Owner-operator Greg Labosky has been striving for stability in a business that uses only power exclusively within the Amazon system, pulling dry van freight.
Although he has had his CDL since mid-1990s his trucking company is a relatively recent development.
After a 20 year hauling break, he returned to full-time driving in 2018 as a driver for Northeast regional tire and liquor distributors. He rented a vehicle shortly after and contracted with a small carrier who’s entire business was Amazon. Here, the stage was set to get authority as he watched a small fleet owner fail, and then try to reorganize into a different business, before failing again with a sudden company closure around COVID-19’s onset.
Labosky recommends that any owner or potential owner who crosses his way rely on their own experience and learn as much as they can themselves. “Have good judgment,” he said. “And be willing to keep good records of all you’ve done before.”
He said to take your cues and “do the mathematics yourself” to maintain your truck and personal credit as much as possible with your own hands. These skills will help you to get better freight in a system such as Amazon’s. It rewards contracted carriers for being on-time and experiencing the least service disruptions. This is the key to getting first pick on short-term and spot freight.
Labosky’s own rating is in the 90s, which has enabled him to be profitable the last two years. However, repairs to his 2017 Freightliner cascadia have put a slight dent in income for 2023 compared to the profits of 2022. John Lafreniere, his former pastor and current friend, says that Labosky is living his best life at the wheel. Lafreniere said, “You’re dealing with a guy who takes his work very seriously and doesn’t make any compromises.” “He is straight as an arrow when it comes to work ethic. He’s not scared of hard work but has a working knowledge of many things.”
The pastor said that sometimes, this might come across as arrogance. But it’s the working knowledge and willingness to develop it that has kept GDL Enterprise moving forward and upwards through the market turmoil of the last four year. Owner-operator Greg Labosky has been named Overdrive’s Trucker for the month of June. This puts him in the running to win the Trucker 2024 of the Year award.
Take complete control with a steady and confident hand
John Lafreniere knew Greg Labosky for about a decade before he decided to return to full-time trucking, which he had done for a few short years at the beginning of his career in the early to mid 1990s. Lafreniere remembers the careful consideration that went into the purchase of the truck after Labosky returned, took on the initial company driver’s job, and worked as a leased contract.
Lafreniere said, “He took a long time to make this decision.”
Labosky said that the rental situation was “OK at first”, but it came with significant expenses, which prevented him from reaching his savings goals to build beyond rainy-day funds for a substantial down payment. Labosky felt that he was being nickeled and dimed by his rental agreement.
His approach was a textbook example of how he narrowed down a large field of used truck possibilities to make the most profitable decision, even though the used truck market was already tight during the early pandemic period and prices were already inflated.
Labosky stated that he had a clear idea of what he was looking for: 450 horsepower, manual transmission, and a sleeper whose length was beyond the 48-inch coffin reminisced by him from his trucking days in the 1990s (an old cabover).
His process closely resembled one outlined in Overdrive‘s Partners in Business manual in the equipment-purchase-focused Chapter 10. He agreed with his longtime girlfriend Jenny Meng on a budget that he would stick to. The money came from savings Meng had accumulated over the years of running her small business. He looked at eight trucks on the market and then found reasons to disqualify them.
Labosky stated that he was evaluating the overall quality of an engine, its mileage, how it performed, and the overall tightness of a vehicle. He drove an International LT and felt the transmission was loose, as if it had not been well maintained.
He narrowed down the field to three finalists, driving them all and settling on a 2017 Freightliner cascadia with no frills.
The Cascadia (pictured), with its 10-speed manual and 3.64 rears, can “pull decent loads and with a bit more top end than I’d like,” he said. “But it does what I need it to.” The cab measures 125 inches from bumper to back, and the factory sleeper is 60 inches. This is “adequate” for his work, which keeps him out on the road most of the week.
If you want, you can fly by your seat of the pants with spot loads on the Amazon Relay system. Labosky, however, is more deliberate in his planning. He said he takes the contracts “three-five weeks before” to give him an idea of “what the start date is”, “what the end date is”, “how many loads I can do in a week” and the general rate for a certain block of time. He’s seen that rates vary from block to block depending on various factors. There is a fuel surcharge built in based on national rates, plus a toll reimbursement based on Amazon mapping system and recommended route.
Labosky explained that if you are familiar with the old-school map, which many of us grew to love, it can be advantageous to avoid toll roads, which are common in his hauling area around Connecticut, so as to “pocket the reimbursements for tolls.” Sometimes, however, it is not in your best interest to meet the deadlines for pickup and delivery.
[ Related: Effective Insurance, Exacting Analysis Deliver Trucker of the month’s Success]
Early access to freight and high service ratings are dependent on uptime
Jenny Meng has seen her local business grow thanks to her long-term relationship with Greg Labosky. The two have been together for many years. They are not yet married, but they do make many financial decisions together. This includes the one that led Labosky to buy a truck outright.
