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Allen Roberson has been trucking for 40 years and he’s got a few reasons why he has been a successful owner operator since 1972. But it may not be what you think.
He talks about working directly with shippers for starters. For example, the past six years Allen has worked directly with Lipman, a 60-year-old farming and shipping operation that was known as Six Ls until a name change in September 2011. Based in Immokalee, FL, Lipman is North America’s largest field grower of tomatoes with 4,000 workers and 22 locations.
Not only does Allen work directly with shippers, but good ones.
“Six Ls can call me anytime and I’ll be there. I stick with them, but it works both ways. They treat me well and I provide them with great service,” says Allen, who lives in Canton, NC.
Another reason the 64-year–old veteran trucker has always been able to make it as an owner operator is because he has his own operating authority.
“Having your own authority makes a big difference,” Allen says. “You don’t have to pay some else to run under their operating authority.”
How often does he haul produce? Everyday. He pretty much hauls exclusively for Six Ls (Lipman), a company that also has several vegetable items in addition to tomatoes. Most of his hauls are up and down the East Coast, although he occasionally delivers in the Midwest.
On this recent November day, Allen was at on the Atlanta State Farmers Market delivering tomatoes he had picked up in Asheville, NC. He didn’t know where the tomatoes were grown. Once unloaded, he would be deadheading the 200 miles back to Asheville.
“I’ll be paid for the deadhead miles,” Allen says, although he did not want the amount per mile publicized for the record. If I haul something up there then I’ll get full pay.”
Another key to being a successful owner operator is being on time.
“You have got to be dependable and on time. Wal Mart will charge (deduct from your freight) $100 if you are a minute late for arrival. It happened to me one time,” he recalls.
Allen also rarely eats in a restaurant, although he averages well over 100,000 miles a year on the road. He saves by taking and preparing his own meals.
While being on time, having your own authority and working directly with shippers are keys to his success, these are not the most important factors.
“The most important thing,” Allen says, “is you have got to have what it takes inside of you. You have to want to do it. You have to have that internal drive to work.”
Operating as E.A.R. (Edward Allen Robinson), he owns a 2006 Western Star he actually purchased new in 2007. It is powered by a 550 h.p. twin turbo Caterpillar diesel and features an 18-speed transmission. The sleeper is fully equipped with everything from a flat screen tv to a microwave oven. The Star has logged 700,000 miles. It pulls a 53-foot Utility trailer with a Thermo King reefer unit.
Allen is seriously considering retiring in May 2013. However, he admits not being sure whether he is going to keep the Western Star or not.
However, a little later he adds jokingly, “I’m going to leave my truck in the yard for a little while, just in case I wear out my welcome at home.” He has been married 20 years and has six granddaughters and two grandsons.
He’s looking forward to the holidays and taking some time to be off with the family and buying gifts for the grand kids.
“It’s really worth it, just seeing the smiles on their faces,” he concludes.
Wishing you safe travels if you’re on the road this holiday. Otherwise, I trust you are able to spend Thanksgiving with those you love and cherish the most. We have so much for which to be thankful in this great country. May God’s blessing be with each and everyone of you.
Here’s a few interesting facts about Thanksgiving.
The famous pilgrim celebration at Plymouth Colony Massachusetts in 1621 is traditionally regarded as the first American Thanksgiving. However, there are actually 12 claims to where the “first” Thanksgiving took place: two in Texas, two in Florida, one in Maine, two in Virginia, and five in Massachusetts.
The first Thanksgiving in America actually occurred in 1541, when Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and his expedition held a thanksgiving celebration in Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle.
One of the most popular first Thanksgiving stories recalls the three-day celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1621. Over 200 years later, President Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November as a national day of thanksgiving, and in 1941 Congress established the fourth Thursday in November as a national holiday.
Now a Thanksgiving dinner staple, cranberries were actually used by Native Americans to treat arrow wounds and to dye clothes.
Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879), who tirelessly worked to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday, also was the first person to advocate women as teachers in public schools, the first to advocate day nurseries to assist working mothers, and the first to propose public playgrounds. She was also the author of two dozen books and hundreds of poems, including “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) is partnering with Truckers Against Trafficking (TAT) in their efforts to stop one of the nations most heinous and fastest growing crimes human trafficking.
TAT is a nonprofit organization that educates, equips and mobilizes members of the trucking and travel plaza industry to combat domestic sex trafficking. The Department of Justice estimates that 100,000 to 300,000 of Americas youth are at risk of becoming victims of the sex trade industry each year.
Their efforts are important in so many ways, and we have been glad to help spread their messages to our members, said OOIDA president Jim Johnston. We are proud to strike an official partnership with them and continue that outreach through social media, a direct link from our website homepage, and other channels.
OOIDA hands out TAT wallet cards from its headquarters and keeps them on hand on the associations tour truck, The Spirit of the American Trucker.
Often, visiting members have asked for stacks of them to hand out to other drivers they meet out on the road, said Johnston.
The TAT organization works with the FBI, truck stops, law enforcement agencies and other groups in their battle to stop the despicable crime of human trafficking.
“By partnering with organizations like OOIDA, we can educate those who are likely to encounter victims of trafficking, recognize the signs and know what to do, said Kendis Paris, national director of TAT. Oftentimes, just calling 911 doesnt get consistent results because not all law enforcement have been trained about human trafficking. That’s why calling the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) is vitally important, so that those tips end up in the hands of anti-trafficking deputies who will investigate them. Callers can remain anonymous, and its ok if they are wrong about a situation observed. We want people to feel comfortable calling.
The NHTRC number is 1-888-3737-888.
The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is the largest national trade association representing the interests of small-business trucking professionals and professional truck drivers. The Association currently has more than 150,000 members nationwide. OOIDA was established in 1973 and is headquartered in the Greater Kansas City, Mo., area.
Produce loading opportunities from the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas are expected to increase in coming years as a new highway connecting West Mexico to south Texas opens in the new few months. Now another project is expected to increase produce loads from Mexico to markets in the USA and Canada.
A plan to change how millions of boxes of mangos are treated for the Mexican fruit fly and bacterial contaminants could be a boon Valley’s growing produce industry — and ultimately produce haulers.
The USDA has lifted a procedural barrier allowing construction along the U.S.-Mexico border of facilities that blast mangos and other fresh produce with a highly focused beam of electricity, eliminating pathogens and pests. McAllen, TX becomes the first city in the Southwest with the technology.
The E-beam facility will be built at 23rd Street and Military Highway on land owned by the Abasto Corp., directly across the street from the 42-acre Warehouse Kingdom development. The valley’s E-beam facility should create a competitive advantage for the McAllen metro area as it seeks to gain a larger share of the Mexican produce market. But consumers across the nation could also benefit from a larger array of high-quality fruits and vegetables that last longer on the shelf.
The high-tech procedure is supposed to virtually eliminate the chance of pests and pathogens such as fruit flies crossing the border.
The $22 million facility, which will eventually employ up to 200 people, will use a non-nuclear alternative to gamma-based irradiation to sterilize fruit and vegetables crossing the border in both directions.
To kill microorganisms, produce has traditionally been treated with a gas called ethylene oxide that is being phased out for health and environmental reasons. But a shift to treating produce in hot water baths created its own host of problems, among them a reduced shelf life and lower success in killing contaminants.
ScanTech’s technology eliminates both problems by essentially electrocuting the fruit without generating heat. The irradiation method uses less energy, does not involve dangerous radioactive materials and is supposed to be as safe to operate as a household microwave.
It is difficult to find anyone in the trucking industry more aware of the checkered past of truck brokers than Jimmy DeMatteis. For this reason, and simply because it is the right thing to do, Jimmy goes out of his way to make sure those people behind the wheel of the big rigs get a fair shake.
As president of Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. (DMTB) he knows the reputation of the company’s 43 year history is on the line with each load. It all began in 1951 with his dad, James A. DeMatteis (Jim Sr.) hauling produce. By 1960 he was a small fleet owner and three years later became a broker of exempt commodities.
