Truck to Success returns in October
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Truck to Success course, designed to help truckers make the transition to becoming an owner-operator, will return in October.
As of press time, OOIDA plans to offer the three-day seminar in person at the Courtyard by Marriott in Blue Springs, Mo., as well as online via Zoom. The classes will be from Oct. 26-28.
“If you are thinking about taking the next big step in your career to become an owner-operator, it is important that you put yourself on the path to success,” OOIDA wrote on its website. “We offer you OOIDA’s Truck to Success, a three-day in-depth training curriculum that offers step-by-step guidance from the industry’s leading experts since 1973.”
Truck to Success features trainers, both from OOIDA and other trusted experts, who are in contact with owner-operators on a daily basis to provide course participants the most up-to-date information possible.
“If you are serious about your choice to become an owner-operator, then allow OOIDA’s expert staff, as well as their partners, to guide you from a company driver to a leased-on owner-operator, and/or to an owner-operator under their own authority.”
OOIDA’s most recent Truck to Success course was in October 2020 but was offered online only because of coronavirus restrictions.
For this October, OOIDA plans to offer the course in person and online to give truckers the opportunity to participate even if they can’t make it to the Kansas City area for three days this fall.
The course is presented by the OOIDA Foundation, the research and education arm of the Association.
The extensive training curriculum will include:
- Developing a business plan that works for you.
- You’re going to need a truck. New vs. used?
- Equipment financing.
- The big decision to be an owner-operator under your own authority or lease on to a carrier.
- New entrant safety audit and a compliance review.
- Drug and alcohol consortium and requirements.
- Permits and licensing.
- Taxes and business structures.
- Brokers and factoring.
- Finish with current issues that are affecting the industry and what they can do to respond to those issues.
The cost of the course for those attending in person will be $495. Guests of attendees will be charged $125 to cover the cost of food. Attending the course online will cost $250.
Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of OOIDA, said the Association’s goal in this and all of its endeavors is to help professional commercial truck drivers be successful. The stakes are higher when a driver becomes an owner-operator.
“Trucking is a tough thing, as all of you out there that drive now know. It’s even tougher when you own the truck,” Pugh said at the outset of last year’s course.
Andrew King, OOIDA research analyst, stressed the importance of acquiring all of the facts and creating a business plan before making a transition to becoming an owner-operator. During last year’s course, he provided participants with an example of a member calling in for advice on what to do as an owner-operator after already purchasing a truck.
That driver had a lot to figure out, including how to manage the accounting, compliance regulations and payment side of the business in addition to the on-the-road part of it.
“You need to have an idea what to do ahead of time,” King said. LL