Just wondering where the best place would be for getting help with trucking authority. There are several web sites that offer help. I just don't know which one would be the best.
It depends which authorities you require. I have yet to see a company who offers a
complete package (*ding ding ding* business opportunity!). You have to know exactly what you're going to be doing, where you're going to be going, what you're going to be hauling, timing, weights, measurements, all the various rules of all the various states you'll be traveling in or through. It's much more than just paying the $300 to FMCSA for your MC and your DOT. It is a large undertaking, and the larger your truck is, the more overwhelming the regs are.
You can hire a company to do it all for you, as long as you are
sure they are aware of
everything in
every state you'll be passing through, picking up from, or delivering to. Or you can educate yourself through tedious research since it will ultimately be you who pays the price for any errors or omissions. And if you don't educate yourself first, you aren't going to know for sure whether the company you consider hiring to do all the paperwork for you really knows everything you need to know.
I have never seen an industry with so many opinions and confusion as to what the regs actually are, and I believe this affects even people in positions of authority. I have seen people swear up and down that something is a fact, when their info is outdated or just simply wrong. And I'm talking about carriers (owners), freight brokers, and DOT officers, people who should
know the facts and be current. And if one DOT officer may tell you the wrong thing, it isn't going to help or protect you with the next one who knows his stuff.
Info that is relevant one day can easily change unless one keeps abreast of all changes as they happen. It's a daunting task to not only educate yourself in the first place, but to keep up with new regs and changes to existing ones. I suspect that people may relax a bit after they learn what they initially need to know, but then they fall behind in their knowledge because it's too difficult and time consuming to keep up unless that is the main focus of one's duties on a day to day basis.
Good luck, you're going to need it, and especially if you're in a big truck and you're traveling all over the US and Canada.