Jim DeMatteis Sr. with LJ Mack circa 1960
Jim Sr. started DMTB in 1969 and remained a one-man operation until 1984 when James R. DeMatteis (Jimmy) came aboard.
“We have always been advocates for small carriers and their success,” Jimmy says. To back up his claim, just go the company’s website at: www.dmtb.com where it states, “Our reputation for paying carriers is second to none”. DMTB has a policy to pay all carriers within one day of receiving the carrier’s freight bill.
Jimmy has served on the board of the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA) for the past 6 years “because I believe in our industry and I want to see us do it right.”
Jimmy also serves on the Executive Committee of The Alliance for Safe, Efficient Competitive Truck Transportation (ASECTT) whose main focus is addressing “all the fallacies and flaws in CSA-2010.” He notes the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) decided it was “going to ram this program down the throat of every motor carrier.” As a result ASECTT filed a lawsuit. It resulted in the FMCSA having to reevaluate the way it rated carriers through alerts in its safety management systems. The ratings system has resulted in safe carriers being rated as unsafe. “We want FMCSA to do their job. Their job is to determine the safety fitness of the motor carrier community. Instead they have chosen to deputize the motor carrier, shipper, and broker communities to do their work”
“We want the FMCSA to state they are the party responsible for a carrier’s safety fitness, not the shipper, not the broker,” he states. “Shippers are putting things in contracts based on CSA scores that black list many good small trucking companies. Carriers get put out of business because shippers or brokers won’t work with them as they are deemed unsafe by these scores or alerts.”
The problem comes from the FMCSA basing its program on percentages. “No matter how many bad carriers you get rid of, you are always going to have 35 percent that are going to have alerts. This is very damaging to small carriers. It works well for large carriers and gives them a distinct advantage,” Jimmy states.
Based inNorwalk,IA, DMTB recently moved into new facilities shared with a sister company, Capital City Fruit, with whom it has a 43-year relationship.
Jimmy emphasizes small trucking operations are the backbone of the trucking industry.
“I want to think we at DMTB get it. We treat others with respect, we pay fast and take time to talk to our drivers,” he says. Des Moines Truck Brokers has a policy if a driver walks into its office with bills of lading and the staff has not met that trucker before, everyone stands up, and introduces themselves and shakes his or her hand.
“We in the logistics industry all do important work, but at the end of the day, the person doing the most important work, is that guy or gal out there behind the wheel,” Jimmy states.
For more information about Des Moines Truck Brokers, Inc. go to www.dmtb.com or call 800-247-2514
At least for some shippers in the Red River Valley, it was looking a little dim in September due to drought. However, October rains have increased yields — and loading opportunities have improved for those who haul red potatoes out of the region, located on the borders of North Dakota and Minnesota.
The last of the spuds are now being dug. It’s looking like valley potato shipments for the 2012-13 season will be quite close to the five-year average. Currently, only about 250 truckloads a week or being shipped, but loadings are still increasing as the focus moves from harvest, and storage to shipping.
From central Wisconsin, russet potato loads are averaging around 500 truckloads per week…..Peak shipments of cranberries for the Thanksgiving holidays are now underway from central Wisconsin.
Nebraska continues light loadings of potatoes. In the southwestern part of the state potatoes are being shipped from the Imperial, Neb area. The other most active part of the state is around O’Neill in the northeastern part of the Nebraska.
In the Lower Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, grapefruit and orange shipments have been slowly ramping up. Because California’s season ended early, there’s been good demand for Texas citrus, although loadings have been limited and there’s not much citrus yet to be found in the retail stores.
If you are loading grapefruit or oranges in South Texas, it should be a little more simple than 20 years ago when there were at least two dozen citrus companies. That number has shank to only four, primarily due to mergers and acquisitions. This should be reducing the number pick ups required for some hauls.
Central Wisconsin potatoes – grossing about $3400 to Houston.
