Lately, I am finding myself in what starts out as casual conversation, and turns into teaching lessons. The biggest lesson to be learned out here is that being a good driver does automatically translate to being a successful owner operator. Yes, if you are leasing a truck, your ultimate goal should be to eventually own the truck, so you are an owner operator.



I have sit down with a few of our drivers over the past few weeks who are having trouble making the system work for them. Low revenue, high fuel costs, and trouble keeping moving.



While some will disagree, the first question I will ask the driver is what kind of fuel mileage they are getting, and how fast they are running. Typical answers are always above 65mph, and up to 75 or whatever the speed limit is. That is fine if you want to run that fast, but if you are struggling to learn the system and freight lanes, and struggling to make a profit, the first thing you need to do is slow down and slash your fuel costs.



Another topic during this conversation will be length of haul. The driver will usually tell me that there aren't enough good paying long loads. At that point, I get asked how long my loads are, and my answer is rarely not over 800 miles, and most of the loads are 400-600 miles in length. When you are a company driver, getting paid a set rate per mile, long loads are great for you. When you are running a business, it is all about profit. It makes more sense to take a load that delivers the next day, paying 80 cent per mile more than the long load you want, then get another short load the next day that is also paying 50-80 cents per mile more than that long load. In the end, you run far less miles in a week, use far less fuel, and generate the same or higher revenue. That means much higher profit.



Next, you have to know the freight lanes, and particularly the ones that are strong where you are leased. Where I am, you ignore good paying loads going to San Antonio, Texas delivering on a Friday. Why? San Antonio goes to sleep on Friday, and doesn't wake up until Monday for the most part. Don't take that load unless you are due to reset your hours. Take something paying a little less that is going to a strong freight area. Learn where the freight pays the best and try to keep yourself in that area. An example of this is that I will rarely, almost never, go east of Ohio. Why? because the freight rates pay horrible coming back west and I have no desire to run up and down the east coast. If you happen to live on the east coast, then staying over there and running I95 might work great for you. Pick your area, and learn to make it work for you.



Finally, plan your fuel purchases wisely. Schneider National has a fuel optimization program that works great for finding the most inexpensive fuel during your current trip. However, that program doesn't take into account your next load. When you plan your loads, map out your fueling locations and make the smart decision. Always make your fuel purchases in the most inexpensive location possible. For example: You can top off your tanks in Tennessee, while traveling to a delivery in Ohio. This prevents you from purchasing high priced fuel in Kentucky and Ohio (though you may want to purchase a little at some point each month in Kentucky for IFTA purposes). Your next load may take you right back into Tennessee, and even though the fuel optimizer told you to get fuel somewhere in Ohio, you can likely make it back into Tennessee to get fuel, saving you roughly 40 cents per gallon. 40 cents per gallon here, 20 cents per gallon there, and so on, adds up to a huge swing in fuel expense, and a much higher profit margin.



Bonus tip: If you are leasing a truck from Schneider, you want to put back money as quickly as possible to cover at least one of your weekly lease payments. You want to do this in order to not be forced into taking loads that deliver on Monday in order to cover all of your weekly expenses. You can put this money back into your own bank account, or you can have Schneider build it up out of your settlement into a general fund. What this does is allow you to take those better paying loads that you would otherwise ignore because they deliver on Tuesday, and you are needing a load to deliver on Monday to ensure you get a nice settlement and have all your expenses covered. Having that money set aside allows you to simply make a payment to Schneider over the phone or have them deduct it from your general account, therefore avoiding the penalty they would otherwise charge you for not making your lease payment.



There is money to be made, good money, in the Schneider National Choice Program. I will go out on a limb and say that you can probably earn more money and be more successful in this lease than you can with any other large carrier, based on the numbers I have seen from the other carriers, simply because you have the option to earn higher revenue if you work it right. At the same time though, you can fail much easier as well if you don't run it like a business.