How do owner-operators and small fleets survive and thrive in tough economic times? Find out in this webinar.
Join us for a live webinar Aug. 22 at 1 p.m. CT and hear from owner-operators and small fleets as we discuss how they prepared during the good times to weather the storms.
A recent snap poll delivered to Overdrive readers asked a simple but no doubt pressing question.
What wakes you up at 2 a.m.?
Answers struck at the core struggles of many a small trucking business owner. Asked to choose up to three of their “most challenging” trucking business concerns, survey respondents noted bedrock cost control in the largest numbers, followed closely by the other side of the profit equation: rates negotiation with direct and/or broker customers. Generating the revenue to cover the costs has been the central problem for small fleets and owner-operators for going on two years now, following the pandemic-inspired supply/demand pressure that sent freight rates on their 2020-to-early 2022 journey to unprecedented highs.
Rates have crashed since, of course — meanwhile, costs have remained elevated in many areas, yielding a nightmare scenario for any trucking business built on a less-than-solid foundation.
One business owner’s 2 a.m. nightmare, though, is another’s challenge to compete, to prove that the proverbial mountain can be climbed with plenty profit to show for it on the way back down from the peak.
And that’s even with rates at or below $2/mile on many lanes.
On Thursday, August 22, at 2 p.m. Eastern, join Overdrive editor Todd Dills for a roundtable webinar featuring three such owners with experience at the peaks and valleys of trucking’s notorious business cycles, especially difficult for the smallest fleets. The panel will tackle the central problem of the last couple of years head-on: how a small trucking company can prep for and profit in times of rising costs and declining revenues by routinely doing the small things, and being smart enough to spot the big ones, necessary to roll strong through lean times.
[Related: More ‘cheap freight’ curves ahead: Between ways to assess rates and reviews, costs and emotions]
Featured panelists include those with hard-won wisdom to share from prior down cycles, including the biggest of them in recent memory before and after year 2008. But also: The example of ICV Express owner Ilya Denisenko, who chose the present moment to launch his one-truck business with authority. The Chapel Hill, Tennessee-based owner makes good on a time-honored maxim: that the best moment to start a business is at the bottom of the economic cycle. If you can succeed at the bottom with profit to show for it, as he notes, you’ll really make bank when conditions improve.
How’s he making it? Find out the answer and much more besides during the roundtable — join us to learn from three trucking pros about diverse survival strategies for weathering freight-economy headwinds, and ways to get ahead of the inevitable next downturn, too, with careful preparation.
[Related: Service, loyalty might mean little to a shipper today, but we can’t give up on them entirely]
Attend live or catch the replay by registering for the August 22 event.
Register via this link.
Featured speakers:
Jason Cowan is the founder and President of Henderson, Kentucky-based Silver Creek Transportation. Launched by an acquisition of a local trucking company in 1994, Silver Creek has since become a leader in specialty trucking. Under Cowan’s leadership, the 30-plus-truck fleet serves a diverse customer base with an array of services, from walking floor and dry bulk tanks to flatbeds and dry vans. Cowan’s laser-focused on maintaining a healthy company culture in the increasingly fine-tuned operation that seeks to actively involve its company driver team and leased owner-operators in the achievement of safety and maintenance goals. And he’s become a leader not only in the transportation industry but in the area of leadership and relationship development more broadly. Fundamentally, Cowan is forever trying to answer this question for himself, too, when it comes to those working with Silver Creek: “What can I do to help them have a better life?” In 2021, Cowan and Silver Creek Transportation were crowned Overdrive’s Small Fleet Champ award winners.
Hailing originally from New Jersey, Ilya Denisenko is the owner and operator of one-truck ICV Express, headquartered in Chapel Hill, Tennessee. Denisenko’s trucking business follows close on the heels of several years’ experience hauling both over-the-road and locally, and draws on lessons the owner learned in the restaurant industry. Business experience drove him to a keen focus on containing costs with a maximum of efficiency, which he’s putting to work in the tough freight markets today to thrive, though ICV Express’ authority is less than a year old. His careful planning, and tireless efforts to network with solid brokerage partners, have his 2020 Volvo making good on the time-honored maxim that the best moment to start a business is at the bottom of the economic cycle. If you can succeed at the bottom with profit to show for it, as he noted, you’ll really make bank when conditions improve.
Gary Buchs lives with his wife, Marcia, in Colfax, Ill. Formerly leased to Landstar, the longtime owner-operator retired from active hauling in October of 2019 after a decade and a half and more working with multiple freight agents and dispatching himself on dry van runs in the region around his home base. Today, he offers private owner-operator business coaching services, sharing the wealth of knowledge he picked up over his career, and is a frequent Overdrive contributor and guest on Sirius XM’s Road Dog trucking talk channel. Buchs was the recipient of the 2016 Owner-Operator of the Year award in part for his professional acumen.
Register for the August 22 talk via this link to engage directly with the panelists. Drop your questions in the comments below this story to relay them via the roundtable’s host. We hope to see you there!
Find more information on the ins and outs of the owner-operator business the updated Overdrive/ATBS-coproduced “Partners in Business” book for new and established owner-operators, a comprehensive guide to running a small trucking business sponsored for 2024 by the Rush Truck Centers dealer network. Click here to download the most recent edition of Partners in Business free of charge.