Owner Operators

By Tom Bray

Leasing owner-operators is one of the quickest ways a company can increase the fleet’s capacity. However, there are several pitfalls with using leased owner-operators, for both the company (carrier or “lessee”) and the owner-operator (the “lessor”).

By Jim Park

If you know what to look for, and are sensitive to the symptoms, you can spot many potential brake problems before they become real liabilities. And having concluded there's a problem, you can report it to the shop in a way that might prompt more than a readjustment of the slack adjusters.

Tags: Brakes

By Deborah Lockridge

Owner-operators are far from dead, but the population is experiencing some changes, according to Todd Spencer, vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, with many of those changes caused by government regulations.

Tags: Sleep Apnea, Driver Shortage, OOIDA, Owner-Operators

By Truckinginfo Staff

How bad does owner-operator Matt Purtee want truckstop electrification? “Bad enough where I know a few truckstops that have light poles with plug-ins at the base,” he says with a chuckle. “I get to those sites early so I can tap into the power before someone else does."

Tags: Idle Reduction, Truckstops, Owner-Operators, Shorepower

By Tom Berg

It’s still an oddball spec in road tractors and you’re not likely to consider it, but the 6x2 – a single drive axle with two powered wheels among six total wheel positions – will someday become more common as truck operators look for ways to save fuel and cut tare weight, suppliers think. Today, progressive fleets are testing or embracing it, and it might even be a good choice for some owner-operators.

Tags: MPG, Truck Specs, 6x2

By Colton Lawrence, Equinox Business Solutions

April 15 has come and gone, so you can breathe easy for another year -- that is, unless the IRS decides to audit you and become a major pain in your life. Here's how to handle it if they do.

Tags: IRS, Taxes, Owner-Operators, Equinox Owner-Operator Solutions

By Tom Berg

Drayage operators will soon obtain more container chassis from trucker-owned pools than from ship lines and railroads, which signals part of a transition under way in the intermodal industry. A recently formed North American Chassis Pool Cooperative has won government approval and has begun purchasing chassis.

Tags: Intermodal, NACPC, Chassis

By Tom Berg

Every day, thousands of used trucks change hands. Last year, 190,000 were sold, and though this year's tally might be lower, it's still a healthy business that sometimes mirrors new-truck sales. That this market is intrinsically tied to new trucks becomes more apparent at times like now, when supplies of late-model power units are growing scarce.

Tags: Schneider, Used Trucks, Arrow Truck Sales, NTP

By Tom Bray

Hours-of-service compliance is centered on two areas, limits and logs. Both drivers and carriers are held responsible for compliance with these regulations. If you're an independent owner-operator, that means you're both the driver and the carrier.

Tags: Hours of Service

By Jim Park

Poor fuel mileage can be a make-or-break proposition for owner-operators, and a lot of whether you get 6 mpg or 8 mpg depends on your skills and habits as a driver. Two drivers on two identical trucks can see a difference of up to 30% in fuel economy. Much of that chasm stems from good or bad pedal and stick management, and the driver's willingness to use available technology to his best advantage.

Tags: Drivers, MPG, fuel economy, Owner-Operators

By Jim Park

While equipment defects are a cause in only a small percentage of truck crashes, brake defects account for a large percentage of the trucks taken out of service. Many of those defects are adjustment issues.

Tags: Brakes, Owner-Operators

By Deborah Lockridge

It's more important than ever to protect a truck's air system from contamination, because there are more and more on-vehicle technologies making use of that air. That's why having and taking proper care of an air dryer is vital.

Tags: Maintenance, Bendix, Brakes, Air Dryers

By Tom Berg & Kate Harlow

When the economy took a dive in 2008 and the construction industry's work dried up, so did much of the market for dump trailers. As construction begins coming back, there's a growing demand for new dumps. Demand also is being driven by other emerging trends in the market.

Tags: East, Mac Trailer, Clement, Dumps, NTDA, Beall, Trailers, Vocational

By Jim Park

The 6x2 concept isn't new, but it's not popular on our side of the Atlantic Ocean. Meritor aims to change that with its new SmarTandem single-drive-axle tandem configuration. Equipment Editor Jim Park reports on his driving impressions.

