Hit that link for one of the central premises of Amen’s talk, though data there is a couple years old now. Suffice it to say that annual average miles among owner-operators continue to fall, with revenue and income per mile, however, rising.
Though there are many factors involved, the main element of the national picture that is markedly different, Amen notes, is regulatory enforcement. Illustrating the difference between the driver of 10 years ago, when Overdrive and ATBS first joined forces in the Partners in Business, might typically have run three log books, racking up a grand total of 139,000 annual miles. Today, that figure’s fewer than 110,000, with the reality of tough hours enforcement. The CSA program and the subsequent boost of the impact violations found during inspections now have on carriers of all shapes and sizes is a big part of that. Follow through from there in Amen’s logic, however, in the podcast here to see how he gets to that “life is good” determination.