Welcome & how to use this course
The order of operations, the tools you'll use daily, and the one mindset shift that keeps most new carriers from quitting in month three.
Welcome
This is the exact system I used to go from one used 26' box truck bought off Facebook Marketplace to a 6-truck fleet running Amazon Relay lanes, dedicated hospital courier work, and DAT spot loads.
I'm not going to sell you the "$40,000/month box truck" dream. That number is the top 5% of the top 5%, and every one of those operators is running 2+ trucks with dedicated contract freight. What I will teach you is how to build a business that clears $8,000–$14,000/month net on a single truck within your first 90 days — the range where this actually replaces a W-2.
How this course is ordered
The modules are sequential for a reason. Do not skip ahead to "Freight sources" before you have MC authority — you will just get demoralized watching loads you can't book and reaching out to brokers who will ghost you the second they check your Carrier411.
- 1Foundations — the model, the numbers, honest expectations.
- 2Legal setup — LLC, EIN, MC/DOT, BOC-3, UCR, drug consortium.
- 3The truck — buy vs lease, spec sheet, PPI, PM schedule.
- 4Insurance — the single biggest killer of new carriers.
- 5Freight sources — Relay, brokers, boards, direct shippers.
- 6Rate math — the only formula that matters.
- 7Operations — dispatch, ELD, IFTA, HOS, factoring.
- 8Scaling — when to add a second truck, hiring, becoming the manager.
How to consume this
- Watch/read each lesson once end-to-end before you take any action. A lot of new carriers try to file MC authority in lesson 4 without understanding the compliance calendar in lesson 6, then miss a filing and get revoked.
- Do the action items at the end of each lesson. They're the shortest path to a functioning business. Skip them and you're just consuming content.
- Use the calculators in the Tools section. Cost-per-mile isn't a concept — it's a number you should be able to recite for your specific truck.
Tools you'll use every day
You don't need much. Here's the actual stack I run six trucks on:
| Category | Tool | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Formation | Northwest Registered Agent | $39 + state fee |
| Filings | FMCSA URS | $300 one-time MC |
| Load board | DAT One Pro | $195/mo |
| ELD | Motive (formerly KeepTruckin) | $25/truck/mo |
| Accounting | QuickBooks Simple Start | $30/mo |
| Factoring | RTS or TAFS | 2–3% of gross |
| Fuel card | RTS Fuel or Comdata | Free w/ factoring |
| Route/fuel | ProMiles or Trucker Path Pro | $19/mo |
That's a full operating stack for about $300–$400/month of software and services. Anything else you see marketed to new carriers is optional or a scam.
The one mindset shift
New carriers quit because they optimize for the load instead of the lane. You can't control what a specific broker pays on Tuesday. You can control which lanes you run, what your cost per mile is, and how quickly you can turn a truck around.
What's next
Head to The business model — the 15-minute lesson that shows you exactly where the money comes from, and where it leaks out.