Okay, guys, we are down to the meat and potatoes and coming around to the home stretch of things. How to start your own dispatching company. That's what all the fuss, all the noise is about. How to start your own legitimate business. So we're going to discuss this in module sixteen. You might want to pay close attention. you need to figure out under what type of structure you're going to run that business. Okay. And so with dispatching companies, There's primarily gonna be two. There's not a lot of big dispatching companies, so I don't think that many would go under a corporation structure. I'm not saying that there aren't companies like that, but I think for the purpose of this video, especially with you all starting out, you will most likely set up under one of the two structures I have listed here, which is sole proprietor or an LLC. OK, so I'm not going to dive too deep into this, but I do kind of want you to understand the difference in the benefits of having one versus the other. OK, so we'll talk about a sole proprietor first. If you operate as a sole proprietor, that means that you are a standalone business. There is only you. You are the only person in that company. OK, so no one else. You have no other members of your company. no, you know, nothing. It's just you, you are the standalone person and you run your company. Okay. So proprietor. So, excuse me, the cost of being a sole proprietor is absolutely nothing. It does not cost any money upfront to create that structure. Um, So if you wanted to operate under that type of structure, you could just dive right into it. Sole proprietors, when it comes to things like taxes, and again, I'm not going to go too deep into this, but sole proprietors, when it comes time, excuse me, for you to report your earnings and you operate as a sole proprietor, your social security number would be used as your Identification number Okay, when it comes to that when it comes to the irs and taxes things like that if you operate under anything else. Other than the sole proprietor you would need what's called an ei in an employer identification number, which is very easy to get um but again. back to sole proprietors, because you're a standalone business, you can operate under your social security number strictly for tax purposes, okay? It's not like you have to give somebody your social security number. That's just for when you're filing your taxes. But anyway, So I'm going to leave it there. When it comes to a sole proprietor, that's what you're operating as, a standalone structure. It does not cost you anything to set up as a sole proprietor. And yeah, that's what it is. Now, the benefits of that or I'm going to say the disadvantage of that, honestly, is that in the event that you are ever sued, okay, if somebody decides that one of your carriers feel like you screwed them over out of some money, whatever the case may be, and they decide to sue you, well, the disadvantage of operating as a sole proprietor is that this person person suing you, this carrier, whoever the case is that's suing you, has the ability to come after your personal belongings, okay? There's nothing to protect you. There's no business structure set up to protect you because you're operating as a standalone individual. So You know, whatever you've got in the bank, any type of savings, four or one case or anything like that, that's all up for grabs if you operate under as a sole proprietor. OK, that's the only disadvantage. So those are just things that you may want to think about. You can also always Google, you know, sole proprietor and get additional information about that. the advantages and disadvantages of that. So those are just things to keep in mind. Operating as an LLC, limited liability corporation, it provides you with protection. In the event that someone tries to sue you, they can't come after you personally, they can come after your company. So whatever your company is worth, That's, that's, that's what they have the ability to come after. But as far as anything that your personal earnings or your personal savings or your personal values, valuables like your home, your car, all those things are off the table. So, you know, if you've got your dispatch company up and going and right now your company is only worth about a thousand dollars or whatever, you know, then that's what they that's what's on the table. But I would much rather have that on the table than my house, my car, my kids and everything else. else out there, if that makes sense. So an LLC or liability limited corporation just provides you with protection. Okay. If you decide to create an LLC, they cost about three hundred dollars. At least I know they do in the state of Texas. I'm not sure of the cost for other states. But if I think if I'm thinking correctly, I think it's three hundred dollars, no matter what state you reside in in the United States. And you would just need to Google, um, You know, depending on your state and in the state of Texas that is set up through the Secretary of the State's website. But you may Google Secretary of the State in whatever state you're in and then type, you know, create LLC to find out where you would need to go to do that. But again, that does cost up front. It's three hundred dollars, but a three hundred dollars very well worth investing in because it's going to provide you protection from the gate. OK, and another thing you would need with an LLC is an EIN, Employer Identification Number. Those are issued through the Internal Revenue of Service. If you just type in a Google EIN number, you will see the Internal Revenue site pop up and you can And into that site and get your employer identification number. It's free of charge. And that's that's how you start the ball rolling for your LLC. OK, I'm trying to think of anything else I can tell you. And then, of course, with the benefits of them. there's a lot of tax write-off benefits when you create an LLC as well, okay? I'm not an accountant, I'm not a CPC, so I can't, I'm not gonna really go into any of those benefits because I'll be honest, I wouldn't really know what I'm talking about. So you definitely wanna reach out to a CPC when it comes time to file your taxes, but there are a lot of tax write-off benefits when you do have an LLC versus operating as a sole proprietor, okay? So that's just a little information. I want you to have some things to consider when you decide what structure you want to set up for your dispatch