What it Takes to Become an Owner-Operator
On a conference call with our tax accountant, he called us out personally and said “Guys, you can’t be a jack of all trades… leave the details to the professionals…” as he tried to sell us on their in house accounting products. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the privilege of the extra revenue to be able to afford such a luxury - to hand off our responsibilities as a single truck operation - that would cut a good chunk of our already small profit margins.
Overhead. Overhead. Overhead. "Location, location, location.”
Plan for the absolute worst to happen. Even when trucks are new and under warranty - if your truck is down for an extended period of time, your liabilities are still due, and there is so much more than truck payments when you become an owner. If you fall behind in less than a few months or are relying on advances to fuel up your truck, you didn’t save accordingly. Before buying your first truck, make sure to have 6 months or more of your overhead costs. Figure your expenses; truck payment, insurance payments, satellite and equipment payments, credit card payments, and any additional fees you might be accruing every month, then multiply that by 6 - and add a couple grand on top of each month to give you wiggle room for those additional expenses, like general maintenance, for a good estimate of what your nest egg should be.
Truck buying - “Don’t sell yourself short - literally.”
Whether you’re building or buying your first truck, make sure your equipment gives you options, and can sign onto multiple different carriers in case you needed to abandon ship at your current company. This is only a safety net - being able to move your equipment when things go wrong - a back up plan that you hopefully won’t have to use but is there if you need it. Then when you do want to invest in specialized equipment in a smaller market, make sure you’ve personally done your time in said segment to gain the most insight to where you’re investing. Don’t go run out and buy a truck for a specific lane that you’ve never run or are “being promised”, or when you’re new in a segment of an industry you’ve never been apart of.
Networking.
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” is a sentiment we have been sharing with anyone and everyone we’ve ever met that ask us for tips to find success within trucking. Whether you’re someone who is talkative or more reserved, you’ll have to learn to be both when the opportunity is presented to you. Learn to shut your mouth and open your ears to listen to people who’ve been in it longer than you, take value in learning from their mistakes, and ask as many questions as you can. Connections are a great thing to have, and when issues present themselves (and they will) you’ll need to know where to go to find those answers. Google and Reddit will only be able to help you with so much. So, build up your network and make friends in the right areas, which means all areas.
Ask Around.
Talk to fellow owners that have insight into the truck you’re looking to buy or build, as well as the equipment attached to it; APUs, liftgates, reefers, etc. If you’re unsure of companies, talk to their drivers, ask about miles, bonuses, backhauls, etc. Looking to build or buy a truck? Then get quotes at multiple dealerships, and ask other owners where they purchased and if they have any recommendations on dealerships. Don’t just jump on the first opportunity that presents itself.
Listen to your gut.
“If something seems too good to be true, than it probably is.” The trucking industry has a ridiculous amount of scams that prey on uniformed and/or new drivers looking to move up and branch out as an owner. If a company or dealership rubs you the wrong way, look elsewhere and move on. At the end of the day, our gut has saved us from making deals with bad seeds, and kept us from getting taken advantage of in every aspect of the business.
Take your time.
The statistics for small businesses are scary and disheartening to say the least. In their first year, 20% of small businesses are doomed to fail. By year 5, less than 50% still remain. The most common causes that lead to entrepreneurs and small businesses failing is lack of planning and cash flow issues. If you want to equip yourself to avoid ending up on the wrong side of these stats, take your time, learn and absorb everything you can, and always have a back up plan.
- Run Hard, Dream Big
Keeping your Trucker Dogs Safe, Happy, and Healthy
We personally know that the company of a trucker dog is completely unmatched! There is nothing like having your fur-ball to cuddle up with you when you go to bed, or keep you company while you’re sitting waiting for your next load. They help us get out of the truck and get fresh air in times where we likely wouldn’t bother stepping out of the sleeper, or let alone get out of bed. Then the bonus of added security when you’re laying down, and your dog alerts you to a noise outside that is too close and/or unfamiliar, is just priceless. We also can't forget to mention that adorable wiggle butt dance that commences as soon as they see you walking back to the truck.
Setting them up in a rig can be challenging at first, however. Most of us dog owners don’t mind sharing our beds or using a large portion of our storage for their food and floor space for their bowls, but that doesn’t even begin to cover the lengthy list that includes their health, cleanliness, or toys. So we’d like to highlight some of our favorite products and accessories for keeping our pups buttoned up out here over the road.
If you have rowdy dogs who love their toys as much as ours do, it’s essential to keep the dog toys in one place, where you can easily dump them, and move them around when and where you need. Especially for balls that can get lose and jump into the cab, causing a safety issue. To keep you from pulling your hair out after they have a zoomie session and leave their toys with scattered toy guts everywhere, we found these to be the most useful all around. These cotton bins are safe for them to reach in and out of and are flexible enough to get shoved into small areas when you need it out of the way.
