bubba! fits
Hey Bubba! is an AI back-office automation platform for fleets. For a new authority without a dispatcher and without broker relationships, it handles the searching, the calls and the paperwork, which is most of what you don’t have time for while also driving.
It won’t shortcut the 90-day problem. Nothing does.
Frequently asked questions
Filing fees are minor. The real costs are the truck, insurance at new-authority rates, and several months of working capital before invoices start paying.
A few weeks for the MC number to activate once filed, plus insurance and BOC-3.
Leasing gives freight from day one at the cost of a percentage and control. Own authority keeps the margin but means surviving 90 days of restricted access.
Fraud risk concentrates in very new authorities, and broker insurers frequently mandate an age threshold.
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