Owner-operator Greg Labosky with Jenny Meng
Meng, who has been a mechanic since high school, said that Meng had helped him with his business. He replaced air-conditioning units, and repaired some of the equipment associated with running a day spa.
She said, “He is very strict with his budget and doesn’t waste money on unnecessary items.”
Meng said that his instinct to learn and to better control all aspects of business has led him to “do more work on the truck myself to save money on repair costs that other people would charge for,” Meng explained.
Labosky believes that this has helped Labosky achieve a high score for accessing better-paying cargo in the Amazon system. The desire for dependability was also a factor in the evaluation of the truck purchase. When he bought it, the 2017 Cascadia was more than half-a-million miles old. The documentation showed that it was a single-owner vehicle, “but could have been a group.”
The driver’s chair had seen plenty action. He said that the truck could have been a “slip-seat” model. He replaced the seat a year after he bought it. The rig is now on its way to a half-million miles, with about 820,000. Other repairs have been minimal since then. He evaluated the front end of the rig, and chose the rig because he noted that “a number of components on the upper section of the engine” had undergone some recent work. Gaskets, for example, were relatively new.
He knows that a real rebuild is only a matter time. Labosky changes the oil every 3 months or after 25,000 miles (whichever comes first) and has an oil sample analysed each time. “So far, the samples show that the engine is holding its own in terms of internal wear,” he said. However, he may notice extra soot when he idles more than usual.
He feels that keeping up with a good maintenance schedule is what drives his high rating on Amazon, as he avoids “cancelling loads due to mechanical problems.”
He added that “keeping an eye” on their equipment is also important. Ninety-percent of his loads are drop/hook and all Amazon trailers. He makes sure “their trailers meet spec” and “stand your ground if it needs to be fixed.”
He has avoided service failures several times by identifying trailer issues. He said that “they just took me off the load and gave me another.”
He gets 6.5-7.5mpg on average and is curious to know if he can get two or more mpg in rigs with automated transmissions that are optimized for the engine paired with. He’s open for the future, but for now, he’s happy with his current setup, which has plenty of power and manual flexibility to anticipate changes in terrain, minimizing the negative safety consequences that could result from, for example, losing speed on a hill in dense Northeast traffic.
John Lafrienere, a friend of Greg Labosky’s, said that he “takes time to relax” and “knows how to decompress.” When he is on the clock, he is super-focused.
Preparing for the best outcome
Jenny Meng believes her fiance is best prepared for the hill ahead. She said that the key to his success is to keep a close watch on expenses and maintenance items that are “old and worn-out” before they become a problem and require a major repair.
Greg Labosky is no exception. He kicked up debris that was rolling along the Cross-Bronx Expressway, in a construction area, which cracked the Cascadia crankcase breather, resulting in a loss in oil pressure. It was necessary to replace the oil pan, crankcase breather housing, and oil pump.
He has a good track record of keeping “unexpected events” to a minimum. And he’s made a lot of money for it. He now earns $20K more as an owner than he did when he was a driver.
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Preparing for the future includes
Put money aside for retirement
The best way to prepare for unexpected maintenance costs is by setting aside an emergency fund, rolling over a 401(k), and having health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield. He stresses the importance of this last point to any new or prospective small business owner. He said that his goal is to get “10 cents out of every dollar of revenue” but he sometimes misses the mark when rates are low, as they have been recently.
He said that he is looking at the future with an eye on expansion within the Amazon system. “I’d like to buy a new truck to see where the emissions systems are going, though I want to run this unit for a while without a payment.” He has about a year to go before he can pay off the entire note. “It is just a matter” of getting to a point where I am comfortable enough to balance the debt that would come with the new truck with new income opportunities.
He knows that he will get a better deal than he did with his pandemic truck purchase. Prices were high then, and interest was high because he was a first time truck buyer.
Pastor John Lafreniere observes that Labosky has a give, and you shall receive attitude. Lafreniere, who led Fairfield Baptist Church in Fairfield, Connecticut in the recent past, saw the owner-operator make many contributions to the church through volunteer work. The pastor said, “He’s been a really nice guy.” “If I were in a hurry and needed someone I could rely on, Greg is one of my first calls. He has repeatedly shown me his character.”
This link will allow you to enter your business or that of another deserving owner (up to three trucks) into Overdrive’s Trucker of the year 2024 competition.
[ Related to: Fuel mileage gains and business prowess are the driving forces behind Trucker of The Month, Alpha Drivers’ owner Alec Costerus]
Listen to interviews with this month’s Truckers of the Monthly via the playlist below.