Attention Potential Owner-Operators

Pamela Mason

S. Bennett

WRT 101

October 17, 2007

CRN 11687

Attention Potential Owner-Operators

Hastily buying a truck and thinking you are going to simply find work to keep that truck running everyday, is unrealistic. One has to be educated and have an efficient understanding about what one needs to know, to keep a trucking business working. Brian Brombauch and Jj Howe are two different types of owner operators in the business of trucking. Brian Brombauch is an over-the-road driver. Jj Howe is a local owner operator in the construction business in Tucson, Arizona.

First and foremost, one has to land a job for that truck. There are a couple ways to do this. One can choose to lease the truck to a company to work under or one must "hustle up" work for the truck. When the truck is leased to a company, the company charges a percentage for brokering the work (companies decide how these terms are written up individually). Perhaps the trucker's business is just getting started and doesn't have its own trailer yet; usually a trailer can be rented for a fee. This is a common practice for many of the trucks running down the highway.

Brian Brombauch is currently running as an Owner-Operator, making a $2,000.00 dollar a month payment on a truck he is buying from Martin Company. He says, "The Company keeps me very busy running 2,500 - 3,000 miles a week. I earn approximately $10,000 dollars a month, but after all of my business expenses: fuel, tires, repairs, truck payment, and insurance and stuff; I only take home about $2,000-$4,000 dollars a month." Considering the hours he works in a day/night and that oftentimes the driving conditions are treacherous and dangerous, he can testify about how little that amount of money truly is. Obviously, one has to be slightly insane to drive a truck for a living.

Leasing a truck to a dirt company here in Tucson, Arizona is another option. The best aspect of running local is that this type of truck driver can maintain a fairly normal lifestyle. For example they can sleep at home in their own bed every night. They can go to work in the morning and get home in the evening. Usually they have weekends off. Having time at home is a luxury not many truckers are able to enjoy. If one wants to raise a family and be a truck driver, working in construction is a reasonable option (not to mention, off road trucking is a blast!) Leasing to a local company is not much different than leasing to an over-the-road company. Local dirt trucker JJ Howe says, "If you can get hooked up with somebody (construction company) that is looking for a steady truck, then that is the way to go. But, because of the nature of construction business, it is tough to keep a one-truck-company busy. For example, when they call you up, they often need a group of trucks out of one phone call, not a group of phone calls and only one truck. It is just easier for them." So, if you play golf with the owner of Borderland Construction the chances of striking up a deal with your golf buddy become much higher. Like the clichй, it's not what you know, it is who you know.

Second, if trucking dirt is your first choice, the challenge then becomes finding out what jobs are coming up, and figuring out how to "get a piece of that pie;" this is where contacts come in handy. When the construction industry is slow, there is more competition than there are jobs. These times can suffocate a small trucking business. "The only thing that pulled me out of the tough times was some of the contacts I had in the business." Howe says. He personally experienced the importance of having contacts and how their help contributed to the success of his small business. Therefore, it is beneficial to the owner operator in the construction business to have a few good "golfing buddies" in the field of construction. This can prove to be challenging for the women, because