We used to use this plastic squeeze bottle, though we have since moved onto this larger KONG stainless-steel version for full time use. Both have proven reliable over the years because they don’t have any mechanical features to fail and the unused water can easily be replaced back into the bottle. They also feature great portability for long walks, dog parks, and hiking or camping trips.
We use both manual and electric tools – manual clippers to cut back the length of their nails and then we finish off with the electric nail grinder to smooth out any sharp edges that can scratch our doors and dash, or damage the leather seats. We found this set from YABIFE that came with both the manual and electric version for a very reasonable price, and keep them both stored in the door for regular easy access.
The Vittles Vault storage bin has been our go-to solution since 2016 – so much so, that we have a set we keep at home in our garage, and another set for our truck. We utilize the 40lb version so we can easily buy food in bulk, minimizing down time and maximizing price savings. This bin features a silicone seal that really assures the food container is airtight, allowing us to keep it stored in the toolbox and safe from the constant changing elements outside.
There’s nothing worse than when you have to let the dogs out in the rain and mud while you’re on a run, leading to the time-consuming paw clean up. They come back trotting all over the cab or into the sleeper on your clean rugs, or even worse, jump in your sheets! We use this ridiculously handy silicone cleaning tool to get the bulk of the dirt and grime out of their toes, and then finish with this rinse-less cleaner and soft brush combo that we can easily dry off or let air day.
Our favorite, and our dogs favorite toys have come to be Chuck It brand everything. This Chuck It Frisbee is durable to heavy chewing, easy to throw, easy to clean, and so easy to store we have one in each door on the truck. You can say the same thing for the indestructible Chuck It ball, that comes in all sizes!
Cuddling up with your furbaby, and all of a sudden have a pit in your stomach because you didn’t notice your dog ate a nugget of poo on your walk? We found not only one, but two answers! Since incorporating Vetradent and Proden Plaqueoff into their bowls, both our girls have had scent free breath. Not to mention, both are backed by data and VOHC approved. We combine both the water additive that helps with bad breath and the powder sprinkled on their food to help remove the plaque along their gum-line and it has proved incredibly effective all while giving the added benefit of fresher breath. The combination of these two has turned out to be the secret sauce!
GPS Tracker + Activity Monitoring
We have been rescuing dogs since we were both kids, so we only deal with rescues, and since you don’t know what you’re going to get with a new rescue, or how long it will be till they respond to training, we incorporated a 4G GPS tracker on our youngest rescue a few years back. The Whistle 4G tracker uses AT&T service towers, and allows you to see their location on a satellite map. It’s incredibly affordable for all of the services offered, and we found the service even more useful to monitor their activity time and make sure they were hitting their daily exercise goals. As a small back up and in between charging their Whistles, we threw Tile Trackers onto their collars for good measure.
We found out about the Seresto collar when we first started trucking and had a lengthy discussion with our vet on how to keep them healthy while traveling throughout the states. We have had a total of 7 animals in the last 9 years using this collar and have never had to worry about fleas or ticks. We have been dedicated consumers of theirs since day one and have recommended this flea and tick collar to everyone we know.
Let us know how these products work for you and share some of your favorite products with us!
You can catch more of our girls in the truck on our TikTok!
Run Hard - Dream Big,
Are you truck show ready?
Today kicks off the first day of the beloved Mid-America Truck Show!
Today kicks off the first day of the beloved Mid-America Truck Show! There are ample benefits to attending a truck show whether you’re a driver, aspiring owner operator, single truck owner, fleet owner, or just a fan of big rigs! From the networking, the deals, the freebies, or the polished chrome, there are festivities for everyone and anyone who attends!
Make sure you dress to impress… – YOUR FEET. The Mid-America Truck show is seemingly never ending and will have you covering at least a few miles of stomping ground in a single day. MATS boasts a whopping 1,000,000 square feet, over 800 vendors, and 40 different events over their 3-day schedule.
Have you been holding off for a specific headset to go on sale or a piece of chrome that you want a guaranteed fit on? Most vendors will have some serious deals going on that they’ll call a “truck show special” – sometimes the pricing is the same, and they’re selling their stuff off to unsuspecting customers, but if you’ve done your research, then you’ll know when you’ve struck a deal!
This also includes vendors for more complex trucking equipment that would need to be installed at a shop. You can meet with the vendor at the show and negotiate a price for parts and labor with their approved third-party providers. We've been able to save hundreds of dollars with this one tip on things like truck body accessories and automatic tire chains.
Say you’re having an issues with your tools, parts, chrome, or trucking tech, you can also meet with the supplier in person and most companies are prepared to handle any warranty or claim issues at the show. If they can’t handle it for you there in person, you can expect to leave with either an open claim or direct contact for your issue.
