All advertisements, and/or editorials are accepted and published by Over the Road on the representation that the advertiser, its advertising company, and/or the supplier of the editorials are authorized to publish the entire contents and subject matter thereof. The advertiser, its advertising company, and/or the supplier of the editorials will defend, indemnify and hold Over the Road harmless from and against any loss, expense or other liability resulting from any claims or suits for libel, violation of privacy, plagiarism, copyright or trademark infringement and any other claims or suits that may rise out of publication of such advertisement and/ or editorials. Press releases are expressly covered within the definition of editorials.
Great
Minimum
Robert D. Scheper
Lease Operators verses Owner Operators
I was talking the other day to a guy who used to be an independent operator. He sold his truck in 2022 (in the season of high truck values) after opening a small business from his shop at home. He now has six employees and does well in a very unrelated industry to trucking. We discussed his 30+ years of the independent operator industry. He was a driver back in the 1990’s and we talked about three recessions and a couple “booms”. He was wondering when owner operators would “vanish” completely. I said… never!
If we are to discuss the industry sectors, we must first define the sub sectors. Independent Operators have two classes: Lease Operators and Owner Operators. Lease Operators get paid cents per mile and Owner Operators get paid percentage. The two classes have two very different business models. Lease Operators focus on “Mile-Miles-Miles”. If you sit, you lose money as a Lease Operator. Deadhead miles usually mean lower fuel costs and therefore higher margins/returns. Success in this class has to do with how well the Operator can keep their costs down. It’s a low-cost producer business model. Being an Owner Operator is a very different business. They get paid a percentage and
instead of “Miles-Miles-Miles”, they focus on rate per mile over time (usually days). They see the benefit of a layover, waiting for that higher paying freight. They have much more math in their success plan and are exposed to the customer base of the carrier they drive for. They are much more attuned to the freight market prices and fluctuation.
While discussing the industry with my friend, I responded to his comment on Owner Operators vanishing. I said, on average, Lease Operators will probably dissolve more/faster than Owner Operators. The assumption in my statement was that Owner Operators can usually survive hauling market freight longer than Lease Operators. When volumes drop (assuming they drop universally, which in some sectors they don’t) the first to suffer are those with a static revenue contract (cents per mile). This assumption is mostly true when hauling general freight.
Owner Operators have two variables in their business model: Rate and Volume. When rates drop, the Owner Operator may have the option to increase volume to support their bottom line (thus a tendency to pull low paying freight).
Lease Operators have no flexibility, if volume drops their bottom line cannot be recovered. I understand that these statements are generalizations. But I write this article to raise a very clear point. Lease Operators and Owner Operators are two very different business models. Assuming they are the same and are affected the same is a flawed assumption.
I had a client who bought a truck. He drove at a Carrier that had Company Drivers, Lease Operators and Owner Operators. He decided to leap straight to an Owner Operator since he heard they made more money than Lease Operators do. He signed up, put the truck in gear and they sent him to BC, and he brought stick down the to USA. Then he circled back to BC or northern AB for more sticks for down south. A couple months after starting, he marched into the recruiter’s office and demanded he be changed to a Lease Operator. Bippity-Boppity Boo - he was a Lease Operator. He was never sent to Northern AB or BC for sticks again. Owner Operators need to be much more attuned to their financial environment and what’s presented to them from dispatch. A very different business model.
I have experienced three recessions: 2000-2001, 2009 and 2022-24+? Many people in each recession thought Operators were never going to survive. They were always wrong; I still believe them to be wrong again.
About the Author:
Robert D. Scheper is a leading Accountant and Consultant exclusively serving the Lease/ Owner operator industry in Canada. His first book in the Making Your Miles Count series “taxes, taxes, taxes” was released in 2007. His second book “Choosing a Trucking company” is the most in-depth analysis of the independent operator industry today. He has a Master degree (MBA) in financial management and has been serving the industry since he and his wife came off the road in 1993. His dedication, commitment and strong opinions can be read and heard in many articles and seminars. You can find him at www.makingyourmilescount. com or 1-877-987-9787.
CHECK OUT THE PODCASTS AT “YOUTUBE.COM/@MAKING YOUR MILES COUNT”
SEARCHING FOR A TRUCK DRIVING JOB BUT DON’T KNOW WHERE TO LOOK?
Get into a job you enjoy by searching through hundreds of driving jobs across Canada and the US!
Drivers and Owner Operators, apply to leading trucking companies in minutes! It is absolutely FREE, easy and simple to use. Check it out today!
Too Much Safety?
SAFETY DAWG
Chris Harris
We are not far off from the annual truck driver safety meetings in Canada. The meetings are generally held the same weekend as the American Thanksgiving. This is because in the United States, they close the doors of so many factories on Wednesday afternoon of Thanksgiving and they remain closed on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and Black Friday. This gives the employees of many warehouses, shippers, receivers and factories a four-day weekend.
Canadian truck drivers usually make their last delivery on Wednesday and then hurry home on Thursday or Friday. For Canadian trucking employers, this means that they can get a very high percentage of their drivers to a safety meeting at that time, without losing freight to a competitor. Many of the crossborder trucking companies do the same thing. Guest speakers are
in high demand for the American Thanksgiving weekend.
However, not all companies wait for this weekend. Some companies have safety meetings more frequently; some have two in-person safety meetings per year. Others have three in-person meetings and some even have four in-person meetings in a year.
