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Originally Posted by Profits of Doom
That's just not true anymore, the mom and pops might not hire you but you also don't have to settle the Prime's and Schneider's of the world. Most companies now are taking graduation from an accredited truck driving school in lieu of a year experience, because they flat out have to. The shortage is just getting worse and worse and most companies have no choice but to take the insurance hit. You don't have to believe me, just go to any of the truck driving forums and ask.
As for the Sprinter van, 2 questions...who in the hell quoted you $30,000 a year? There is only one company that offers commercial insurance for expediters, Progressive, and most everyone uses Commercial Insurance Solutions out of Ohio to get the Progressive policy, since the brokers there know each expedite company's requirements. For the blanket million dollar policy they are quoting $3,000-$5,000 per year, or more if you have a shit driving record. Any why would you get a DOT number? No company is going to award you bids off any of the job boards with your own authority anyways unless you have at least 10 vans. If you are a one man operation you have to work for Panther, Roadrunner, or one of the other big boys...
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Progressive is who quoted that to me.. Reason I was looking to get my own numbers is because I wanted to use expediting as a way to earn money while going back to my van life and travel full time but take loads when I wanted some money vs working for another company full time.
One of the biggest complaints I saw out of sprinter van expediters, was they say they have a lot of down time waiting on loads. My intention was to get a 3500 Sprinter (1 ton) and set it up for towing. The idea was I could run expediter loads, LTL loads from load boards but also haul RV trailers to dealers and I wanted to cover a niche I see almost no one covering and that's hauling motorcycles. Example on uship, there are lots of people that want motorcycles moved but almost no one bids those jobs.
I figure with my own DOT numbers/insurance I can keep myself busy whenever I want by having more than just a single option vs sitting around a lot and having to be in areas that freight is good. Motorcycles as example get moved from anywhere and RV's don't pay a lot but it can be steady filler work. However I couldn't have these options with out my own DOT numbers.