The 2014 Freightliner Cascadia of owner-operator Doug Viaille, Overdrive Trucker of the Month for February.
Garland, Texas-headquartered owner-operator Doug Viaille has banked a couple of solid income years after making a key decision when spot freight markets fell back from 2018 post-electronic logging device mandate peaks. Then running as Goat's Transport with his own authority, Viaille saw some of the proverbial writing on the wall for rates well ahead of the big COVID-inspired fall and in 2019 leased on with a small fleet.
Then a much bigger one, Roadrunner, "hauling LTL freight for them ... terminal to terminal," he said. "They've got terminals all over the country." He stretched out across the deserts "as often as I could" to the location in Mira Loma, California, with runs from Dallas and Houston, Chicago, Detroit and many other origins -- and destinations.
Yet after a string of health issues for both he and his wife, Mary, who helps in the operation in the back office at their Garland home, an intriguing opportunity rose in March of 2022. For the two years since, owner-operator Viaille's banked better income pulling a company hopper and with his 2014 Freightliner Cascadia leased to North Little Rock, Arkansas, bulk hauler Oakley Trucking.
He enjoys the steady nature of a dedicated operation running empty to Glenwood, Arkansas, loaded back to his area around Dallas with bulk product five, sometimes six days a week. Tuesday-Saturday, typically, occasionally Sunday, too. Monday he keeps open for downtime -- and maintenance needs, part of what led fellow owner-operator Shawn Mitchell to nominate Viaille for Overdrive's 2024 Trucker of the Year award. "Doug is always fixing something, as needed," Mitchell said. "He keeps up his truck very well."
His trucking-business knowledge is lauded by the dispatcher he works most closely with at Oakley, too. Bryan Hill's worked in support of an untold number of owners through 20 years at the company. Support in his business is a two-way street, he suggested, and owner-operator Viaille's been there as an assist for him as much as the opposite is true. "Doug gives you the information you need as a dispatcher, things that help us plan our day," Hill said. "And he knows what he needs professionally to keep him going as well. Being an owner-operator, it’s not the easiest thing in the world" for everyone, minus the week-in, week-out guarantee of a check.
Owner-operator Viaille, Hill knows, has been around enough blocks to manage revenue needs against costs and necessary downtime.
