Owner-Operator Guides
Guides
Plain-English writing for working drivers. No fluff, no promises — just the stuff I wish somebody had handed me when I started running my own numbers.
Free tool — no signup
Work out your surcharge per mile and per load in about ten seconds. Enter the diesel average, your peg and your assumed MPG. Nothing is stored and there is no account.
Fuel Surcharge Calculator →What To Say
A HaulProof Pocket Guide
Ready-to-send messages for the moments that eat your time. Fill in the brackets and send.
What To Say When the Paperwork Doesn't Match
Wrong count, a broken seal, damage found on the dock, a BOL that says something different than the rate con. Nine messages for writing it down before you sign it.
What To Say When You're Sitting at a Dock
Six messages that put the clock on the record — arrival, the free-time heads-up, hourly updates, and getting dispatch to confirm your times in writing.
What To Say When You're Running Late
Traffic, weather, a shipper who held you up, out of hours. Tell them when you know, not when you’re late.
What To Say When You Break Down
Location and safety first, then the problem, the load impact, and the service timeline. Written for a man standing on a shoulder.
How To File a Detention Claim
What happens once the free time runs out — getting the facility to write your times down, escalating when dispatch goes quiet, the end-of-day recap, and the follow-up when detention never hits the settlement.
What To Say When a Settlement Comes Up Short
Ten messages for a short-paid settlement — missing detention, a linehaul that does not match the rate con, short miles, deductions you do not recognize, and the follow-ups when nobody replies.
The whole set
The guides above are a sample. What To Say, a HaulProof Pocket Guide, is the full set: 82 ready-to-send messages across seven parts, plus three printable pages for the truck. $19 on its own, or free with a HaulProof subscription.
Running the business
What Does Freight Factoring Actually Cost?
The advance is not the fee and the reserve is not a charge — plus what non-recourse quietly excludes, the fees outside the headline rate, and the recording mistake that hides the whole thing from your cost per mile.
Owner-Operator Expenses: The Full List
Fixed, variable, and the settlement deductions you never wrote a check for — plus the fuel double-count that makes your books look worse than they are.
How to Do Bookkeeping for a Trucking Company
The four things to capture every week, why a settlement is a document and not a deposit, and what your accountant actually wants in January instead of a shoebox.
How Do Owner-Operators Pay Taxes?
Self-employment tax, the four quarterly dates, the full deduction list, the 2290 and IFTA calendar, and the six mistakes that cost the most.
How to Calculate a Fuel Surcharge
One line of arithmetic with three negotiable numbers in it — the peg, the DOE average and the assumed MPG — plus the six ways a surcharge quietly comes up short.
How to Read a Truck Driver Settlement Sheet, Line by Line
Linehaul, fuel surcharge, detention, and every deduction — plus the three places owner-operators most often get shorted.
How to Calculate Your Cost Per Mile
You can quote what a load pays per mile in two seconds. This is the other number — fixed costs, variable costs, and the road spending nobody logs, worked all the way through.
IFTA for Owner-Operators
What the quarterly return actually is, which records decide it, and the handful of gaps that turn a filing into an excavation three months later.
How Detention Pay Works
Free time, when the clock starts, and exactly what to write down while you are sitting — so the times are on the record instead of in your memory.
What Should a Dispatch Fee Actually Be?
Percentage of gross or percentage of line haul — one word in the agreement, and about $4,800 a year between them. How to check the deduction against the rate you agreed.
What Is Escrow — And When Do You Get It Back?
What your lease has to say about escrow under the federal Truth-in-Leasing rules, why every deduction has to be described, the interest nobody claims, and the 45-day deadline when you leave.
The Accessorials You're Owed and Never Billed
Detention, layover, TONU, added stops, driver assist, tarping. Not short-paid — never claimed at all, because by settlement day nobody remembers which load it was.
I Paid For Repairs To The Company Truck — Do I Get It Back?
How reimbursement actually works, why the old unreimbursed-expense write-off no longer exists for W-2 drivers, what an accountable plan is, and the federal limits on taking repair costs out of a paycheck.
How Long Do You Keep Trucking Receipts?
Six years for the money, four for IFTA, six months for the logs, and forever for the truck file — plus why thermal fuel receipts fade to a grey rectangle long before the rules say you can throw them out.
Is Truck Stop WiFi Safe?
What actually happens on an open network, and the handful of habits worth having before you log into anything that matters.
General education for owner-operators and company drivers — not legal, tax, or financial advice. Built by a driver, for drivers.