Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/818577
32 | Overdrive | May 2017 Owner-Operator of the Year owners previously, we liked running our own business," he says. "We spent probably six to nine months doing re- search on Landstar and what kind of truck to buy." After talking with me- chanics, Buchs deduced that Freightliner Century Class trucks with Detroit Diesel engines were known for low maintenance. They also had a good turning radius that would suit some of the urban work he expected to do. In 2003, the couple bought a 2000 model Century with a Detroit Series 60, with just under 300,000 miles, for $48,000. He initially thought he would trade it after six years, but he realized that me- ticulous maintenance kept it running well, so he kept it. It's now topped 1.5 million miles. Buchs applies that same fo- cus on effi ciency to evaluating loads, based on his goals for the year. "For every dollar I spend, I need $2 in gross income," Buchs says. "If it pays $1,000, I want to be out no more than $500." Using that ratio, he planned to work 200 days in 2016 and clear $300 a day. That would yield $60,000 before taxes, which is the goal he's met in recent years. Since he's been driving about 70,000 miles a year in recent years, that gives him an average of 86 cents per mile of net income, though it's skewed higher in part due to the occasional off -Broadway play hauls that are low mileage, high pay. Still, his earnings are well ahead of the 52 cents per mile that average dry van clients of business services provider ATBS logged in 2016. Buchs uses his 2:1 gross-to-expenses ratio "to evaluate the loads I want to haul. The limiting asset is time. I evaluate every 24-hour per diem day, and the goal is $300." Last year, he averaged 0.7 loads for each per diem day. "I had 224.25 per diem days," Buchs says. Because his system stip- ulates the number of work days for the year, it also helps with the mental stress of turning down good loads in favor of taking time off , which can be a tough choice for any self-employed person. "By doing that ahead of time, I've given myself per- mission to stay at home to do honey-do projects, or work in the garden, or missions work, or just cut the grass," he says. The plan has enabled Buchs to be home two days out of most weeks. "I tend not to work a lot of weekends," he says. For that fl exibility to shape his schedule, he credits Land- star's self-dispatch system. "It gives us that freedom to do with our free time as we wish," he says. "It's energizing." Gary Buchs addressed hun- dreds of fl eet executives at the Truckload Carriers Association annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee, after he was named 2016 Owner-Operator of the Year by TCA and Overdrive. He won $25,000 with the award, sponsored by Cummins and Love's Travel Stops. The two other fi nalists, Philip Keith, leased to WEL Companies, and Kevin Kocmich, leased to Dia- mond Transportation System, each won $2,500. In a video interview with Buchs, shown at the TCA banquet, he describes a leave of absence from trucking for doing "the hardest job I've ever had in my life." View the video at the OverdriveMag Videos youtube channel under the Featured Truckers playlist. MAIN ATTRACTIONS: GOOD PAY, LOW MILES, NO-TOUCH FREIGHT Compared to regular over- the-road mileage-pay hauls, there's no business like show business for Gary Buchs. "I usually clear anywhere from $600 to $800 on one load," he says of moving off-Broadway shows. That compares with his typical $300 net with a typical load over 24 hours or less. Those fi gures account for all of the differences that are part of hauling the shows, including often low miles and fuel, deadhead to pickup and deadhead home. Buchs usually does one or two each month. For a typical job, he leaves home on a Sunday afternoon or evening and loads a play after its closing that night. After unloading in another city, he returns home. The good pay is based on high levels of service – being extremely punctual, securing the freight well, staying in close communications and maintaining reliable equip- ment – though loading or unloading is left to special crews. "You really have to put yourself out there and provide them with all the service they demand without question," Buchs says. "There are so many moving parts to that business and so many other people involved, the last thing you want to do is to become a distraction." Living in central Illinois, Buchs is able to haul shows between cities such as Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit and Louisville, Kentucky. 'THE HARDEST JOB' Even as a boy, Buchs was concerned about highway safety. In this instance, he was about to teach his 4-H club about slow-moving vehicles.