With Truck to Success course, GATS class, OOIDA strives to help truckers be more profitable

Attendees to the 2019 Great American Trucking Show on Thursday got a taste of what is being offered in OOIDA’s three-day course Truck to Success.

GATS attendees were able to take in a segment of the three-day Truck to Success course during an OOIDA Shift Into Success class focusing on cost of operations. It is an important consideration it determining whether to become an owner-operator.

“You need to know how much it’s costing you to go down the road so you know what you need to make in order to be successful,” said Andrew King, a research analyst for the OOIDA Foundation and instructor in the Shift Into Success class and the three-day Truck to Success course.

“Not only is knowing your cost of operations important, but also having a business plan is really important – that you lay some of those things out, so you know what you you’re going to do, what you’re going to haul before you get started, so that you don’t make a mistake and say, ‘Oh, no, I need to start over again, and I just made a massive investment.’”

There was a good, moderately sized attendance for the Shift Into Success class at GATS, said OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh, who also helped lead the class and will be an instructor in this fall’s Truck to Success course.

“Here at OOIDA, our No. 1 goal is to help drivers be more successful and more profitable in their business,” Pugh said. “That is the driving force behind this class.”

Truck to Success is an intensive training course for drivers ready to take their first steps toward becoming an owner-operator.

The Truck to Success course is scheduled for three full days on Sept. 10-12 at the Courtyard by Marriott in Blue Springs, Mo.

The training is designed to follow a logical path of information required for transitioning from a company driver to an owner-operator.

Topics include:

• Developing a business plan.
• Equipment, including the decision to buy new or used and financing options.
• Insurance.
• Choosing to be an owner-operator under your own authority or lease to a carrier.
• Entrant safety audit and compliance review.
• Drug and alcohol consortium and requirements.
• Permits and licensing.
• Taxes and business structures.
• Broker and factoring.

Current issues affecting the industry and how to have input.

The course will be taught by trucking experts, many with extensive experience behind the steering wheel of a tractor-trailer, who work for the largest trucking association dedicated to helping drivers in all areas be successful.

This is an expanded version of the first Truck to Success course offered last fall.

Listen to a discussion of OOIDA’s Truck to Success course here.

Tuition for the course is $495 per person, which includes course materials and handouts and also breakfast, lunch and snacks. Each attendee may bring one guest for an additional $34.50 per day or $103.50 for the course to cover food. The final day to register is Sept. 1.

You can sign up for the course by clicking here.

Course tuition does not include lodging. Attendees, however, do qualify for OOIDA’s corporate rate. To book a room at the Blue Springs Courtyard by Marriott, call 816-228-8100 and mention you are with OOIDA or use this link to receive the discounted corporate rate.