Tags: Meritor, 6x2, SmarTandem, Test Drive, Winter

By Tom Berg

There was a time when fleet managers and owner-operators specified many components on their new trucks and tractors, but that's been seriously curtailed by vertical integration — the practice of manufacturers controlling the design and spec'ing process using parts they build themselves or get from a few suppliers.

Tags: Air filter, Maintenance

By Jim Park

FMCSA and the U.S. DOT have no influence over what happens in Canada, but Canada has plenty of its own regulatory agencies and ministries whose rules will affect American carriers' privileges and ability to operate there.

Tags: FMCSA, NAFTA, Canada

By Truckinginfo Staff

Approximately 7.6 billion hours are spent by businesses and individuals each year on tax compliance -- a workload that could keep 3.8 million full-time workers busy by the IRS’ own estimates. Throw your long hours as a trucker into the mix, and the potential to miss the filing deadline is very real. However, you can file an extension and avoid penalties.

Tags: Taxes, Business, Owner-Operators

By Tom Berg

Is it time to replace your old truck or tractor? Is it old enough that its engine has none of the exhaust-emissions equipment that’s been giving people fits in recent years? Have you decided to take the plunge anyway because your vehicle is just plain worn out? Here's what you need to know about emissions equipment when buying a used truck built in the last decade.

Tags: SCR, EGR, DPF, Used Trucks

By Thomas Bray, Editor, J.J. Keller & Associates

Despite all of the folklore that has been built around it, at its core, CSA (Compliance, Safety, Accountability) is simply a program used by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to track and evaluate carriers based on compliance and crash history. Carriers that do not score well in the system are the ones FMCSA will spend time warning or investigating.

Tags: FMCSA, J.J. Keller, CSA, Inspections, Owner-Operators

By HDT Staff

Which are the best of the best new products and equipment from last year's introductions? We've gone through an extensive process to determine HDT's 2013 Top 20 Products.

By Thomas Bray, Editor, J.J. Keller & Associates

The driver qualifications regulations, which are found in Part 391 of the FMCSA regulations, apply to all interstate drivers and most intrastate drivers that operate a commercial motor vehicle – no matter whether your company employs one driver or 1,000.

Tags: Drivers, Owner-Operators, FMCSA, Recordkeeping

By Jim Park

People will tell you that wheel balancing isn't necessary these days. Going back 10 or 20 years, new tires often needed a small amount of weight to balance out the irregularities in the old production process. With today's more exacting manufacturing standards, irregularities are the exception. But that doesn't mean you can't benefit from wheel balancing.

Tags: Tires, Wheels

By Deborah Lockridge

When it come to trends in axles and suspensions, it's all about efficiency. Fleets are constantly looking for ways to become more operationally efficient, whether it's fuel economy, increased payload, lower maintenance costs, longer equipment life, or driver productivity.

Tags: Firestone, Reyco Granning, Meritor, Suspensions, Hendrickson, Axles, Dana Spicer

By Contributed by Pam Whitfield & Don Jacobson

February is American Heart Month for one really good reason. Heart disease is the number one killer in this country, accounting for about a quarter of all deaths every year. That means the odds are nearly six to one that you will die of a heart problem rather than in an accident.

Tags: Fit to drive, Health, Diet & Nutrition, Drivers

By Scott Christensen, Contributor

New year - new taxes. That’s what many drivers are thinking after the latest round of tax increases. While you can’t legally dodge taxes, you can trim them. The options for doing so may have even been under your nose your entire trucking career.

Tags: Owner-Operators, Equinox Owner-Operator Solutions, Taxes

By Jim Park

How do you compare a luxurious Ford F-650 with an Isuzu Reach cargo van? Two completely different trucks with different purposes in life. Such was the challenge of five trucking media judges at the 2012 American Truck Dealers Association's Commercial Truck of the Year competition.