company. The next thing we'll talk about is determining what services you want to provide. This is something you need to think about up front. We talked about this a little bit earlier in one of the previous chapters as well. Do you want to strictly provide dispatch only, you know, which consists of you finding loads only? That's it. You know, you go out there, you get on the load board, you find the load, tell the driver, hey, does D like this? Does it work for you? Driver says, yeah, go ahead and book me on that. You get the load, send the driver over the rate confirmation and you're done. Okay, that's what dispatch only services are. And then you have extended dispatch services or dispatch and back end support, which could consist of a lot of things, you know, like booking loads. You also have invoicing. We discussed that. collecting payments okay because again if you're this this carriers or this uh drivers back in support you're responsible for all these things the literally the only thing he does is drive you take care of everything else okay so once you submit an invoice you're responsible for um You know that every thirty to forty five days, if that person, unless they have a factoring company, you know, every thirty to forty five days, if that shipper or broker hasn't paid, you need to be calling saying, hey, where's our payment? You know, this and that. So you're responsible for all that. Also responsible for making appointments for the driver. So let's say you have a rate confirmation and it says that. you need to schedule an appointment to deliver to the receiver or even to pick up from the shipper, okay? Sometimes you are the driver are responsible for doing that sometimes. So that's something else that you may have to do as a part of back-end support. Filling out carrier packets, okay? This is something that I did not talk about and I am going to Make one additional video after this one to break down. What carrier packets are I'll be honest That's something I should have covered earlier in this course, but I will put it at the end of this course So that you guys are familiar with with What those are okay, so again filling out carrier packets that can take time You know or feel I'm sorry filling out broker packets. Okay? filling out broker packets If you have never taken a load from a particular broker, that broker is going to ask you to fill out a broker packet. That packet can include a contract between you, the carrier, and the broker that says these are the terms and conditions. So you're responsible for reading over that, signing it, also filling out additional things. You'll be responsible for getting information over to them like, the carrier's W-Nine, their insurance, their authority. And those are all things that are in the carrier packet, okay? You have a carrier packet and a broker packet. But we will touch on those in the next chapter so that you understand the difference, okay? And also sending out BOLs, okay? Once the load is delivered, driver sends you to BOL, you send it to whoever it needs to go to, whether it's the broker or the shipper or the factoring company, okay? Okay, that's all a part of back end support. And then obviously the factoring services, you know, working with the factoring company to get that driver paid immediately is stuff that you may have to do or you would do if you are back in support for that driver. So As you can see, that's a lot compared to simply just finding loads. So you need to determine, as a part of your dispatch company and the services you provide, do you want to simply find loads or do you want to do it all? Maybe you want to provide both services. Maybe you want to give them an option for dispatch only and then an option for dispatch and back-end support. Just things that you need to think about. next you need to determine the cost for your services okay and again that's going to depend on the level of services you provide you know whether you just dispatch or if you do everything else on the back end but you need to set up you know determine what you want to charge for those services uh there's normally two methods that dispatch companies offer um one of the well not each dispatch company offers both of these it's either or most of the time or sometimes they do give the option for both But either way, percentage for each load, okay? That amount is usually between five and ten percent. So a dispatch company on average, I'm gonna say if they're charging per load on average, you're gonna be looking at maybe a dispatch company charging about eight percent for each load, okay? About eight percent is what they would charge. OK, sometimes lower, sometimes higher. But that's a pretty good average is eight percent. If it's a flat rate per week, it really just varies. I've seen some dispatch companies charge fifty dollars a week. I've seen some charge up to three hundred dollars per week. You know, it just really again, that depends on what level of service you're providing, you know. If you're just simply dispatching, I mean, not dispatching, booking loads for the driver, then that might be seventy five to one hundred dollars a week or something, you know. But if you're doing it all, you know, all that stuff that we just discussed, then definitely they need to be charged around two fifty to three hundred a week for that, because that's a lot of work. Right. Right. So let's talk about marketing strategies, okay? Because once you get your business up and running, the second thing you're going to need to do is find some trucks to dispatch, right? So you need to have your business visible and you need to make it visible so people can be aware of it. And then you also need to be soliciting to new carriers. So a part of that and branding your business is going to be to have a very good website. You want to ensure you have a company website for all potential carriers to view. You know, if you're having to be out and about and you meet somebody, you might want to have some business cards, have your website information on it. You just want to look very professional. Last thing you want to do is, you know, somebody asks you, oh, well, do you have a website so I can see what services you offer? And you say, no, you know, that's not a good look. So I, like GoDaddy. I like to use GoDaddy. They're pretty affordable and they have a lot of great features for people that have little to no experience creating websites like me. So it's a really good