Growing up as the eldest among 15 kids in a Mennonite family in Ephrata, PA, Lance Zimmerman has probably grown up faster than a lot of children, although he was, and still is considered to a certain extent, a
bit of a renegade amongst his conservative family.
. In the fall of 1982 he started trucking. He drove a dump bucket for a couple of years, followed by a “bull wagon,” dry vans and reefers. Lance, 50, became an owner operator in 1995 and since then has mostly been hauling oversized loads. Last May he bought a 2004 Freightliner XL Classic with a 12.7 Detroit Diesel with 600 h.p. It has a nine speed transmission, but an 18-speed tranny 
is on order. The previous owner had a glider kit installed and had it certified. When Lance picked up the seven-year-old truck last spring the only mileage on it was the 68 miles the owner had driven to and from the inspection shop.
HaulProduce.com caught up with Lance recently when he was delivering a model 730 Cat off road dump truck to a Tulsa, OK dealership. He had picked up the 49,000-pound Cat at Port Dundalk in Baltimore. He loaded the dump truck himself onto his 7007 Fontaine Renegade, 48-foot double drop RGN.
“I like what I’m hauling now (oversized loads) better than anything I’ve ever done,” Lance says. “I don’t have to run as hard to maintain my lifestyle and I get to sleep every night.” This is because oversized loads are only allowed to be moved during daylight hours. 70 percent of his loads are for the U.S. military.
“When the military has a platoon training, that equipment goes with them. On a major move by a platoon it can take up to 80 trucks to move that equipment”, he says. The military wants delivery on a certain day, but the allow time for you to run legally. The loads also include a good freight rate.
“If it pays well enough, I’ll haul it,” notes Lance, who is leased to J.R. Martin Transport LLC of Mill Hall, PA. Noting there is no forced dispatch with J.R. Martin, he has been working with the company long enough that his dispatcher knows pretty much what Lance will and will not haul. He averages being on the road two to two and one-half weeks at a time.
“If I get a $3 to $4 (per mile) paying load I’ll go anywhere, even if it is someplace like Montana where you can’t get another load without deadheading 300 to 400 miles. It is still worth it,” he notes.
Lance says his westbound loads normally pay better than eastbound trips, which is pretty much the opposite of what truckers pulling refrigerated loads experience. Much of it comes down to availability of trucks for certain types of equipment going in a particular direction.
If Lance has one piece of advice for successfully making it as an owner operator, he states, “Find a decent company to lease to. Also, today with the internet you can get loads from about anywhere in the country. You have got to go where higher paying loads go. If you want to be home every week then your loads will be for less money. Sometimes those good paying loads don’t go where you want to be.”
Lance has reached the point in his trucking career where he averages about 100,000 miles a year, which still allows time off for one of his two favorite pastimes, elk hunting in Colorado, and bike riding. He owns a 2009 Road Glider Harley Davidson. Every year or two Lance and one or two of his friends will hit the road on their hogs. During his last “vacation” the guys logged 9,500 miles in 21 days. In past years they have traveled to Nova Scotia, Florida, the western United States and many points in between from their Lancaster County, PA base.
“My wife Lori says if I’m not moving I’m not happy,” Lance concludes.