Owner-operator guides
Straight answers for running your own authority
No fluff, no sales pitch dressed up as advice — the numbers and steps that actually decide whether you make money out here.
Best Trucking Software for Owner-Operators (2026)
What actually matters when you are running one to five trucks — and what the real options cost.
Read →How Much Does a Truck Dispatch Service Cost? (2026)
Percentages, flat rates, hidden fees, and when paying for dispatch actually makes sense.
Read →How to Start Your Own Trucking Authority: The First-90-Days Checklist (2026)
The order to do things in, and the trap that sinks a third of new carriers.
Read →Owner-Operator Cost-Per-Mile: What It Really Is (2026)
The number that decides whether a load is worth taking — and why most operators get it wrong.
Read →Looking at Truckbase? An Honest Alternative for 1-10 Trucks (2026)
Both scan rate cons with AI. The differences are price shape, document coverage, and who each one is really built for.
Read →What Do I Do After I Get My MC Number?
The order things actually have to happen in, and the clock most people don't know started.
Read →When Is My MCS-150 Due?
Your USDOT number tells you the month. Almost nobody knows that.
Read →What Does the New Entrant Safety Audit Actually Ask For?
It is a records audit. Being ready on paper is the whole thing.
Read →Do I Have to File IFTA If I Only Have One Truck?
Fleet size is not the test. Crossing a state line is.
Read →Is $2.50 a Mile a Good Rate?
The rate per mile is the wrong number to argue about. Here's the right one.
Read →The 16 Ways a New Carrier Fails the Safety Audit (13 Happen on One Mistake)
16 violations fail the audit automatically. 13 of them happen on one single miss.
Read →What Happens If You Fail the New Entrant Safety Audit?
60 days, one written response, and a date your authority ends if you miss it.
Read →Do I Need a Drug and Alcohol Program If I'm the Only Driver?
Yes. And the reg says your random pool needs at least 2 people in it, which is why you cannot run it yourself.
Read →What Goes In a Driver Qualification File?
Eight items, one folder per driver, and yes, one on yourself if you drive. Two of the eight are not what the old checklists say.
Read →Factoring vs Quick Pay: What Each One Actually Costs
The fee is not the cost. The fee divided by the days it buys you is the cost, and that number changes the answer.
Read →What Does Detention Actually Pay?
$50 an hour after 2 hours free is not the price of detention. The price is the driving hours that go with it, and those are never on the invoice.
Read →Do Fuel Card Discounts Actually Save You Money?
The discount is real. It is quoted off a price you were not going to pay, on a tax you do not get to keep, and the biggest number in the arrangement is not a discount at all.
Read →Why Is Everyone Calling Me After I Got My MC Number?
Nothing leaked. You filed a form, the form became a public file, and a few hundred companies download that file every morning.
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