Straight answer
What actually changes
Leasing on means someone else carries the authority, the insurance, the compliance burden and the customer relationships, and takes a percentage for it. Your own authority means you carry all of that and keep the percentage. Everything else in this decision follows from that one trade.
The gross revenue difference is real and often large. So is the cost, the risk and the amount of work that isn't driving.
Side by side
The comparison
| Leased on | Own authority | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | Percentage of load or set cents per mile | 100% of the linehaul |
| Insurance | Carrier's policy, deducted | Yours — roughly $8,000–$25,000 in year one |
| Startup cost | Low. Often just the truck | Roughly $8,000–$17,000 to first legal load |
| Compliance | Carrier's problem | Yours. DQ files, drug programme, audits, IFTA |
| Finding freight | Dispatched to you | Yours — load boards, brokers, or a dispatcher |
| Cash flow | Settlement, usually weekly | 30+ days from brokers, or factoring at a discount |
| Liability | Largely the carrier's | Yours |
| Control | Limited. Their lanes, their customers | Complete. Your lanes, your rates, your no |
The decision
Three questions that settle it
- 1. Do you have a cash buffer? Your first invoice pays in 30 days or more while fuel, the truck payment and insurance keep running. Without a month of operating capital or factoring arranged in advance, you'll take bad loads out of desperation in month one and spend the year recovering the rate. This is the single most common reason new authorities fail.
- 2. Will you actually do the admin? Not "could you" — will you. DQ files, drug programme, IFTA quarterly, UCR renewal, invoice packets, detention claims. It's several hours a week, every week, and it doesn't feel like work so it gets postponed. Then the audit letter arrives.
- 3. How many verifiable years do you have? Insurance prices on your record. New authorities with limited experience pay the most, and some brokers won't set you up for the first three to six months regardless. That's a real revenue gap in year one.
Our honest position
We make money when you have your own authority, so read this knowing that. If you're leased on, earning steadily, with no cash buffer and no appetite for paperwork, staying leased on is often the better decision for another year. Get the buffer, get the experience, then move. We'd rather tell you that than take a signup from a carrier who folds in month four.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Is it better to have your own authority or lease on?
It depends on cash reserves, appetite for administration and verifiable experience. Own authority means keeping 100% of the linehaul but carrying insurance, compliance, liability and 30-day payment terms. Leasing on means a lower share but weekly settlements and someone else handling the burden. Neither is universally right.
How much more do you make with your own authority?
You keep the full linehaul instead of a percentage, which looks dramatic on paper. Subtract insurance, compliance costs, dispatch or your own booking time, factoring fees if you use them, and the weaker rates a new authority gets for its first few months. The real gain is meaningful but a lot smaller than the gross figures suggest, and it takes time to show up.
How long should I drive before getting my own authority?
There's no rule, but insurance prices heavily on verifiable experience and some brokers apply minimum carrier-age requirements regardless. More experience means cheaper insurance and easier broker setup. The more useful question is whether you have a cash buffer, because that's what actually decides who survives year one.
Rather have someone else handle this?
This is what we do every day for carriers. Dispatch from 6% of gross or $300 a week, no contracts, first week free.