The transition from being the driver of a company-owned truck to becoming an owner-operator involves understanding what the trucking industry needs. The industry itself is a living, breathing thing and its main focus is on supporting businesses by providing them with the goods they need to run smoothly. As an owner-operator, you will be part of this supply chain and need to understand your customers’ needs.
Entrepreneurs typically possess a spirit of risk and drive which others do not, and believe me it’s needed with the overwhelming challenges we face pursuing our goals. Owning a business and making a profit is the primary goal of most entrepreneurs. When you decide to buy a truck and be your own boss, you must have these same traits in order to succeed because once you purchase equipment, you’re in for the long haul. You have to make sure your plan is solid and your investments are sound.
Read More »Plan For The Long Haul – “Owner Operator 101” with Truckin’ Ed
I have been reading numerous stories about the lack of truck parking, electronic on-board recorders possibly being mandatory in trucks, freight rates possibly dropping, and the costs of trucks increasing with the constantly changing EPA regulations in concert with CARB.
Read More »The State of the Trucking Industry: EPA, CARB, HOS, FMCSA …….
Big trucking companies cater to their customers and have their own business profiles. As an owner operator, you need to identify your target market. If you think you can’t make money owning a truck, then you don’t know anything about trucking. A large trucking company needs to keep as many trucks moving as they can or they will suffer great loss. They have as many things working for them as they do against them.
Read More »Truckin’ Ed – Knowing Your Business – key for Owner Operators
New Guidance from FMCSA regarding the HOS rules imposed July 1st: Under the new guidance, effective July 12, 2013, there is no requirement for employer instructions, either written or verbal. The old guidance said that the driver had to get written instructions from his employer spelling out how long the off-duty time would be.
Read More »New FMCSA HOS guidance regarding 30 min Break Times
This is a good blog post by Kevin Rutherford on his LetsTruck blog. It hits on the point that Owner Operators need to think about themselves as a business that is in a marketplace where they have some control to set rates and service levels, and seek business that matches their expectations.
There was a good article published in the Wall Street Journal today focusing on the costs of the new HOS rules to the industry and the drivers: both money and work/life balance. There are definitely some societal benefits to reducing sleepy drivers, but the data used by the FMCSA to justify the position on the new HOS rules seems suspect, in my opinion. Trucking and truckers are just an easy target and slapping on new regulations is easy for regulators to do, because the general public is not going to spend the time to really understand the numbers, and of course they want safer roads. It’s just not necessarily the trucks and truckers that are the problem.
Read More »Truckers Are Losing Sleep Over 70-Hour Work Limit: New HOS Rules
This is very comprehensive article about the coming HOS driver log rules on July 1st, 2013. Thanks to our friends at JJ Keller & Associates for putting it together and publishing it in Trucking Info
Read More »July 1, 2013 HOS Driver log rules change – comprehensive analysis
