Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/119523
PULSE What is your best defense against erratic driving by motorists? "I just get out of their way and let them do what they do." Derrick Walton Fairview, N.C. Owner-operator, WalCo "I try to be aware of everyone around me. I ride motorcycles, so I'm used to that awareness." Kurt Guethler Port Deposit, Md. Owner-operator, K&C Guethler Trucking "I try to stay away from them by keeping my speed down and never driving too closely. I've seen way too many wrecks while I've been driving." Marvin Miller Eastman, Ga. Owner-operator leased to ASAP Express "Slow down and let them go on their merry way!" Jason Perdue Dalton, Ga. company driver, Mike Frost Trucking "Sometimes I'll get off the highway and let them pass on." Jared Hunt Cherokee, Ala. company driver, Linde Gas Believe it or not T he common wisdom in some circles is that the owner-operator model is dying. There are good reasons for that conclusion: Rounds of emissions technology added tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of new trucks. The recession's tight credit environment suddenly made purchasing even a cheap used truck impossible for many buyers. Some owner-operators, fed up with an expanding regulatory maze and/or predatory brokers, simply bailed out prematurely. Be that as it may, the owner-operator obituary is far from being written. The recession knocked the owner-operator population down to about 150,000. Then it climbed to 155,500 in 2011 and 165,100 in 2012. This is based on research done for Overdrive by Commercial Motor Vehicle Consulting. CMVC uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and its own private research. "Expanding demand for owner-operators has improved the business environment," concluded Chris Brady, head of CMVC. I blogged to that effect in February, citing data from ATBS, the largest owner-operator financial services provider. ATBS records showed how, over the last 10 years, the owneroperator situation mostly had improved: • Much shorter length of haul and much more home time. • Net income per mile rising 3.8 percent each year, compared to 2.5 percent annual inflation. • On the downside, due to total miles dropping by a fifth, only 1 percent annual gain in total income, well below inflation. The rosy parts didn't sit well with certain readers. Out of 40 commenters, almost all said it was "a bunch of crap," "drivel" and corporate "lies and propaganda." I should be drug-tested, said one. Fired, said another. So instead of looking at a decade of change, I thought perhaps more recent changes – say, from the fourth quarter of 2011 to the fourth quarter of 2012 – would Greg Trott established Second Wind in Florida last year. Overdrive-sponsored research shows there were about 60,000 such independent owner-operator businesses nationwide at yearend, a net gain of 1,600 from 2011. tell a tale of widespread woe, but they didn't. Dry van owner-operators saw net income per mile rise modestly during that period – from 43 cents to 45 cents – based on thousands of ATBS clients. But if you average dry van with reefer and flatbed, per-mile earnings rose from 45 cents to 49 cents. Independents did even better: 50 cents to 56 cents. In some ways, running an owner-operator business is tougher than it used to be. Still, you can't dodge the obvious: The economy is improving. A major part of the economy is trucking. And a major part of trucking is the owner-operator model, which has survived recessions, regulations, unionization efforts and other forces. It's not going away. By Max Heine Editorial director mheine@randallreilly.com April 2013 | Overdrive | 5 Voices_0413.indd 5 4/3/13 10:11 AM