Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85442
Owner-operators' top challenges Using a survey and our social media channels, we quizzed readers about what they saw as the No. 1 problem for owner-operators. Here's a closer look at those challenges, with partial solutions from owner-operators, fleet representatives and others. By Todd Dills 1. Fuel prices Diesel prices first topped $4 a gallon in 2008, concurrent with that year's dra- matic freight downturn. Some owner-operators were simply "costed" right out of business. Many of those had been leased to carriers without fuel surcharge programs or whose rates weren't adjusted often enough to compensate for the dramatic increases. While fuel surcharge programs are more entrenched in today's industry, own- er-operators still rank fuel pricing as their number one problem. Here are steps to help manage your fuel costs. Ensure that you're getting a fair fuel surcharge. Avoid brokers and carriers whose rates don't adequately compensate for fuel. If you're independent and lack a fair surcharge, explain the situation to your shippers and negotiate a program. Fuel surcharges should increase or decrease proportionally with diesel prices, either on a cents-per-mile basis or as a percentage of the rate the customer pays the carrier for the load. Six-truck small fleet owner and part-operator Tom Blake survived the 2008 crisis by sitting down with a few select shippers near the end of 2008 and renegotiating his contracts to include more frequently updated fuel sur- charges. "It's based on the weekly Department of Energy average," he says, avail- able via EIA.gov and published at OverdriveOnline.com as well. His fleet's average fuel mileage is 5.5 mpg. Blake hauls container freight around the Kansas City, Mo., region. He offered August 2012 | Overdrive | 33