Starting Own Trucking Authority......No CDL

Where are you located? If your location is good you could land a pretty lucrative line-haul type job pulling doubles. You can make 80,000 plus dollars a year and be home on weekends, maybe even home nightly.

Southern California.

I'm capped out (salary wise) in my current office job (60k being the highest I'll ever make) and I'm sure most of you are aware that 60k for a large family in Southern California is extremely difficult to make it.

It's my understanding that if I drive for a company with no CDL (Swift for example), they pay their drivers $700 a week and it takes like 3-6 months to start making more than that.

I simply can't survive on that income and would have to figure out how to survive for 6 months.

I'm sure it gets better after the 6 months but if I could make at least 1k a week (which is at least equal to what I make now), it would be something I'd jump into right now.

I’d get the hell out of California and get to a place where I’m making money for me and not the government.

Disclaimer before I speak, I'm not advocating becoming a lease operator! That being said, there is absolutely no way $25K will get you into trucking under your own authority, however, it would be a great monetary safety net that a lot of L/O's wish they could have started with, just saying!

Disclaimer before I speak, I'm not advocating becoming a lease operator! That being said, there is absolutely no way $25K will get you into trucking under your own authority, however, it would be a great monetary safety net that a lot of L/O's wish they could have started with, just saying!

$25k wont even get you a truck! Without a CDL and without prior truck ownership, not only would they want a big chunk of change down on the truck, but the interest will be through the roof. So you get a used 6 year old tractor, put $20k down and still pay like high teens to low 20s in interest depending on your credit for a $60k truck with no warrantee. want a warrantee? thats another $15k. What if it breaks down in 2 months for something not covered? could be another $15k....and that is just the truck, not the insurance, permits, driver, fuel etc.

One of the guys here once said imagine what you would need then triple it. All of my research and getting real numbers from reliable O/O i know says this figure is about right. And if you know nothing of trucking, you better double that number too lol

Good point on the numbers. I started with well above the $60K point last year when I went O/O, and I do not have my own authority. $35K was for purchase of the truck, then I've put in another $25K plus into, so far, doing as much of the work as possible myself. My goal is having it sound mechanically and maximum fuel mileage. I do have a fallback plan and money coming in each month outside of driving, but most folks do not.