Thanks for your insight. But Todd Dills hasn't mislabeled what Morris Finley does at all.
The area Morris Finley is running out of is hardly a 100,000 population area. The Nashville Metropolitan Area has a population of more than 1.5 million (the metro trade area of Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia is 1,670,890). His carrier, DMW Expedite, is not a courier company, it is an expedite carrier just like Panther, Tri-State, FECC, Bolt or Load 1, and DMW gets their (mostly automotive freight) loads out of the same expedite freight pool that all the other expedite carriers get theirs. When you see some of the bid boards, you see DMW bidding right there along with many of the others. They also have their own customers, just like other expedite carriers do. They run the lower 48, just like many expedite carriers.
Just because Morris Finley runs a load from Lebanon, TN to Birmingham, AL doesn't make him a Hot Shot Courier any more than me running a load from Garland to Arlington makes me one, and it certainly doesn't make Load 1 a Hot Shot Courier company if I do. Like most expedite carriers, DMW has loads picking up and delivering at all kinds of locations, some long, some short, and he chooses to take the shorter runs to TN, KY, and AL, mainly, so he can return home each night. Load 1 has drivers who prefer to remain local, within Michigan, but they are not couriers, either.
While he is running on the cheap for all-miles, he's not really running cheap freight, per se. His line haul rate isn't 65 cents a mile. It's up near $1 a mile, same as most expediters, it's just that most of his loads have considerable deadhead in them because he returns home empty more often than not.
The Rule of Thirds still apply to him, where one third of his gross goes for operating expenses (fuel, oil), one third go to the truck (maintenance and truck payment) and a third goes to him. His Thirds are a little skewed because of the truck payment, so his personal Third will be a little lower. He's 74, so he doesn't pay very much in income taxes anyway, especially after deductions. He'll only pay taxes on net income that exceeds about $20,000, which won't be much, if any.