Tag: niche hauls: Page 5

Business

J.D. Howard: Short hauls and frequent home time with Midwest asphalt

Four years ago, owner-operator J.D. Howard joined Dan Ratta’s Marshallville, Ohio-based small liquid-asphalt-hauling operation, Ratta Trucking. At that time, he paid around $65,000 for a new 42-foot 7,500-gallon all-aluminum insulated 2015 Polar high-heat asphalt tanker.

May 7, 2019

Business

Dennis Holliday: A ‘smart’ move to hazmat chemical tanks

Dennis Holliday started trucking in the early 1980s in a GMC Astro cabover, hauling for North American Van Lines. Like most household movers, he was involved in a lot of the loading and unloading. He says he didn’t get into liquid-bulk tank hauling until he “got smart.”

May 6, 2019

Business

Think tank: A closer look at liquid bulk hauling

Owner-operators who consider pulling a tanker after other trucking niches often don’t look back after enjoying higher earnings, shorter waits and less physical demand.

May 3, 2019

Overdrive Radio

How-to: Custom walk-in storage at the front of a dry van; bulk tank niche explored

Daniel and Phyllis Snow detail their four-foot walk-in storage compartment they built into the front of their dry-van trailer, accessible from the tractor’s deck catwalk via a door assembly, to house tools and other supplies. Also in this edition of the Overdrive Radio podcast: liquid-bulk-tank insights from owner-ops Mike Landis, J.D. Howard.

April 26, 2019

Business

Livestock hauling: Caring for cargo

The same considerations behind the ELD exemptions also raise the standard for what it takes to operate successfully in livestock hauling.

April 19, 2019

Voices

POLL: How many different trailer types have you pulled through your career?

Have you been dedicated to a particular trailer type through your career or hauled in different niches throughout? Share you story via this poll.

April 19, 2019

Business

New hauling markets: Where recreational cannabis is legal

One result of the 2018 midterm elections was the addition of Michigan to the list of states that have created new markets for legal recreational cannabis — places where transportation opportunities are expected to grow around the product, shown in red on the map here.

April 17, 2019

Channel 19

How to outfit a cargo van for expediting driver comfort on the road

West Michigan Expedite small fleet owner Steve McNeal outlines a set of cargo-van-hauling basics he prefaces by noting there are many ways to upfit a cargo van. Here, he’s focused on ways to combat what is an essential issue for drivers of vans in expediting — comfort on any layover away from home.

April 16, 2019

Business

Delivering cannabis — and cash — in California

A look at the burgeoning cannabis and cash distribution businesses in California’s newly legal recreational cannabis market — via two operations with different areas of emphasis, both utilizing cargo vans for the work.

April 15, 2019

Business

Cargo van hauling: Operating with authority, and the ‘multicarrier’ model

With few owner-ops operating with authority in the expedited niche, around the time of the Great Recession many van drivers were desperate for any way to stay loaded. A multicarrier model arose in which van owner-operators essentially negotiate loads in leased arrangements with a multiplicity of expedited carriers.

April 10, 2019

Business

One cargo van owner’s competitive edge in vehicle configuration

Years ago, West Michigan Expedite small fleet owner Steve McNeal began purchasing cutaway vans and designing a single-bed sleeper behind the cab. For the cargo area, he designed a lightweight aluminum-constructed box capable of accommodating up to six skids — double the pallet capacity of a stock van, if not the weight capacity.

April 9, 2019

Business

The lowdown on downsizing: Hauling in the cargo van owner-op niche

With its under-10,001-pounds regulatory category, cargo-van hauling might seem to hold the key to addressing some of the biggest complaints among Class 8 owner-operators. But its easy-in/easy-out rep isn’t always justified, and plenty challenges are shared between it and the Class 8 world.

April 8, 2019