That is why I am asking, can we have too much safety?
Many companies also use online training platforms such as Infinit-i for training. They then use a combination of in-person meetings and an online platform. Many of these companies are now training every month. Is this too much?
And why do companies train? After all, you are a truck driver, and you consider yourself a professional. You
have had your licence for quite some time. You are experienced. The answer is because they are required to. That is the answer, and it is simple. According to Occupational Health and Safety, employers must train their employees.
What if you are not employed but are part of Driver Inc.? It is my opinion that the company that you are working with, is still required to train you. And besides, it is not just Workplace Safety or Occupational Health and Safety that says that employees must be trained. There are also the Labour Boards. This could be Federal or Provincial. Then look at the insurer of the trucks. They are always asking about training for the new hires and the ongoing training of the existing drivers. It is the insurer who also really likes remedial training for the drivers that have a violation or infraction. It is not just the government that demands training, it is also the insurance companies.
Is all this training too much? Can too much knowledge be a bad thing? I for one say NO. There is never too much training.
I do think that there are boring trainers and terrible training. The boring and the terrible make it a punishment for the drivers to attend training sessions.
This is one of the reasons truck drivers sometimes don’t like the annual training meetings. They don’t learn anything new.
I have sat through some terrible and boring training sessions. As a trainer, I try my best to be spirited and a little entertaining. There are not many ways to tell the drivers to leave more space and to slow down. Leaving space and going a little slower are the key essentials to safe driving so they need to be discussed, but it can be done in an entertaining way.
So as the American Thanksgiving weekend gets closer, I wish all drivers a wonderful few days off. And enjoy the training, because until we get to a point where there are never any more collisions, then we need to keep doing safety training!
Be Safe
Chris Harris
Top Dawg, Safety Dawg Inc.
905-973-7056
chris@safetydawg.com @safety_dawg (twitter)
WOMEN IN TRUCKING
Ellen Voie
What is Unconscious Bias?
Has anyone ever told you that in order to succeed, you need to lower your voice tone, speak up more often and brag about your accomplishments? If you are a woman working in a male populated environment, these are some of the things you could do to advance your career and earn more money.
Wait! What? Yes, these are all forms of unconscious bias that people may be using to limit women’s empowerment. What is unconscious bias? Also known as implicit bias, it is an unintentional way of stereotyping or discriminating against a person or group. It could be a learned bias or systematically ingrained in our brains. Since it is unconscious, we aren’t aware that we’re judging or categorizing someone based on the framework our brain provides. However, by understanding this tendency, we can first recognize it as bias and then work to remove it from our thought process. You cannot eliminate unconscious bias, but you can learn to mitigate it and it’s effect on the people around you.
Let me give you some examples of unconscious bias. Managers often assume that a young woman who is growing her
family is less eager to travel for her job. We form opinions about someone based on the car they drive or the clothes they wear, but this doesn’t always hold true (maybe they borrowed the car, or their luggage was lost on the plane.)
We’ve all heard assumptions about millennials and their work ethic. Maybe that’s coming from the baby boomer generation, but a lot of stereotyping is evident when hiring from other generations.
In the trucking industry, unconscious bias occurs when recruiters assume a woman won’t apply for a job pulling a flatbed or a car carrier. I’ve often heard people say that automated transmissions are more attractive to female drivers. Since when is learning how to shift gears easier for men?
So, what about the tone of your voice?
Researchers at Northwestern University found that ‘vocal masculinity’ was associated with a nearly seven percent increase in overall pay. Men who speak more often, regardless of their voice resonance, are viewed as having higher competence than women, who are viewed by both genders as being less competent.
One study found that ‘overconfident’ decision makers are more likely to be appointed to the CEO position. On the opposite end of that bias, research has shown that not only do women minimize their accomplishments, but they are also more likely to downplay their identity on the job. This includes changing hairstyles or covering tattoos. Women are also held back from promotions when they are deemed too bossy. Assertiveness is okay, but intimidation and aggressiveness are not. Be nice! This creates challenges for female executives, who have higher education levels and greater income but often suffer from chronic stress from being judged as ‘unfeminine.’
A recent article in Inc. claimed women are 25 percent less likely to share a dissenting option at work. Researchers at Bucknell University found the female college students would downplay their grade point average to be liked in an effort to protect the other person’s feelings. A Wharton study reported that women systematically rated themselves lower when it came to self-promotion, even when their work was objectively better then men’s.
Why are we limiting ourselves when it comes to advancing our careers? It’s not intentional and it’s not warranted. It’s the way we are wired. Women are driven by estrogen which promotes bonding and team building and encourages collaboration. It’s often called a maternal
instinct, but it’s not related to being mothers as much as it is due to being a woman. We want to be liked, and we want everyone on our team to feel important and included. There’s nothing wrong with that, but if a work environment doesn’t value these goals, women will suffer in the process.
Unconscious bias is holding us back, but we’re not blaming just men, as we ALL share these stereotypes. We learn to categorize and then we try to fit people into these roles. By understanding and addressing our own bias, we can learn to avoid it, minimize its effect, or maybe even eliminate it.
Ellen Voie Founder
of Women in Trucking, Inc. ellen@womenintrucking.org www.womenintrucking.org
Mission: Women In Trucking was established to encourage the employment of women in the trucking industry, promote their accomplishments and minimize obstacles faced by women working in the trucking industry.
