Authority?

tknight · May 8, 2011

What is the real deal on own authority, when do you need it, why do you need it, and do you have your own? I have heard so many different answers over the years, and I know it's like everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has an a**hole. so what is the real deal here, I have 24' truck gcw 26k with sleeper, and am a private carrier,I use this truck for my own goods, but it's slow now, I'm thinking of going out and finding loads through brokers, do I need my own authority, I already have a puco # and dot number.

thanks
tk

bigshow345 · May 8, 2011

You need the Authority and motor carrier whole 9 yards when dealing with brokers. If you use a website like uship depending on the item someones shipped they may or may not require you to have one. With uship you need a mc number and us dot number.

Moot · May 8, 2011

tknight said:
I have heard so many different answers over the years, and I know it's like everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has an a**hole. so what is the real deal here,

If you have a C.B. radio dial it to channel 19 to get answers to all your legal questions. Or, you could do a little research at Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration just to be safe.

Jefferson3000 · May 8, 2011

Moot said:
If you have a C.B. radio dial it to channel 19 to get answers to all your legal questions. Or, you could do a little research at Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration just to be safe.

I always found that asking the guy in front of me at the Country Pride buffet worked best. However, I'm sure that channel 28 or 29 could offer a real education as well.

tknight · May 11, 2011

Great replies, I did get to pick up a foxy redhead on ch 29 earlier yesterday, and she knew all the answers, In the meantime I did get my own authority , did it online, paid the 300.00 to help the government regulators make more rules for us to attemp to follow, and low and behold, within 1 minute my phone started ringing off the hook with all sorts of offers and sales pitchs for the trucking industy, this continued for the next 48 hrs till 11 pm both nights, seems when you now sign up for something from fmcsa, they post your number and address for all the snake oil salesmen to call and disturb you. I even started getting faxes, with offers of saving me huge money,till I got so ****ed, I shut if off to save paper and ink.The score so far is
authority representation in all 50 states-22 calls
insurance 18 calls
bookeeping and trucking accounting 7 calls
I even got a call from a factoring company for receivables.........

I wonder how much fmcsa gets for these leads they are providing?
The cb ch 29 has been very creative, thanks for that tip.............!

CharlesD · May 11, 2011

Get used to the phone calls.

Jefferson3000 · May 11, 2011

CharlesD said:
Get used to the phone calls.

And the faxes.

Glad you have a good sense of humor about it.

xmudman · Jun 2, 2011

Supposedly most of the phone calls, etc. come early in the game, when your authority is still in process and you can't run yet. Is that true? I changed my voicemail greeting to inform callers that I do not accept incoming solicitations for insurance, IFTA, etc. When I get a call from a number I don't recognize, I simply reject the call, and that sends it directly to voicemail. The exceptions to this are numbers that I believe may be official, such as calls from DC, northern VA, or Harrisburg, PA. Most of the unsolicited calls come from down South or out West.

I did save a call from a guy at JB Hunt, but I accidentally erased it today, so OOPS. As it is, I doubt JB has freight for cargo vans anyway....