Driver Lifestyles
Building a Winning Fleet - The Easters
Ben and Melanie Easters are tractor-trailer expediters in Panther II Transportation's Elite Services division. After five years in the business, the couple felt it was time to move into the fleet ownership arena, and as Melanie relates here, it's been a learning process - not only for the new drivers, but for herself as well.
She begins, "We put the first truck on because we had the world's greatest driver available, Rick, and he needed a place to work. He stayed with us for several months until his health took a turn for the worse and he had to go home. He still helps us out from time to time by coaching other driversand watching over the operation when we're away."
"Our first fleet truck was a used FL70 with a nice big sleeper on it - a very comfortable truck that Rick spent some time on, fixing it up."
"We picked up our second truck from a team who had left Panther II because they grew homesick. Around that time, we met a young couple who wanted to live the expediting dream, so they became our next drivers."
"They stayed with us for a few months until they had a family emergency that forced them home. We stay in touch with them and they're still part of the 'family'."
Melanie continues, "Following that, we put another couple into that second truck and shortly thereafter, we picked up two more units - smaller, 'starter' trucks. One of those fell apart pretty quickly, so we traded up to one of the bigger, FL70's with liftgate, larger sleeper, etc. We decided that we'd rather go for the more luxurious accomodations for the drivers."
Melanie tells us that during the past year, she and Ben have had what she terms as 'stumbles', or run-ins with drivers who they wish they had never met, "but that happens, I guess," she says.
"We're bringing on newer, better trucks as we go on. In February, we added an M2-106 and that will probably be the last used truck we add. When we saw it, we couldn't resist it and we're tempted to drive it ourselves, but we don't want to give up our old Volvo."
"Possibly, around the middle of '06, we'll begin passing these trucks to our newer drivers and bring on new trucks for the drivers who have been with us for awhile."
"We have two couples operating as teams and 3 single drivers in the other trucks. One of those single operations will be a team in '06."
Melanie says that she and Ben meet their prospective drivers in various ways, including, "people we met at a shipper, a couple we met at a truck show and others who we've found through Panther II."
She says, "It's a scary thing to take a stranger and just throw him out there to do a job that you're not there to train him for. You just hope that you can give him enough information on the phone and that he's the right kind of person for this business. There are so many variables and it's scary when you have an empty truck to fill."
"We had one driver who could best be described as a 'truck hypochondriac'. If he didn't want to run, he'd find something wrong with the truck and take it to the shop where he would complain about this or that. Everytime it went to the shop, it cost us money and they couldn't find anything wrong."
"We didn't know (until we got the truck back from him) about the horrible messages he would send to dispatch, these awful, rude messages that upset the people there."
"The toughest part of being a fleet owner is when you have a good driver who is in a bad situation and you can't do enough for them. If you become too soft-hearted, you can go broke very quickly by advancing money to drivers who didn't work the week before. In the long run, though, I know that it will come out OK."
"When we started the fleet, we just kind of jumped into it - we had a truck and Rick was ready to drive. We knew that we should have paid off some bills and become more solvent before we jumped in, but we didn't. We also knew that I should have a clean slate as far as doing the paperwork on additional trucks, but we didn't. I'm playing catch-up now, but I think I'm getting caught up."
Future goals
"Ben is hoping that we'll have 20 trucks on by the end of 2006, which is a very aggressive goal," Melanie tells us. "But, I didn't think that we'd have 5 trucks by this time, so it could happen - why not?"
"I think all fleet owners would like to have teams in their trucks because couples seem to be happier, but we don't mind single drivers, as long as they're happy out there. The new Hours of Service are so rough on them because when they're on their re-start, they can't even drive down to the grocery store."
Melanie says that she and Ben have been able to adjust to the new HOS regs themselves without too much trouble because, "we've never really locked into a 5 hours on and 5 hours off schedule. We were in general trucking for 10 years and 5 1/2 years in expedite, so we're flexible."
Some of the hidden problems of fleet ownership says Melanie include:
"A loss of freedom. You never turn your phone off, because you're always on duty for your drivers. When you get in the shower or take a nap, the phone is always ringing."
"It's expensive. You've got tp be a good money manager to show a profit over the expenditures. It's a gamble because you might have all your trucks break down in the same week, or maybe your drivers can't run that week. It's a bigger responsibility than you would think, or at least what we originally thought."
"Also, people get mad at you! We don't have so much of that, but we've had some instances where we tried to introduce some people to what we think is a pretty cool way to make a living. But, if they don't like it, they hold us responsible."
She continues, "Of course, we have some great drivers as well! One of our drivers is sharp as a tack, you'd swear that he's an old hand and has been out here twenty years.
"Sometimes you can forget that a driver might not know something. What does someone who's never done this work know about an icy hill? Or, how to drive in the Rockies? What if we didn't tell them to secure their load?"
"There are some drivers who don't know what a Jake Brake is. There are so many things that we take for granted after fifteen years and forget to tell the new driver."
She adds, "The one driver I mentioned before - the one who didn't know that he had two fuel tanks - well, we had to teach him how to talk to people. We had to teach him to be respectful and that there are certain words you don't use. There are some people who didn't even get trained by Mom before they got out into the world."
"Overall, the drivers ask questions about everything, but the most frequently asked question is, 'where do I go for my next load? I haven't gotten any offers here and the computer says I should relocate 400 miles for no pay, should I do it?' That's when I wish I had a crystal ball."
When asked when it will be time to come off the road and manage the fleet from home or office, Melanie says that it will be very difficult to get Mr. Ben Easters to quit driving.
"And," she says, "I don't think I would last very long staying at home, either. I like being out here."