company to use, GoDaddy. And then there's also Wix. Last time I checked, Wix was a free website provider. You can create a website on there for free or not for free to little to no cost. Okay. So those are the two recommendations I have. Of course, you're free to research and, uh, find your own website provider, but those are just two, um, two recommendations. Okay. Social media. Next thing we're going to talk about is very important for visibility. We're in guys, you know, social media is the new, um, the new Fox Four News or CNN or MSNBC, you know, for a lot of people anyway, that's where we get our news from. That's where we get a lot of advertisements from. So it's very important to make yourself visible on social media. The two biggest platforms I would recommend for trucking is probably gonna be obviously Facebook. and Instagram. You want to make sure you have a Facebook page and you want to have your brand up there, your logos, all that. Make sure it looks nice. Have your contact information up there. And then have some people leave you some good reviews. Have people, have carriers leave you good reviews so that people can see you're a legit business and you're good at what you do. Instagram would be another one for advertising purposes. I would just create a business account every once in a while, throw an ad, throw a little post out there and put a hashtag by it. Some things I would hashtag are truckers, dispatching services, dispatcher, transportation, just anything relating to dispatching and transportation. Make sure you get your hashtags out there. And then the third thing would be solicitation. This is where you roll up your sleeves and you get to putting on your cold calling hat and you start calling new carriers saying, hey, my name is so-and-so with this and this company. And I wanted to see if you'd be interested in our dispatch services, okay? It kind of sucks. Nobody really likes to do that, but that's what you have to do sometimes when you're getting started in this industry, you know? And so the way to do that, the best resource would be the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for that. Now, you guys are going to love me for this, okay? We're going to time out really quick, and I am going to take you to the FMCSA website. Okay, it's right here, and I am going to... I am going to bookmark this and put it in the training so that you know how to get over here. But this site is gold when you are looking for new carriers that have just received their authority, okay? While I'm here, let's talk about authorities. Or you know what? Maybe I'll save that for the carrier packet. I'll save it for the carrier packet. Well, no, I better talk about it here because it's important to know. Okay. So look, authorities. So basically authority is what is issued by DOT, which is also known as the Department of Transportation. Okay. They are the ones that issue out authorities. They issue out MC numbers. They issue out DOT numbers. Okay. Let's kind of talk about those just a little bit, and then we'll get back into what we're talking about. DOT numbers and MC numbers are kind of one in the same, but not really. There are two different identification numbers that are issued to each individual carrier. And for the most part, all it is is an identification number, okay? It's kind of like an EIN number. lawyer identification number for the IRS. You know, that's how the IRS identifies your specific businesses by your EIN number. So an MC number and DOT number is how the Department of Transportation identifies you as a carrier. Okay. or even as a broker. If you're a brokerage, you will have an MC number as well, okay? The Department of Transportation has to keep up with all of us and what we're doing. So we all have our own identification number. Now, as a dispatcher, you do not need a MC or DOT number, okay? You do not need that. And that's a great thing because it does cost money. I think it costs about three hundred dollars. um sorry about that okay so Um, let's see. So that's what a DOT and MC number is. It's just the identification number. Okay. And then your authority, when you have your authority, that's just basically your certification that says you are an active carrier with the Department of Transportation. That means that you have everything in place. You have your insurance, you know, all that stuff. You're an active carrier. under the Department of Transportation, which you have to be when you're in this industry. So that's what your authority is. Your authority gives you the right to transport freight, okay? So that's kind of all I wanted to touch on, just some important terminologies for you to know. But again, you do not need an authority. That is for carriers, okay? When you're soliciting these carriers, especially the, the newer ones, you need to make sure that, you know, they have their authority, their authority is active, their insurance is active, all that stuff. Okay. Not that anything would ever fall back on you. It would fall under them because this stuff is under their name. But you just don't want to, you know, do anything to potentially damage your reputation by getting caught up with some, bad carriers okay so anyway let's go on to what I wanted to show you so here this is the federal motor carrier safety administration okay you want to click right here on the drop down and you're going to click fmcsa register okay and then click go right here okay and then you're going to have these reports for whatever month you're in I'll click on the most recent one here This is a report of newly registered carriers that have just been approved, okay, for their authorities in their MC numbers, okay? These are new, let me see, if the carrier does not comply with FMCSA's insurance requirements after three days of final decision revoking, the operating authority will be issued okay yeah so again these are new carriers and you can tell you can see here decided date today is twelve twenty seven twelve twenty one all these carriers got their authority look at all these leads look at all these people that you can call okay and then we go on down to twelve eight but but this is this is good stuff okay and then you also have the option to download it and you know do whatever you need to do But this is all good stuff. And then what you'll do, because I know you're probably like, well, Kim, how do I go about contacting them? How do I find their number? What you're going to do