Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/778830
Voices 12 | Overdrive | February 2017 Most Overdrive readers had not heard of Joshua Giesbrecht until he won the magazine's 2013 Most Loved Pets competition with the video he submit- ted of him and his rideal- ong dog, Diesel. But long prior to that, Giesbrecht began reaching video-lov- ing truckers. After five years, more than 64,000 subscribers now follow the Canadian's exploits via his popular YouTube video blog, "Trucker Josh and Diesel." Giesbrecht says the demands of producing a daily video are worth it for the "feedback, touching people's lives I couldn't otherwise," he says. "I have people watching me from around the world." He says 92 percent of his audience is male. Comments from the other 8 percent show that a lot of female viewers are particularly keen on Diesel, who appears in most of his 1,500 episodes. Though Giesbrecht is 28, he's already been driv- ing for 10 years. When he turned 21, he was able to start driving in the United States. While he's based in Manitoba, he logs most of his miles in the states, pull- ing a dry van as a company driver. In addition to humorous monologues with himself and Diesel, Giesbrecht of- ten mixes in real-time and time-lapse highway shots backed by rock music. "Music brings in emo- tion. When they finish the blog, they may not remem- ber everything I said, but they remember the way it made them feel." – Max Heine Travels with Diesel – the four-legged kind Optimistic, that is, com- pared to last year, which saw continuing profitabil- ity issues as slower freight plagued the first half or more of the year. So we can take the optimism ex- pressed in poll results with a grain of road salt. That was the point of view of those who com- mented on the question posed by the poll. Tom Puckett, on Overdrive's Facebook page, was nothing if not curmudgeonly on the prospects for improvement, as he was this time last year: "Rates will remain in the sewer, believe it!" he said. Richard Elliott said that there are simply too many trucks and too little freight available. But the relatively strong spot market for vans and reefers through the Christ- mas freight season, paired with a general uptick in a variety of economic indica- tors through the latter part of the year, told a different story. For the first time in the three years we've been run- ning this poll, a majority of respondents held a positive outlook for the year ahead. Income figures from ATBS clients, including in- dependents, for three quar- ters of the way through the year were on track to match overall income averages from 2015. Independents with their own authority were on par with the overall annual- ized average net income ($61,160) at that point in the year, showing an annualized business income after expenses of just shy of $61K, based on averages through September. A much smaller share of respondents to last year's edition of the poll above (27.5 percent) expected 2016 to be better than 2015. But for some owner-operators, if trends shown in ATBS' income numbers are any indication, combined with the modestly improving rate scenario we've seen in the last quarter, annual income numbers might be holding a surprise. Owner-operator 2017 outlook: Optimistic How do you expect your business to trend in 2017? Not sure, time will tell 21% Worse than 2016 11% About the same 15% Better than 2016 53% OverdriveOnline.com poll Like most trucking video bloggers or vloggers, with "Trucker Josh and Diesel," Joshua Giesbrecht focuses on his job but also works in other topics, such as recent entries "Gaming with Josh #1" (about a European trucking simulation video game) and "Walmart Halloween party." For sam- ples from Giesbrecht and other trucking vloggers, visit Overdrive's video blog playlist via Youtube.com/overdrivemag. If you keep a vlog yourself and would like us to consider adding a sample to the playlist, email Todd Dills at tdills@randallreilly.com. Shippers, brokers and carriers also share a bullish outlook for this year. See page 26.