Pulling pups means profitability and predictable routes for owner-operator Ed Geiger

How would you like a dedicated run that gets you home daily, gives you weekends off, provides more than 120,000 miles per year and allows you to cut fixed costs by using a daycab?

That scenario describes Ed Geiger’s trucking business. He drives a 475-hp Caterpillar-powered, tandem-axle Kenworth T800, hauling one or two 28-ft. FedEx pup trailers. “I’m home every day,” says Geiger, who is 62. “I have a dedicated run and, because of that, a constant income.”

Which is not to say his favorable arrangement is a piece of cake. While most people are sleeping, Geiger’s at work. He’s had to master the skills of maneuvering twin trailers, which is no small thing, notes Chuck Cole of Utility Trailer. “It takes a wizard to back up a set of doubles,” he says, “but it can be done.”

In spite of a few extra hassles, Geiger is happy to stick with this work. It’s been steady for years because the logistical flexibility of doubles is well-suited to FedEx Ground’s needs, and drivers with doubles experience are always in demand.

Geiger is part of a network of 600 FedEx driving contractors in Pennsylvania, including 36 working from the West Chester terminal, says spokesman Robert Boulware. The company overall has more than 16,000 contractors, more than 32 hubs and more than 500 Ground and Home Delivery terminals in the country.

FedEx Ground contractors pulling doubles get paid the same rate per mile as those pulling singles, and a Con-way Freight spokesman says the same is true there. However, those who pull triples at FedEx Ground get more “in consideration of the extra driving skill needed,” Boulware says.