Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/791967
VOICES 10 | Overdrive | March 2017 What's the best thing about Oklaho- ma-based John Moore's operation? The variety. "Sometimes I'm in the middle of a fi eld loading up from a combine," says Moore, who hauls diff erent dry bulk materials for Little Rock, Arkansas-based Oakley Transpor- tation. "That's a lot diff erent than bumping a dock and hauling widgets for ACME company." Until last year, he'd been leased to Landstar. His decision to return to dry bulk with Oakley, where he'd been leased previously, had as much to do with where home was as profi tability. In this case, the two went hand in hand. Moore lives in Lawton, Okla- homa, close to Fort Sill, where he serves in the Army Reserves as a staff sergeant and is called in regu- larly for drills. Following the money under Landstar's self-dispatch system, Moore says he'd be "gone for a month at a time, working Illi- nois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee" and elsewhere. "My wife got tired of me saying, 'I'll see you in a month,' " he says. Back with Oakley, "I'm home every weekend now," and the freight is steady. Moore is dispatched out of Oak- ley's river port operation in Catoosa, Oklahoma, where he frequently delivers grain and other commodi- ties and loads out with fertilizer that arrives on barges. He chose to haul with a hopper for the simplicity. Other options for Oak- ley owner-operators include dry bulk tank and end dump, both requiring an investment in specialized equip- ment for loading but coming with a boost in the mileage pay off ered to operators, Moore says. "Hoppers are at the low end of the pay," and Moore's at $1.12 per mile plus fuel surcharge. He also enjoys Oakley's longevity-based pay boosts and annual bonus for loaded miles. — Todd Dills Turning a grain field into a dock Owner-operator John Moore and his 2007 Freightliner Century Class (Detroit Series 60, 10 speed, 60-inch sleeper) and hopper trailer. He bought the truck, paid off as of December, after its first life with P.A.M. Transportation. Courtesy of John Moore Mention raising fuel tax: Everyone goes into orbit. Don't raise fuel taxes. We'll go broke! Mention raising speed limit to 80: Everybody's on board for that – getting bad fuel mileage, using more fuel, therefore paying more fuel tax. — John Taylor, via Facebook, commenting on news of discussion in the North Dakota Legislature about raising the state's top speed limit to 80 mph, 5 mph above the top speed rating of most commercial truck tires. Don't they call that irony?