Tags: ATD, Dealers, Commercial Truck of the Year, Medium-duty trucks, Class 8

By Thomas Bray, Editor, J.J. Keller & Associates

Whether you have one truck or 20,000, the FMCSA's maintenance regulations apply to you. The safety and compliance experts at J.J. Keller have tips for owner-operators and small fleets on how to develop a maintenance program that will meet federal standards.

Tags: Maintenance, FMCSA, Owner-Operators

By Oliver Patton

The highway law that took so much effort over the past five years is just six months old, but now it's time to start again. As the U.S. Department of Transportation still unpacks the two-year, $105 billion measure passed last summer, Congress and transportation interests are gathering to return, once more, unto the breach.

Tags: GAO, Highway funding, CBO, Highway Trust Fund, MAP-21, White House, DOT, Congress, Infrastructure, Infrastructure Funding

By Kate Harlow

When you are getting ready to put a dry van trailer out to pasture and begin the process of searching for its replacement, there are many things to consider: maintenance costs, fuel-economy regulations, payload and the weight of the trailer, to name a few. One way to navigate through the maze of options is to follow some tips a few trailer manufacturers shared with us.

Tags: Trailers, Payload, Dry Vans, Capacity, MPG, fuel economy

By Jim Beach

Although technology has been able to reduce the trucking industry's reliance on paper, it hasn't been able to completely cut it out. Paperwork still has to be signed and submitted before a carrier or driver can get paid.

Tags: Information Technology, Scanning, Mobile Apps

By Tom Berg

The sloped hood on International's WorkStar 7600 was first shown off at the World of Concrete show in 2010, but with vocational-truck business seriously down during the recession, it only went into production last fall.

Tags: International, Workstar, Test Drive, Navistar, Vocational

By Jim Park

If stretching your tire budget means buying cheaper tires, you may be cheating yourself. You'll get more tires for less money — and that looks good up front — but does that theory hold up after six months or a year?

Tags: Retread tires, Tires

By Tom Berg

"Uncertainty" is the word people at most truck builders used to describe this year's business mood. Sales started strong, then slacked off in the summer as many buyers seemed to be waiting to see what would happen in the general economy and the presidential election

Tags: Class 8

By Colton Lawrence, Contributor

Have you been trucking since 1912 or earlier? If so, you are a true trucking pioneer, have an incredible fitness regimen and once earned an income without paying the Internal Revenue Service a dime

Tags: Business, Owner-Operators, Taxes

By HDT

You might recognize Mike Schiotis's name from the harrowing tale of how he saved a woman from her gun-wielding boyfriend and was named Goodyear's Highway Hero. What you probably don't know about Schiotis is that he can

Tags: Driver Stories, Health, exercise, cooking, diet

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

Bob Perry has been trying to help drivers be healthier for about 25 years, but he was way ahead of the curve. It's only in the past couple of years that the industry has embraced the notion that healthier drivers are safer, happier and more productive

Tags: Diet & Nutrition, Drivers, Health

Driving tanker, flatbed, and refrigerated trailers, seven Prime drivers recently arrived in Anderson, S.C., to compete in the Revolution 3 Olympic-distance triathlon relay and aquabike

Tags: Driver Stories

By Deborah Lockridge, Editor in Chief

LAS VEGAS - Seeing disturbing indications that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration may plan to address the issue of sleep apnea among truck drivers with a "guidance" rather than a rulemaking, the American Trucking Associations has a new policy positio

Tags: Health Issues, Sleep Apnea, ATA, Health

It didn't take long on the road before Siphiwe Baleka realized he was getting a truckers gut. Baleka had just left a 15-year career working for nonprofit organizations and was working as a lease owner-operator for Prime Inc. while he figured out his next move

Tags: Driver Stories

As part of this year's National Truck Driver Appreciation & Wellness Week, the Truckload Carriers Association has designated Sept. 20 as "Ditch the Pack" day

Tags: Health Issues

By Genevieve Conti, Assistant Editor

Carl Bailey's before and after weight-loss pictures make dropping 58 pounds look like magic

Tags: Diet & Nutrition

Con-way Truckload is one of a growing list of carriers that are requiring pre-employment agility testing for drivers

Tags: Fleet Stories