Jason Cowan is like a grandmaster chess player when it comes to his Silver Creek Transportation business. Now approaching 40 trucks strong after growing before, through and since the pandemic from the single digits, Silver Creek's certainly benefited from Cowan's forward-thinking tendencies, crucial for any business owner with a mind toward anticipating trucking's inevitable down cycles.
We've been in one of those for quite some time now, of course, and as in prior cycles, Cowan's not sitting still, resting on his laurels. Join Cowan, owner-operator Ilya Denisenko, and Overdrive contributor and owner-operator coach Gary Buchs next week Thursday, May 22, for a chance to hear about some of the moves he's made to take better control of revenue needs to offset rising costs, to "be the businessman first and the trucker second," as he's put it. He notes that Silver Creek's success over the last years, and particularly in recent times, has been a function of "putting aside what I wanted," personally.
How do owner-operators and small fleets survive and thrive in tough economic times? Find out in this webinar.
Join us for a live webinar Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. CT and hear from owner-operators and small fleets as we discuss how they prepared during the good times to weather the storms.
"Left to my own devices I’d be the guy with Peterbilts and 6NZ Cats with straight pipes and the lot full of them," he said, but "I’d be missing the 8.5-miles-per-gallon truck, and the driver pool that wants to get miles and get home. All that came from putting aside the preconceived notions that I had." Cowan's sustained and grown Silver Creek by focusing on what makes sense for the business, not just for Jason Cowan the man who just loves trucks, and has his entire life.
The 50-something has made other moves of late, too, thinking quite far ahead indeed. As noted in her story about family succession planning for trucking businesses in Overdrive sister publication CCJ, Pamella De Leon detailed a somewhat recent hire Cowan made in some ways to prep for an inevitable transition away from his leadership at the company, though his retirement is many years out at this point. Cowan "initially considered passing the business down to his sons to take over," full stop, wrote De Leon. Both sons are fully engaged and well-prepped to manage it today in some ways. Yet "as the business grew, Cowan didn’t see it as a viable plan" all on its own.
As Cowan told her, "Your plan has to change as your season of life and business change. Many people only make a plan for when they retire or are older, but we need to be prepared at any time.”
His recent hire of an operations manager with robust experience trucking will provide continuity in the business should an early exit be necessary, and with new analytical tools in place you'll hear about next week in the webinar, the new hire also frees him up to better manage customer relationships, build business for the next cycle when fickle shippers and brokers are all looking for a discount.
According to our recent surveying of owner-operators and small fleets, it's probably the biggest task trucking business owners have on their minds these days, following closely by bedrock cost control.
Join us next week to sit in on a roundtable with Cowan, Buchs and Denisenko, all at different points on their businesses' journey through the trucking world. Read more about their histories below. If you can't be in attendance live during the event, where you'll have opportunity to contribute to the discussion with questions, drop ideas for me in the comments here and I'll do my best to make sure they get aired during the talk.
Attend live or catch the replay by registering for the August 22 event.
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Jason Cowan is the founder and President of Henderson, Kentucky-based Silver Creek Transportation. Launched by an acquisition of a local trucking company in 1994, Silver Creek has since become a leader in specialty trucking. Under Cowan's leadership, the 30-plus-truck fleet serves a diverse customer base with an array of services, from walking floor and dry bulk tanks to flatbeds and dry vans. Cowan’s laser-focused on maintaining a healthy company culture in the increasingly fine-tuned operation that seeks to actively involve its company driver team and leased owner-operators in the achievement of safety and maintenance goals. And he's become a leader not only in the transportation industry but in the area of relationship development more broadly. Fundamentally, Cowan is forever trying to answer this question for himself, too, when it comes to those working with Silver Creek: "What can I do to help them have a better life?" In 2021, Cowan and Silver Creek Transportation were crowned Overdrive’s Small Fleet Champ award winners.
Hailing originally from New Jersey,
Ilya Denisenko is the owner and operator of one-truck ICV Express, headquartered in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Denisenko’s trucking business follows close on the heels of several years’ experience hauling both over-the-road and locally, and draws on lessons the owner learned in the restaurant industry. Business experience drove him to a keen focus on containing costs with a maximum of efficiency, which he’s putting to work in the tough freight markets today to thrive, though ICV Express’ authority is less than a year old. His careful planning, and tireless efforts to network with solid brokerage partners, have his 2020 Volvo making good on the time-honored maxim that the best moment to start a business is at the bottom of the economic cycle. If you can succeed at the bottom with profit to show for it, he said, you’ll really make bank when conditions improve.
Gary Buchs lives with his wife, Marcia, in Colfax, Ill. Formerly leased to Landstar, the longtime owner-operator retired from active hauling in October of 2019 after a decade and a half working with multiple freight agents and dispatching himself on dry van runs in the region around his home base. Today, he offers private owner-operator business coaching services, sharing the wealth of knowledge he picked up over his career, and is a frequent Overdrive contributor and guest on Sirius XM’s Road Dog trucking talk channel. Buchs was the recipient of the 2016 Owner-Operator of the Year award in part for his professional acumen.
Register for the August 22 talk to catch it live or access the replay at this link.
Find more information on a myriad of owner-operator and small fleet business topics in the updated Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced "Partners in Business" book for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business sponsored for 2024 by the Rush Truck Centers dealer network. Follow this link to download the most recent edition of Partners in Business free of charge.