Red River Valley red potatoes – about $4300 to Orlando.
The USA needs around 111,000 more drivers to move the nation’s freight, according to Doug Stobiber, vice president of produce transportation for L&M Transportation Services of Raleigh, NC. He was speaking at the produce industry’s largest gathering recently, the annual convention of the Production Marketing Association (PMA), held in Anaheim, CA
While Stoiber notes better pay and higher freight rates for drivers is important, he placed just as much emphasis on truckers being repected.
He points out there is a shortage of qualified drivers and it is only going to get worse, primarily because fewer younger drivers are entering the industry, combined with greater numbers of older truckers retiring. While the average age of the commerical driver is 48 years old, the ones under 30 years of age amount to less than 10 percent.
Current law requires commerical driver’s operating interstate be at least 21 years old. President Obama is in favor of permitting states to lower the age limit to 18 years old. While supporters of this proposal are looking at ways to increase the number of drivers with CDLs (commerical drivers license), opponents point out the high accident rate among teenage automobile drivers, saying they are too young and immature to drive a big rig.
Starting this year, the nation’s largest generation (baby boomers) are reaching 65 years of age. They are retiring at a rate of 10,000 each day.
Stoiber made some economic comparisions between hauling dry freight, compared to fresh produce. There are liabilities as a produce trucker. Those remain until the papers are signed and the receiver accepts the load. The use of a refrigeration unit on a trailer adds an additional $1,500 in costs to a coast-to-coast haul. Overall, there are fewer risks with dry freight. Even with all the economic factors involved in produce hauling, Stoiber emphasizes the need for the produce industry giving drivers more respect. This will go along way in attracting more drivers to haul produce.
“Truckers have been viewed as obstacles to doing business instead of partners in the supply chain,” Stoiber said.
He encouraged the audience to pay higher freight rates and to think in terms of price per consumer unit instead of $1,000 per load. It comes down to more than just a good freight rate. Loyalty and respect are very important to truckers, he said.
Stoiber also addressed issues brought forward by a group encourging better practices in dealing with produce truckers. The North American Produce Transportation Working Group (NAPTWA) earlier this year released guidelines for making fresh produce hauling more attractive. Tips range from decreasing detention time when loading and unloading, to allowing drivers to watch loading.
The best practices are regularly reviewed and updated as federal regulations and other factors change the way truckers are allowed to operate, said Stoiber, who is a member of NAPTWA. The best practices are free on the working group’s website at www.naptwg.org.
Few things in the trucking industry are frowned upon more than lease-purchase plans. Go to work for a trucking company, lease a truck from that carrier with the idea of one day owning it. Failure for the deal to work out is blamed on everything from low driver pay to high interest rates and the carrier not providing the driver with enough miles The truck eventually goes back to the carrier, when the driver can’t make the payments. Then the process is just repeated.
Shaun Smith of Sanford, FL has been with KLLM Transport Services, Jackson, MS since last January. The 12-year trucking veteran has entered into a lease-purchase plan with the large carrier and says it is working out fine. He is making good money, logging a lot of miles and is making a living for his wife and four kids, who ages range from two to 14 years old.
The 34-year-old driver says he is averaging 3,000 miles a week, or about 150,000 miles a year. He drives a 2008 Freightliner with a Detroit DD15, pulling a 53-foot trailer with a Carrier Ultama XTO X Series reefer unit.
Shaun enjoys trucking because he gets to see a lot of the country, plus make a decent living while doing so. His primary complaint is with heavy traffic, especially in large cities such as New York and in California.
He started trucking after finishing high school, got married, and then went into water well drilling in Mississippi. He then moved to Florida, working in a warehouse for a fast food company. But trucking remains his first love.
“KLLM is a good company. I’ve got one more year before this truck is paid for,” Shaun says. “I got it on a lease-purchase plan. If you have the money to buy a truck right off the lot, then that’s a good way to do it. Under a lease-purchase plant you had better have a good carrier.”
