Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/873209
VOICES 8 | Overdrive | September 2017 Antidote to chasing rates | The most common answer to the poll question at left might best represent the situation for Landstar-leased owner-operator Keith Sampson, in a team with his wife of decades, Vickie. After years of aiming for high rates and high miles, over the last decade and more he's shifted his thinking. His example is clear evidence that keeping your eye out for dedicated freight opportunities can deliver the best of both worlds without sacrifi cing your home life in the process. The dedicated single-customer run the team has been on for more than a year pays the same whether loaded both ways or not. The arrangement allows not just the occasional fuel bonus from deadheading, but also predictable freight income and schedules. This yields maximum profi tability by keeping costs low and allowing him and Vickie to focus on what they can best control. How to organize your smartphone apps | The quote here is from independent Joey Slaughter, running mostly brokered freight on a step deck, with close agent relationships supplying the bulk of it. But of utmost importance this success, he believes, are the tools presented by mobile technology. His organizational strategy for smartphone apps came in handy when he faced a potentially disastrous situation on I-40 heading west toward Flagstaff , Arizona. While his fi rst indication something wasn't right was plainly in view – on another otherwise mild day, trucks headed east were covered in snow – weather apps showed what lay ahead, so Slaughter stopped short. Listen to the podcast to hear about the mayhem he avoided. Making a freight transition | Alabama-based owner-operator Greg Huggins spent two decades and more as an owner-operator with a straight-truck moving van. A few years ago, though, he moved into the equally high-touch expedited freight niche. The transition entailed more than some might think, some- what akin to a driver who's relied on a dispatcher for his entire career getting his own authority and navigating the fragment- ed world of freight brokers and shippers on his own. Even in Landstar's Express America expedited wing, where Huggins landed, the agent model with owner-operator self-dispatch is the norm. Huggins learned plenty about himself, his business and his ultimate income potential in expediting. Hear these podcasts by visiting OverdriveOnline.com/OverdriveRadio or by subscribing via iTunes, Stitcher, TuneIn or a podcasting app. Dedicated freight, app tools, expedite transition Is/was your father invWhat's your bigger business priority — profit growth or income stability?olved in trucking? Source: OverdriveOnline.com poll Hard to separate the two 39% Income stability 32% Increased profitability 29% What's your bigger business priority — profi t growth or income stability? " What we do as truck drivers is very dangerous — with the information available to us, we don't have to drive blind over the hill and not know what's coming. " — Step-decker and Blue Ridge Transport owner Joey Slaughter