A trucking business sounds easy enough, does it not? You get a bunch of trucks, you get a bunch of drivers, and then you start working on getting a client/customer list together so that you have regular shipments to truck all over. However, it is a lot more complicated than that. Here are several other things you will need besides trucks, drivers, and customers.
Trucking Highway Permits for Driving in Your Own State
It seems a little silly to require trucking permits for the state in which you drive, but honestly, once you understand the reasons behind these permits, it makes sense. It keeps drivers on the right side of the law, and it prevents illegal hauling of extra goods not on the trucking manifests. When the trucks have to stop and be weighed at a weigh station, any indication that something is not right with the weight better be covered by a permit, or the truck may be legally searched to find out why it is heavier than it should be. With the permits in place, your drivers are able to pick up enough extra weight to remain within the trucking permit's weight limits and still be able to keep on driving without being searched.
Trucking Permits for Every State Outside Your Own
If you are going to expand and drive loads into other states and across state lines, you need permits for those states as well. This may not be something you want to do right away when you start a trucking business because of the costs of multiple permits in multiple neighboring states for each truck in your fleet, but in the future it may be something you want to do. Keep up to date on the costs of permits in neighboring states as you expand your customer/client base.
Insurance
You need insurance to cover every truck. You need insurance to cover every driver. You need insurance to cover every load hauled, and you need insurance to cover your business. Anything left not covered by insurance should probably be covered by umbrella insurance. Semi-trucks tend to get into some bad accidents, no matter how safe and good your drivers are. When those accidents happen, you have to have insurance to cover losses, protect your fledgling trucking company against lawsuits, and protect your drivers. If you do not have all the necessary permits, licenses, and insurance, your business will never make it off the ground.
For more information about trucking permits, contact a company like Highway Permits.
Share3 October 2019
Several months ago, my wonderful spouse decided we should sell one of our vehicles. At first I was worried about how we would both get around, but his main goal with this plan was to start utilizing more public transportation. Ultimately I agreed that this was a good plan, though I was still concerned with using public transit as I hadn't had many experiences with it in the past. This blog is all about the benefits and advantages of transportation besides your own personal vehicles. You actually might be surprised by how easy it is to use other transportation methods!