is highlight their MC number, and then you'll come over here to the Safer website. I'm going to have this link attached in the course as well. Make sure that it's on, here's the USDOT number, here's the MC. Make sure it's on MC number. You'll paste their MC number in right there, and they should come up, okay? Let's see, legal name, MOB Transportation. And you'll see here, MOB Transportation. They're in Reading, Pennsylvania. Reading, Pennsylvania, okay? And it does show you they're active. They're authorized for hire here. And here is their phone number, okay? So, and it'll tell you everything they're authorized to haul, general freight, household goods, motor vehicles, building materials, all types of stuff, okay? So, and it shows you how many units they have. They're a standalone company. So this is probably just a one-man show, a guy that has a truck and, you know, got his authority and he's ready to roll. But chances are he may not have a dispatcher, you know, or he may not, may not know how to find loads you know he may need your services so this is a great person a great lead to call and say hey there um it doesn't give his name Doesn't tell the name, but you would just say, hi, is this MOB Transportation LLC? They're going to say, yes, it is. You introduce yourself. Hi, my name is Kimberly. I'm with so-and-so dispatch services. And I see you just got your new authority. I see you just recently received your authority. Congratulations on that. And you can look here and confirm that. You see the form date is twelve seventeen. OK, just so that you know, these are new drivers. OK, um. say again, say, I see you just got your authority. I wanted to congratulate you on that and see what type of plans you had for finding loads. Okay. And they'll tell you, oh, well, you know, I'm going to kind of wing it or I don't know yet or whatever they say. And if they give you an answer that gives you a open door to offer your services, then go for it. Say, well, yeah, okay, well, I'm a dispatch service company and I'm You know, we offer this, this, this, and I'd like to send you some information on our services and see if I could follow up with you in a few days to see if we might be able to assist you. Something like that. Okay. So this is butter. This is gold. Okay. This is butter, baby. Okay. Dr. Tiffany Taft- yeah the FMCSA this is definitely definitely and you can click on all these different reports Okay, I don't know how how many. Dr. Tiffany Taft- How many are in each report but there's at least a couple hundred or so I would think so, this is definitely where you want to go when you need leads for new carriers to call that have just received their authority okay. this is the perfect lead for you as a dispatcher to offer your services so with that we will go back into the slide and so yeah we talked about all this now startup dispatcher necessities this kind of goes without saying, but you know, just in case I need to put it out there, you guys have paid for it. So let us, let us just go over everything. Um, uh, let's see here. Uh, what do I need to get started? So I think it goes without saying again, but obviously you are going to need a computer and, or a laptop. I would say preferably, uh, laptop just so that you can be mobile if you need to that's what I use and sorry guys that's what I use is a laptop okay next thing you need is a landline and or a cell phone and it's really great to have both if you can have both get both Because what you don't want to do is try to operate from your personal phone, your personal cell phone, and you have somebody like a shipper calling you or even a broker calling you, you know, someone of profession and you answer the phone. crazy you know you just that doesn't look good you know or you got music playing on your phone when you pick it up and it's just something that's not professional okay you're a professional company you want to maintain a professional look at all times so it's just better to have a landline or a cell phone that is separate from your personal landline or cell phone okay Obviously, you need internet so that you can operate your computer or laptop. And last but not least, you will need a printer. If you can get an all-in-one, like a printer, copy, or scanner, in fact, that's even better. But at bare minimum, you definitely need to have a printer, okay? So that you can print rate confirmations or whatever else it is that you need to print. you need a printer. Okay. So, but that's pretty much it guys. This was another short chapter, but this is pretty much the things you need to know. You need to consider when you're setting up your, your structure for your dispatch company. Okay. And so here we will go ahead and close out and I will see you in the next video. Okay, guys, I hope this gives you a good oversight into this module. That was a lot of information to take in on how to start your own dispatching service, which is the whole bottom line of why you're doing this. You actually have a unique opportunity to start your business through our business, it is a very difficult thing to get into the dispatching service industry and be successful. It's not difficult to get into the industry, but what they don't tell you is the difficulties that you'll face while you're trying to build your business. You have to recruit shippers. That's a very difficult thing. You have to develop your book of business. That means code calling, direct shippers by way of phone, by personal contact. You have to get past gatekeepers. So they leave that portion out. And that is the tooth pulling, painstaking part of breaking into the dispatching industry. Well, we've done all the hard work for you. We've made the connections. We've made the contacts. So now... We are able to bring you this information without you having to go through the bumps and bruises that we had to go through when we tried to start our dispatching company. It's a very lucrative industry. The transportation industry is a multibillion dollar industry that is recession proof. That means it is not going out of business. Everything you have in your home, everything you have in your business has been brought by way of some means and some mode of transportation. So you're in the right industry. It's just finding your niche, finding the right network. And I am of the firm opinion that you have taken the first steps in doing that. So that will complete this module. And we will move on to our next subject.