Life on the Road – Trucking News Blog

Listen, I read Jimmy Dawson’s well thought out piece on becoming a successful owner-operator. Running the truck as a business, etc. Great advice. But quite frankly, I would rather own and operate a hot dog stand on some corner in NYC than be a owner-operator in the trucking business. A Subway fast food restaurant, a house painting business, something or anything to do with computers would all be better choices than to go buy a truck and be an owner-operator. Trucking will kill you. Yesterday, I almost turned into a human popsicle. I was fortunate to spend the night in a warm motel room. I was overtired and didn’t sleep well. At 3 AM I was wide awake watching Burt Reynolds and Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit. I don’t know when I fell asleep, but when I woke up, I took a long very hot bath and washed away 4 weeks of life on the road. Then it was time to get roll’n. Today’s temperature was, by the way, four degrees. That doesn’t take into account the wind chill. I could have remained in the motel several more days just “listening” to the quiet.

I walked across the ice and snow and got into the truck. Key in – and what else is new – it didn’t start. Low voltage warning. I know it wasn’t the fuel. Maybe the oil’s a little thick? The inverter began whistling, so I disconnected the frig. I had lights, radio and CB running with the little juice that was left in batteries. I started the APU to try and charge the batteries. No luck. They were gone. It wasn’t that long ago that they had been replaced. The temperature then was about 85 degrees. The company bought used batteries – junk. Talking to the T/A road service guy, he confirmed what I already knew – that carriers are operating in a “patch and drive” mode. Whatever can be done as cheaply and quickly to get the truck up and running will be authorized and nothing else. Forget what might happen a week or a month down the road because an alternator or some other part is not replaced – patch it, get it running and get down the road. Preventive maintenance at its worst. Thank goodness these MBA suits are not running the airlines – or are they?

The “national” hourly rate for a T/A type repair is about $96 an hour. Here at the Thermo-King dealer in downtown Chicago, the rate is $106 an hour. Some truck dealers can go as high as $120 an hour. T/A might have done drivers a big favor by offering free seconds and all-you-can eat meals, but the truck repair business is as expensive a rip-off as ever. And as we all know, “they” are never in any hurry to do anything. Customer service is terrible and parts always seem to have to be flown in from Madagascar. Couple that with manufacturers who sell trucks with electrical flaws and hurriedly and poorly designed necessities like APU’s, well, just thinking about being an owner-operator, let alone a company driver – scares the hell out of me. I think Dawson should have recommended you get your ASE diesel certification before you go out and buy that truck.

So my company authorizes changing out two of the four batteries. About an hour of charging along with a can of ether and the truck starts. It has been three hours since I was in the nice hot tub. But my day is not over. The APU heater still doesn’t work. Time to head to downtown Chicago to deal with that. Amazingly Thermo-King, as busy as they are – you should see this cash cow gold mine – said they’d get to me in an hour and they did. As I write this, the truck is still being worked on. The customer waiting room doubles as the tech break room. There is a Sunflower (now Shaffer aka Crete) driver sitting across from me and his cologne is so potent my nose hairs are straightening. I wish he would go away or take a shower. He has told me three times what’s wrong with his truck and I just don’t care. I grunt and don’t engage him. The Simpson’s just came on the TV – he seems enthralled and it should take all of his brain power to follow what’s going on.

Trucking is too volatile. It always has been. Competition is cut-throat. For every owner-operator seeking a load or new business there are 50+ behind him/her offering to do it cheaper and faster. Equipment is unreliable. Repair service is unpredictable. Government regulation, taxes and permits are excessive. Fuel prices are all over the place – another terrorist attack and your “expenses” can double overnight. There is no such thing as customer loyalty. Service requirements change with the tide. Everyone, especially brokers, make their own interests and profits their priority. As I said, the lifestyle is brutal. Shippers and receivers are nuts. The demands great. Divorce, depression and suicide rates are high.

I didn’t see the high cost of health insurance in Dawson’s “numbers.” That’s because most O/O’s can’t afford it. There is constant tug between what is legal and what is expected. Logistics is at the bottom of the corporate barrel in terms of respect. Trucks and truck drivers are not sexy. We are transparent in the psyche of America – with people believing goods just magically appear on shelves in stores. The “slow” brother works in receiving. The “dumb” sister got a job in shipping.

KW and Freightliner manufacturers and markets “disposable” plastic trucks riveted together with Chinese and Mexican components. A driver is unpaid for 25% of his/her work. And you want to be an owner-operator? Failure rates are astronomical. Listen to me, find some other way to earn a living. If you really want to be a trucker, see if you can survive six months as a company driver – enjoy the scenery and let somebody else worry about everything else.