“I am astounded by the number of fellow drivers I talk to today that are focused on the profitability issue,” Tim Brady, a Kenton, TN-based owner-operator for United Van Lines, told Fleet Owner.

“Many owner-operators are jumping ship to try out the many offers carriers have out there, but the problem is they are not making money doing it,” he said. “From everyone I’ve talked to, rates are still dropping and owner-operators are getting tired of being told ‘hang in there – it’ll get better.’”

One of the major factors hurting profitability for owner-operators remains the long-standing issue of uncompensated work loading and unloading trailers, said Todd Spencer, executive vp for the Grain Valley, MO-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn. (OOIDA)

“Though most drivers are paid a flat fee for each shipment they haul, their pay has absolutely no correlation to the time and effort spent on each load,” he said.

Spencer said two studies sponsored by the Truckload Carriers Assn. revealed that drivers are required to wait between 33 and 44 hours per week for shippers and receivers to let them load and unload. Once a driver is allowed to approach the dock, he or she is then required, without additional compensation, to load or unload the vehicle, and sometimes break down pallets into smaller units for the receiver.

“The amount of truck traffic on our highways is greatly increased by the millions of hours of unproductive time demanded of drivers and trucks each year,” said Spencer. “The number of trucks on the road would be fewer if trucks spent most of their time as a means of transportation rather than a stationary storage facility.”

Yet Brady stressed that the key to being truly profitable remains in the owner-operator’s corner.

“Whether you are profitable or not – despite whether you are paid by the mile, as a percentage of the load, whatever – depends on if you can determine when a load will be profitable to you,” he explained.