Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/709236
46 | Overdrive | August 2016 The trailer payoff Keeping more revenue vs. drop-and-hook limitations BY MATT COLE M any fleets pay more to drivers with their own trailers, but it can be tricky to determine if that premium is worth the added costs of ownership. New dry vans cost about $30,000, and maintenance costs, primar- ily for tires and brakes, often average at least $1,500 a year. Mercer Transportation bobtail-only owners currently make 66 percent of each load, while drivers with their own trailers make 75 percent, says Raffique Providence, a recruiter for the Louisville, Ky.-based all-owner-operator fleet. Birmingham, Ala.-based Blair Logis- tics, which hauls flatbed freight, offers 77 percent of line haul revenue to drivers with their own trailers, and 70 percent for those that pull a Blair trailer. To assess the value of bringing your own trailer into a lease arrangement, add the expected revenue with a trailer and subtract the estimated associated costs, says Richard DeForest, vice president of fleet sales for ATBS, the nation's largest financial services provider for owner- operators. Then compare that number to the expected revenue without a trailer. Even if that spread seems promising, consider how using your own trailer will affect your freight arrangements. As long as a leased owner-operator The premium from bringing your own trailer into a lease arrangement has to be weighed against how using it will affect your freight availability. Max Heine