Of course, you can’t forget the freebies and the big rigs! Walking down a single isle at the show will leave you with more free stuff than you can hold with both hands. Most booths will have giveaways that can include tools, cleaning supplies, vendor samples, and branded goodies to give to your friends and family. Trucks will cover the showroom floor, but the annual truck show contest will be at Lot N in front of the West and South Wing.
If you do plan to attend, make sure to stop by and say hi to some of our partners in our small world of expediting!
Fedex Custom Critical - 67057 (West Wing)
Panther 32405 - (South Wing)
Landstar - 16148 (North Wing)
Show Information:
The Mid-America Trucking Show is from Thursday, March 20th – Saturday, March 23rd and is held at the Kentucky Expo Center (KEC) in Louisville, KY. Parking is available on the KEC lot for rates ranging from $12-$80. They also offer free offsite overnight truck parking across from the KEC, with free shuttles to and from the show during show hours. The paid truck show parking lot is at 937 Phillips Lane, Louisville, KY 40209. The free parking lot is across from Gate 1 at 1032 Phillips Lane, KY 40209.
To register for the show, click here.
For a breakdown of the events, click here.
For an interactive map of the show room floor and list of exhibitors, click here.
We're planning to attend the Mid-America Truck Show this weekend, so if you’re out there and would like to meet us, give us a shout!
Feel free to send us any shots of yourself, or anything you think should be highlighted, along with your thoughts on this years show, and we’ll feature you on our next article!
Run Hard - Dream Big,
Finding Your Fleet (Part II)
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it, from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective.
A recent post shared by a fellow expediter made some great points when it came to finding a small fleet to work for. We’ve decided to highlight her post and add to it, from a former driver and now owner’s, perspective.
“If you want to make $1500 each per driver, you have to accomplish that yourself. You are the maker of your paycheck. You have to learn how to make that happen and when you run percentage, trying for a set amount per week doesn’t always work. Sometimes it’s how the month ends.”
Running as a self-dispatching contractor like we do here, you create your own destiny because YOU are your dispatcher AND your engineer. You have to decide what load it worth what, what your minimums are, which areas are best, where to relocate, etc. Some teams will shoot for a weekly goal, or will run only a certain region of the states – it doesn’t matter how you get to your financial goals; all of these methods can work. You genuinely must figure out YOUR strengths and how you like to run as a team – what works for you both. We found that we can lose an entire week and still hit $30k+ in a month, but that comes with years of experience and being way beyond the “FOMO” phase. We run day to day, don’t plan too far out, and we love it that way because found that we hit our goals with minimal stress.
“As a team joining expediting, even if you have been team driving for 25 years - if you haven’t run percentage and expediting, it’s a different way of doing things. We ran 17 years in tractor trailer, by the mile, 20,000+ mile a month. Coming here was an adjustment. You don’t run constantly like when you’re running per mile as a team. It’s a ‘work smarter, not harder’ deal. Sure, you can run yourself to death running constantly in a big box company as a super team, making the same or less, (taking the quickest shower possible, eating only sandwiches or junk etc.) but that gets old, and that’s why most of you came here. Dispatching yourself is a game, it’s calculating trying to decide which load to take, and which load will put you where the ‘money load’ will be if it pops on the board. It’s aggravating and rewarding. You have to be open to learn new things and not be stuck in your ways.”
She’s right – coming from tractor trailer was a major adjustment. It was night and day to go from mileage-based pay to percentage. Switching that mentality took time but was so essential. If not, you will run your per mile rate down and work harder for less. You will no longer have to run 5,000+ miles a week as team to make a good paycheck, and instead you can work 3 days on 2 loads and make the same that you would on 2 cross country runs. You’re no longer booked out for the week, now you’re booking a load for today or tomorrow, never knowing where you’re going next after delivery, or how much you’ll make tomorrow. This can make transitioning tractor trailer teams very antsy, because they’re looking for miles, not at the end goal for the month. We like to say to give it at least 6 months before you give up on expediting, especially if you’re coming from tractor trailer.
“When you start out here, your company is not going to tell you how to pick loads, how to bid, or anything. Just that there is a load board, how to log in, and hit accept. If you try and do it on your own, without guidance, it will take a lot of trial and error. You will get frustrated. So, if the fleet you go to has mentors, or you meet a team that offers to help, take them up on it. Let them show you the ropes. There are rules that your company will follow to decide who wins a load, and you need to understand them. You need to understand when a mentor or fleet owners tells you certain areas are dead zones, that they are telling you to avoid headaches. There will be a time for you to go out west, but the first week you are out on the road is not one. Just remember, we are always learning new things, if you think you know everything already then you are one of the ones that has a lot to learn still.”