Shaun had just delivered a load of soda pop from California to Oklahoma. He was waiting to pick up a load of muffins in Tulsa for delivery to Concord, NC.
He also hauls a lot of produce loads.
“I have no problem with hauling fresh fruits and vegetables. You have to keep a close eye on the temperature. But I like hauling it as well as anything,” he says.
As far as being the road so much, Shaun observes, “You have to have a strong mind and be able to be away from your family. It can be hard. But it is a good career.”
Troy Pecka has been in the trucking business for nearly a quarter of a century 
and has pretty much seen it all, or at least come fairly close to it. There is something to be said for someone who started out trucking out as a 19-year-old, and now owns his own small fleet at the “ripe” old age of 43.
The owner of Troy Pecka Trucking Inc. doesn’t have the time to get behind the wheel of a big rig anymore as much as he’d like, in part because he’s dealing with all the rules and regulations to keep the drivers of his 15 trucks and three leased owner operators doing what they do best – truck.
Troy is following in the footsteps of his dad who started trucking at age 18 and didn’t stop until his was 76.
Troy’s small fleet, based in East Grand Forks, MN, specializes in hauling a lot of loads of frozen foods and fresh red potatoes to the Southwestern and Southeastern USA. Return trips lean heavily towards mixed fresh produce going into Edmonton, Alberta.
When asked what rules and regulations in trucking he disliked most, Troy would not commit to any particular ones. “All of these things increase your cost of operation,” he notes.
There could be the refusal of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) to delete inspection reports from a driver’s record, even after that driver is found not guilty by the courts.
Or how about the FMCSA’s flawed enforcement program in CSA’s Safety Management Systems. There have been reports of safe drivers being listed as unsafe in the system.
Another example, could be the Federal highway legislation passed last July. It calls for the FMCSA to require electric on-board recorders (EOBRs) in all heavy duty trucks. Many in trucking are concerned it will lead to driver harrasment by authorities. This could involve electronic recording of a driver’s hours of service, vehicle location (through a GPS), with information available to law enforcement.
It is examples such as these which makes it more difficult to get good qualified drivers. He says the older drivers are leaving the industry and there are not nearly enough young drivers coming on board. After all, long haul trucking certainly is not an 8 to 5 job.
Despite all the government red tape, Troy still enjoys the business. He just doesn’t have the time to truck as much as he used to, although taking command of one of his big rigs to someplace like Fargo isn’t out of the question.
“I just can’t get it (driving) out of my blood,” he states.
One of his favorite trucks (pictured) is a 2007 red conventional Kenworth. It houses a 475 hp Caterpillar diesel, riding on a 260-inch wheelbase with a 13-speed transmission. He also like the 72- sleeper featuring all the amenities. It pulls a 53-foot Utility trailer housing a Thermo King reefer unit.
On any given day there will 100 or more trucks either loading or unloading on the Atlanta State Farmers Market. Most of those loads involve fresh fruits and vegetables.
The original market was actually located on Atlanta’s West End district in 1939 before moving to its current location in 1959. It has since expanded into a 150-acre compound housing everything from cold storages, docks, offices for wholesalers, brokers and others, as well having a resturant, police force and other agencies and facilities.
The Atlanta produce market is owned by the state of Georgia and operated by the Georgia Department of Agriculture Markets Division. It is located a middle-class industrial district about 10 miles south of downtown Atlanta and only a couple of miles from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
Rail lines crisscross the property. The complex is just off the east side of Interstate 75 and only a couple of blocks south of Interstates 85 and 20, providing easy access from the to the Southeastern USA.
The market’s Oak Room restaurant has a large, varied menu with good food, which of course serves produce fresh from the marketplace.
Georgia has about a dozen state farmers scattered around the state, which are home to more than 150 companies employing 3,700 farmers, packers, retailers, receivers, and staff with an estimated payroll over $75 million. The Atlanta market is home to 85 percent of those businesses. In 2009, those markets brought in receipts totaling almost $1 billion. The Atlanta market brought in more than half that amount and operates in the black with revenues of almost $6 million last year.