844-827-4520 ESPAÑOL SIGN IN APPLY FACTORING FUEL CARD AUTHORITY TOOLS DISCOUNTS CAREERS ABOUT RESOURCES HOW TO START A TRUCKING COMPANY 7 STEPS TO STARTING A SUCCESSFUL TRUCKING COMPANY HOW TO START A SUCCESSFUL TRUCKING COMPANY Without small trucking companies and the drivers who work for them, the economy would come to a standstill, literally. So why not get into an industry that will always be in high demand, like trucking, by running a successful trucking company? Before you get started, it’s a good idea to take the time to develop a basic trucking business plan. This business plan should include the type of equipment you will have, whether you plan to purchase or lease that equipment, and who your drivers will be. While your equipment can be obtained after you have an insurance coverage plan in place, it’s important to know the type of equipment you want because you’ll need to know the associated costs before starting this process. Believe it or not getting equipment and insurance is only one piece of starting your own trucking company! There are a lot of other steps to starting and running a trucking company, and it can be a confusing process. START WITH A PLAN FOR SUCCESS: WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN FOR YOUR TRUCKING COMPANY Download this free guide to walk through how to create a business plan. We’ll help you determine the services you’ll provide and who you need to hire, create specific goals, project your costs, expenses, and profits, and much more. Get Your Free Guide 7 STEPS TO RUN A SUCCESSFUL TRUCKING COMPANY STEP 1: FORM YOUR TRUCKING COMPANY AND GET TRUCKING AUTHORITY To start a trucking company, you’ll need to form your company and get a United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) Number and Motor Carrier operating authority Number, or MC Number, from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Along with insurance, equipment purchases or leases, and other required filings and registrations, the process can be lengthy and complicated. Services like the Apex Startup Program can help you start your own trucking company easily. We handle the tedious parts for you. We do everything from collecting all the necessary information, and assisting with entity formation in your home state to completing and filing the appropriate registration applications. Once your trucking company has active authority we send you a Record Book with all the paperwork organized and ready to go. STEP 2: FIND LOADS TO HAUL If you’re new to the trucking industry, online load boards can help you find freight so you can start hauling. You can try free load boards, like NextLOAD.com, or pay a monthly subscription for others. Load boards can help you create and establish relationships with a variety of brokers and shippers. Once you have a solid customer base, you can build on those relationships. In some cases you can start hauling directly for your customers and establish your own lanes which creates a regular, stable income. STEP 3: KNOW WHO YOU’RE HAULING FOR Checking credit on your customers before you haul a load is one of the best habits to form. Doing so routinely helps you assess brokers and shippers. Running credit checks will help you feel confident that your customers will pay regularly. Subscriptions to credit services are available but can be expensive. To maximize your efforts, try to choose loads that pay more per mile, not necessarily faster. When you factor with Apex Capital, you get unlimited, free credit checks, which can help you make the best decisions for your trucking company. STEP 4: KNOW YOUR EXPENSES It’s important to know your trucking company’s business expenses. A profit and loss statement or bookkeeping software are two of the most effective ways to track insurance payments, truck maintenance and repairs, truck and trailer finance payments, fuel, office expenses, salaries, and other expenses. You can even track tax deductions, which can help you save money. When you have all your company expenses in one place, you’ll know exactly how much it costs to run your business. Knowing how much it costs to run your trucking company is important to ensure that your business is profitable. Setting a minimum amount for your cost per mile will help so you never get undercharged or come up short on a load. STEP 5: SAVE MONEY ON FUEL Fuel is a big part of a trucking company’s variable operating expenses. Getting a fuel card for trucking companies can help you control and manage your fuel purchases and save money at the pump. When you use a fuel card, like the Apex fuel card, you always get the cash price or better at thousands of truck stops. Using a fuel card also gives you other benefits like fuel management tools, IFTA reporting information, fuel theft protection, and more. STEP 6: MANAGE YOUR CASH FLOW LIKE A PRO As a start-up business, you’ve just spent a small fortune getting your insurance premiums paid and your truck financed and once you haul a load, you have to wait 30, 60, or even 90 days for your customers to pay. You might not be able to get a line of credit from a bank in order to keep your trucks running. As an alternative to bank financing, a factoring company can provide you with operating cash flow through the purchase of your freight bills. Freight bill factoring is a smart and easy way for trucking companies to manage their cash flow. Instead of waiting for your customer to pay, factoring companies will advance you a percentage of your load the same day you deliver, so you have the capital to pay for insurance, payroll, truck repairs, fuel, and more. STEP 7: GET BACK-OFFICE HELP If you’re starting a trucking company as a small carrier or owner-operator, you’ll need to make time for paperwork and contacting your customers for payment. If you don’t have good systems in place, this can take a lot of time away from running your trucking company. Having a partner who can help with billing paperwork and collections streamlines this process, so you can spend your time focusing on operations. One of the benefits of factoring is that your factoring company handles the collections for you. Just be sure to work with a factoring company that treats your customers in a professional, courteous, and civil manner. Ready to Start Your Sucessful Trucking Company with Apex? YOU CAN DO IT These seven steps can put you on your path to starting a successful trucking company. Many of our clients start out with one truck and a dream. With a little hard work and dedication, they lead to growing their trucking company into an impressive fleet. What’s their secret? Finding the support systems that make their jobs easier. It can be as small as finding a load board that makes booking loads quick, a fuel card that saves you thousands on fuel, or a freight factoring company that serves as your back-office support and so much more. A few steps can quickly add up over time. What are you waiting for? If you want to start a trucking company but save your self time and stress, call 844-827-4520 or start here. We can help you start your trucking business with our Startup Program. Then, we’ll show you how our freight factoring and fuel card are instrumental tools that help you save more money. Click here to download our white paper and learn more about The Business of Trucking. LEARN MORE ABOUT STARTING A TRUCKING COMPANY PLANNING FOR COSTS Wondering how much it’s going to cost to start a trucking company? Learn more about the initial costs and ongoing expenses to plan for as you get your trucking business started. Learn About Costs NAME YOUR COMPANY Choosing a name for your trucking company sounds simple, right? It can be a little more complicated than it seems. Here are some ideas and requirements for trucking company names. Get Name Ideas WHAT TO EXPECT Running your trucking company for the first year has its own set of challenges. In this guide, we outline what to expect in the first year of trucking, or your “new entrant period”. New Entrant Guide ABOUT APEX Apex Capital Corp is the leading full-service factoring company for truckers. Apex buys freight bills, assists and inspires growth and success in small to medium-sized trucking companies. Serving world-class customer service since 1995, Apex began when friends David Baker and Dean Tetirick pooled their resources to open a company that makes a difference. More than two decades later, Apex continues to treat clients and partners with respect just as it takes care of its employees. We have over the years developed tools and fine-tuned services that help level the playing field for small to medium-sized trucking companies. APEX CAPITAL CORP LAUNCHES 24/7 FACTORING September 22, 2021 | Apex Capital After more than 25 years as a freight factoring leader, Apex Capital continues to revolutionize the industry. As the trucking industry continues to leverage technology to accelerate change, freight factors are being challenged to do the same. Apex, at the forefront of innovation, already created its own proprietary digital payment system with blynk™. Now comes 24/7 Factoring, which allows Apex clients to factor freight invoices after hours – nights, weekends, and bank holidays. Hauling loads for a living isn’t a 9-5 job, so factoring shouldn’t be. 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