While capacity is important, the DOT's new CSA enforcement regime and ever-nosier agencies like the IRS make it clear that you simply can't take people that need to be led by the hand into a lease-purchase program.
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Here are two things you need to know about buying a truck: it takes big bucks to play with big trucks, and there no such thing as a free lunch. Keep those two things in mind while planning your business strategy and you'll double your chance of success.
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Sometimes owner-operators are their own worst enemy. They too often do things to undermine their business – like budgeting based on the best of times, not year-long averages. Or they switch carriers to one promising more home time, only to discover they can't make payment with the truck parked in the driveway every night.
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How bad does owner-operator Matt Purtee want truckstop electrification? “Bad enough where I know a few truckstops that have light poles with plug-ins at the base,” he says with a chuckle. “I get to those sites early so I can tap into the power before someone else does."
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Owner-operators are far from dead, but the population is experiencing some changes, according to Todd Spencer, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, with many of those changes caused by government regulations.
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April 15 has come and gone, so you can breathe easy for another year -- that is, unless the IRS decides to audit you and become a major pain in your life. Here's how to handle it if they do.
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Approximately 7.6 billion hours are spent by businesses and individuals each year on tax compliance -- a workload that could keep 3.8 million full-time workers busy by the IRS’ own estimates. Throw your long hours as a trucker into the mix, and the potential to miss the filing deadline is very real. However, you can file an extension and avoid penalties.
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Despite all of the folklore that has been built around it, at its core, CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) is simply a program used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to track and evaluate carriers based on compliance and crash history. Carriers that do not score well in the system are the ones FMCSA will spend time warning or investigating.
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The 24th annual Paul K. Young Truck Beauty Championship has become a star attraction at the Mid-America Trucking Show, celebrating North America's heavy-duty, working show trucks. Here's a sampling of some of this year's contestants that caught our eye. (Photos by Evan Lockridge)
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The driver qualifications regulations, which are found in Part 391 of the FMCSA regulations, apply to all interstate drivers and most intrastate drivers that operate a commercial motor vehicle – no matter whether your company employs one driver or 1,000.
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