You bet. Meet Morris Finley, Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based owner of the 2012 Nissan NV2500 high-top cargo van here pictured. Finley (also pictured, below) hauls mostly auto parts for Nashville-based DMW Expedite, running between plants in Tennessee and/or surrounding states and the air freight terminal at the Nashville airport for flight to Northern assembly plants. Most of the major expediters out there have a division devoted to such work, in Finley’s case typically within a 200-300-mile radius around Nashville.
“Perfect job for an almost-retired fellow,” says Finley. When a highway expansion took out half of his produce business’ property 18 years ago, he bought himself a van and went to work for DMW.
Last year, he says, “I turned $65,000” gross on “about 100,000 miles, with $18,000 worth in fuel.”
And a big bonus: “I don’t have to fool with a log book,” he says, given he’s typically at 9,100 GVW overall, with a 4,000-pound payload tops, and he doesn’t haul any hazardous materials. You don’t even necessarily need a CDL to run in a cargo van, unless the company requires it.
A typical day for Finley: Up at 6 a.m. for a 9:30 pickup, then “seven hours round-trip out and back,” he says, usually with very little wait time at the receiver.
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“It’s beautiful, sun shining,” he said from the road early this month on his way home, where he sleeps every night.
Yet another bonus: “I used to have a bigger truck and had to go through the scales. If [inspectors] are having a bad day, they’ll let you know it — I don’t have to fool with that.”
The 74-year-old says he runs about 100,000 miles in a year, already with nearly 30,000 miles on the new Nissan at only three months old. It’s capable of hauling up to two high-loaded skids, perfect for his auto parts-related operation.
On cargo van longevity generally, Finley says, “we’ve had some drivers get a million miles out of one or two,” though he typically trades between 400,000 and 500,000 miles — at that point, a big-ticket item like an engine or transmission is “liable to go bad,” he adds.
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