Coming out here with a know-it-all mentality will quickly humble you. We have been at this almost 8 years and still find some of our own ‘guidelines’ changing, because the landscape of our company is constantly changing, and we must change with it. That’s okay because the seasons don’t change – trucking overall has its busy and dead seasons, all of which we are already aware of and therefor plan for. However, it can be very hard for new teams without guidance to come out here and try to make it work. Not that it can’t be done however, you will learn what loads are worth their rates, and which aren’t. You will start to form a minimum to run into certain cities, due to the cost of tolls and/or relocating after delivery. You will learn which customers don’t care about detention, and will take their time to load you, putting your early morning delivery at risk, and therefore minimizing your chances for a next day load, so maybe you’ll charge double for that run. You will learn the seasons and you will start to be able to predict when the leaves are about to fall before they have even changed color. Be patient when you’re learning the landscape, absorb all that you can, and learn what works for YOU. We advise all of our new drivers to “Forget what you think you know, and don’t apply rules from a different side of the trucking industry to the world of expediting because you will only set yourself up for failure.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear. If someone tells you they make ‘this’ every week or month, ask for proof. If they don’t want to show you numbers, then it’s probably inflated. If an owner tells you to not talk to other drivers, then someone has something to hide. But also, not all drivers tell the truth, whether it’s to keep you from taking “their” loads, or to seem better than you. Take a lot of what you hear, especially on social media platforms, with a grain of salt. Some of us are honest and just want to help, while others don’t feel like they are anything unless they are making someone else feels small. You are not stupid for asking questions no matter how big or small, and if they tell you how stupid you are for not knowing they are just being bullies.”
This is a constant and sad reality of the world we live in – people lacking integrity and character. Expediting is a small industry; most of us know each other, and word spreads quickly, even the false rumors. Toxic fleet owners and lackluster dealerships are all well-known and constantly confirm the rumors. You can’t hide out here, and that’s the beauty of the double-edged sword that is expediting. This is why it’s important to get multiple opinions or outlooks in the industry, to weed out the nonsense. If someone gets intimated by you asking questions, walk away and move on, but don’t let it discourage you from continuing to ask questions. People who have been out here for a while think they know everything and become short sighted, forgetting that they were new at one point too. They are plenty of us out here willing to help and provide real guidance or give you our own opinions without being intimated. There is room for all of us to succeed and thrive in this industry.
What to Expect at a Truck Stop
Welcome to your second home.
You’ll be blown away by some of the amenities offered by truck stops. They feature mini movie theaters, museums, salons, barber shops, shoe shine stations, chrome shops, cell phone stores, and even a bowling alley. Trucking locations have attempted to make life easier with these few simple additions to fuel and food.
Does it work? That depends on who you ask.
You’ll find just about everything you need to run smoothly at any general truck stop; from shower supplies to laundry supplies, dog food and toys, truck parts, tech accessories and seasonal clothing. We don’t recommend doing your everyday shopping at these trucking locations because the convenience of it will only hurt your pockets. Prices at truck stops can be as much as triple the price at your local supermarket, but in a pinch it is a great convenience that you will experience at some point.
A favorite amongst drivers are the truck stops diners; mostly 24 hours with buffet specials available everyday of the week, offering private seating just for truckers. The food is belt busting, but it’s hot and just what a trucker needs to feel at home. Most locations will also have at least one fast food restaurant in addition to the diner because food is always in demand when it comes to truckers.
One of the most necessary features of a truck stop is the diesel shop and parts section. You’ll be able to find what you need for general maintenance to keep you running. You can expect to find your basic selection of tools, oils and lubricants, and simple parts like windshield wipers. Majority of the diesel shops are 24 hours and offer full service centers.
In addition to the basic amenities, some locations feature chrome shops, cb shops, salons, and mini “movie theaters.” How often you will utilize these options are dependent on your lifestyle while over the road, but it is still necessary to aid in the comfort and ease of access to drivers who are away from home for extended periods of time.
Cleanliness can be questionable depending on where you stop but most corporate run truck stops have someone outside cleaning the parking lot and fuel areas in addition to the store itself. You will quickly find which locations meet your standards, as you will frequent them more than you realize.
As more locations open across the nation, showers are being updated and made to look more modern in turn pushing prices to average $15 per use. They offer a full private bathroom, with bolt locks for added security (a few of us have been surprised by shower attendants accidentally). Aside from that, most showers are equipped with coat hooks, 3 speed fans, and a hairdryer. Corporate named truck stops provide fresh towels, bar soap, and liquid body wash.
Truck stop showers are private rooms that are cleaned after every use. They generally contain a personal sink, fan, towels, bar of soap, liquid soap dispensers, and a hairdryer.
So do truck stops make living as a truck driver easier? That’s up to you to decide. The food can be mediocre, general products are good to have in a pinch but are overpriced, and most truck stops typically lack healthy activities. So though a majority of their features are outdated, trust that they are working hard to catch up to the new generational shift. You might find that some locations simply provide fuel, showers, and a lit parking lot.
Welcome to your second home.