Trucking adds 5,300 jobs in January
Payroll employment in for-hire trucking is up by 51,500, or 4 percent, from January 2011.Magazine
Creatures of habit
December 12, 2008
| by: Todd Dills
Henderson, N.C.-based Edward Burt
Any successful business is a product of successful practices. An examination of respondents to the 2007 Overdrive Owner-Operator Market Behavior Report – and especially those whose net income ranks in the top 25 percent – reveals highlights on the road to success. The typical high-earning owner-operator is a little more than 50 years old and has been in business as an owner-operator since he was 30. He makes more than $70,000 a year after expenses and is three times as likely to be leased as independent. The carrier he’s leased to typically subsidizes his fuel costs with surcharges. If he’s independent, he sets – and receives – his own surcharge.
As with any linkage of income and other factors, a given practice – say, computing cost per mile or performing oil analysis – might not produce several thousand dollars of extra income year after year. But those behaviors do save money, and often are indicative of a broader business-oriented mind-set that pays off in the long run.
On the surface, the high-earning owner-operator isn’t much different from average and below-average earners. Look closer, though, and you’ll see a combination of characteristics that many owner-operators don’t have. The following seven practices, based on this year’s Behavior Report, should provide a few ideas to help boost your income.
- WORK FOR A PERCENTAGE OF GROSS
O.J. Luster of Macon, Ga., leased to Cross Country Express of Sparks, Nev., pulls a company reefer with his aerodynamic Kenworth T2000. He prefers getting paid a percentage of gross revenue because it allows him more control. “I have much more latitude as far as what I’m doing, where I’m going, and how much I make,” says the 15-year owner-operator.Overdrive research bears him out. While the average income for percentage operators is only about $2,000 higher than the average for per-mile pay, a significantly greater share of high-earning owner-operators are paid this way.
