Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/85450
OWNER-OPERATOR OF THE MONTH While driving a Volvo and hauling steel, McCoy became the first driver to reach a million miles with Valley Transportation. He's put 1 million miles on the truck. Back to the road W Mike McCoy's farming background provided him the work ethic to excel as an owner-operator after years away from trucking. By Elizabeth Manning hen Mike McCoy got out of high school, he started driving for a local egg company. He hauled three loads into Pennsylvania and two into Buffalo, N.Y., each week, the 68-year-old, Ashland, Ohio, resident recalls. Meanwhile, his heart was set on an occupation other than trucking. At 16, McCoy moved from Columbus to Ashland. His grandfather had a farm there, and McCoy helped out while in school. Later he got his own farm and branched out into dairy farming. He sold the farm in 1988. 44 | Overdrive | October 2012 "My boys had graduated by then, so I was losing my help," McCoy says. So he turned to trucking. McCoy already knew Steve Aber, president of Valley Transportation, through Aber's father, who owned Aber's Garage. "On a farm, when you have 100-plus dairy cows to milk, you have to stay on top of everything, so going to trucking was like going on vacation," McCoy says. "When I went to buy a truck, Aber said, 'Why don't you come to work for me first to see how you like it?'" McCoy worked for Aber as a company driver for a long time before becoming an owner-operator, Aber says. "The custom- ers love him, he keeps his equipment in top-notch shape, and his work ethic is outstanding." In 2000, McCoy bought a pewter 2000 Volvo 680 with a 500-hp Detroit Diesel and 13-speed transmission. He uses the same rig today hauling steel blanks, unfinished metal stamped from a larger piece of steel, on a daily run. McCoy likes the load times, usually in the middle of the night, because he can get home in the middle of the day and work on chores. "I used to do long hauls where I was