So You Wanna Start a Trucking Company?
Here’s What (Some) Insurance Agents Don't Tell You (Cause they like to close sales)
Starting your own trucking business sounds like freedom. You bought the truck. Filed the paperwork. Maybe even picked out a company name.
But now comes the part no one warned you about. Insurance. Compliance. Cash flow. Brokers that won’t book you. And policies priced like you already did something wrong.
Most new carriers get blindsided before they even hit the road. If you want to make it past year one, you need more than drive. You need to set it up right the first time.
What Counts as a New Venture
In the eyes of most insurance companies, you’re a new venture if you’ve never had your own MC number or if your authority’s been inactive, revoked, or unauthorized for more than 30 days.
There is nuance: some carriers will count all operational experience you have had in the last 5 years. If operating under a DOT number only and have proof of insurance, we can apply business experience as well. This post is aimed at brand new carriers.
It doesn’t matter if you’ve been driving for 20 years. Once you file for your own authority, you're considered high risk until you prove otherwise.
Carriers see a blank safety record, no prior coverage, and no proof you know how to run a business. That makes you unknown, a wild card, leading underwriters to higher premiums and fewer insurance carrier options.
The Real Startup Setup
To get started, you need more than just a truck and a dream. But that’s exactly where most new carriers begin.
Depending on experience level, most first-timers get into the game with a rig and a vision, but not always a business plan. Some have done the math. Many haven’t. They might know what a load pays but have no clue what their cost per mile is, or what it’ll take to stay afloat once the insurance, fuel, and repairs hit. New carriers are less financially prepared to ride this rollercoaster of a truck market.
Here’s the hard truth: based on our actual policy data, Natasha estimates that 85% of new ventures aren’t in business by the time their first renewal rolls around.
That’s not because they didn’t want it bad enough. It’s because they weren’t set up to survive year one.
You’ve got to register your business, file for your authority, and carry the right coverage. Buy the equipment, register and tag said equipment.
That means:
• Forming an LLC or corporation
• Getting your EIN
• Using a real business address
• Filing for your DOT and MC numbers
• Completing your BOC-3
• Registering under UCR
• Drug and alcohol consortium
• FMCSA Drug & Alcohol Clearinghouse
• Register for the International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA)
• Forking over tons of cash at the DMV
Pro Tip: Don’t skip your drug and alcohol testing program.
Every motor carrier, even if it’s just you, must enroll in a DOT-approved consortium. That’s your random testing pool, and it’s not optional. You also need to register in the FMCSA Clearinghouse and run a pre-employment drug screen even on yourself.
Lots of new and even established business tend to forget this step. It’s huge and not a step you want to miss, especially if a claim happens.
And then comes the insurance.
Once your federal filings are in and your policy goes active, you’re locked in for at least 35 days. Even if you change your mind, carriers have to give a 35-day notice to the feds if you cancel, and you’re paying for coverage the whole time. The only way around it is to fully revoke your MC authority or replace the filing with a new policy. If you think you can bind a policy and cancel quickly if you change your mind, you’ll find out fast how federal filings really work. And how slow refunds can be.
Why It’s So Expensive
Carriers price you based on risk. And if you’re new, you are the risk.
They don’t know how you’ll operate. They don’t know if you’ll file a claim in your first month or keep your equipment safe. They don’t have safety data, clean inspections, or loss runs to go on. They don’t know where you will go, and honestly new ventures aren’t 100 on that either. Most will rely on spot market, taking them all over the country to move the truck. So they assume the worst and price it accordingly.
New venture insurance rates are up over 30% from what they were just a few years ago. Fewer carriers are writing new business, and those that do are charging more than they used to.
But the challenge doesn’t stop at insurance. Most brokers won’t even look at your MC until it’s aged. Amazon requires six months of active authority before you can apply. Many brokers want at least one clean inspection on record before they’ll book you. No inspections? No freight.
If you don’t have relationships with other carriers who can refer you to trusted brokers, your truck could sit parked for months. That’s months of payments, plates, and insurance, and no revenue.
The freight’s out there, but access is limited. And no one talks about that part until you’re already bleeding money.
What Can Go Wrong Fast
We’ve seen new ventures get canceled mid-policy because no one explained the rules. Some didn’t know they had to report new drivers. Others thought pulling a rented trailer was automatically covered. Some failed DOT inspections in their first month and ended up blacklisted by insurance markets.
These mistakes are avoidable, but only if someone tells you about them first.
If your agent is quoting you without asking what kind of freight you haul, what your driver files look like, or where your truck sleeps at night, they’re not setting you up for success.
How to Set Yourself Up Right
Keep it clean. One truck. One driver. Insurance carrier data shows that the most successful motor carriers are owner driven and operating one unit for at least the first year. The outcome is even more favorable if you can run this way for the second year as well.
Get the lay of the land as the owner, figure out your niche, learn your routes and preferred load types before you grow.
Don’t play games with addresses or VINs. Don’t tell your agent one thing and your broker another.
Buy newer equipment if you can. Carriers prefer trucks 2020 and up. Keep your CDL clean. No speeding, no hard brakes, no nonsense.
Start building good habits from day one. Stay on top of your logs, inspections, and drug testing. Create a paper trail that shows you’re running like a business, not a side hustle.
And build your safety culture from the start.
This isn’t just a compliance box to check. It’s the backbone of your whole operation. If you don’t have clear safety expectations from day one on training, policies, and accountability you will not be able to scale.
Need help with compliance? Check out our fav partner, The Safety Gal here: Fleet Regulators
The tech matters too. At this point, dash cams and ELDs aren’t optional for anyone who’s serious about staying in business. We love Motive because it keeps your logs and cameras on the same platform. Carriers are starting to expect this, and some even offer discounts if you’ve got a system like Motive set up.
If you’re still on the fence, check out what Motive does.
The carriers that survive year one and year two treat safety and compliance like part of their business plan, not something they’ll figure out later.
We’re Not Just Here to Quote You
Helping new ventures get going isn’t a side gig for us.
Natasha’s spent over a decade setting up first-time carriers, walking them through their filings and building policies that hold up under pressure. Jess knows how to spot coverage gaps and compliance issues before they cost you a contract.
We’ve seen lots of the first-year meltdowns: bounced payments, bad paperwork, denied claims, surprise audits, and lost authority because no one explained the fine print.
You don’t need to learn this the hard way.
Call us before you file. Call us before you sign.
We’ll help you get it right the first time.
Need help getting started the right way?
We’ve got you. Whether it’s your first policy or your first truck, we’ll walk you through it step-by-step.
Call us at 254-294-7798 or
Email info@trucku.biz and we’ll get you rolling.
Disclosure:
This post is for educational purposes only. It is not legal advice, insurance advice, or a substitute for calling your agent. We’re good, but we’re not psychic. Policies vary, laws change, and courtrooms get weird. Don’t make decisions based solely on something you read on the internet, unless it’s from us, in writing, with your name on it.
All opinions are our own and do not represent the views of any carrier, employer, or underwriting department that occasionally wishes we were quieter on LinkedIn.
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