I really do like this business because it provides us with a good income and gives us the opportunity to travel. It's also less stressful than the kind of work I was doing.
***image1***Tom and Tina Evans of Mattoon, Illinois have found a home in expedited trucking and they say that they couldn’t be happier!
Tom says, “Expediting is the best thing Tina and I have ever done. We dealt with the retail business for many years, punching a time clock for a 40-hour week. Now, we generate good revenue and have complete freedom at the same time. It’s great!”
Tina tells us, “I really do like this business because it provides us with a good income and gives us the opportunity to travel. It’s also less stressful than the kind of work I was doing. Of course, there are always the unexpected things, like the deer I hit last week in Illinois, but you have those things in life.”
The Evans’ have been straight truck contractors with Con-Way Expedite of Ann Arbor, MI for the past three and a half years after short stints with two other expedited carriers. Tom tells us, “I ran as a solo driver for the first company, but there are too many restrictions on a single driver. I then tried another company – first as a single, then Tina and I drove team, but that carrier just didn’t have the freight.”
“We’re not out here running crazy, trying to build our retirement in five year’s time. Actually, we’re a very steady team and our gross revenue remains fairly consistent from year to year. There’s always room to increase the gross, but we’re not out here to kill ourselves. We try to do what we can do and provide for our retirement.”
The couple says that they have plans for business expansion:
“We’ve projected how long we want to work. We have aspirations of building a fleet – coming off the road and having people drive for us. We figure we’ll keep driving until we have the number of trucks we want. Then we’ll come off the road and manage the fleet.”
Tom’s (41) work history before expediting includes warehouse management for a number of years as well as operating his own landscaping business. Tina (43) was a manager in retail shoe sales until the announcement of her store’s closing prompted her to join Tom in the truck.
Speaking of the truck, their current ride is a 2005 Freightliner M2-112 purchased from Heath Wood at Middle Georgia Freightliner-Isuzu.
“We’ve had this truck for a little over a year, now. We built this with our own spec’s and added a custom paint job. Instead of the standard Con-Way Expedite signage, we had special logos designed and installed. We wanted the truck to be different and distinctive.”
The Evans’ pride and joy mounts a 96″ AA Truck Body Corp. ‘King Leisure’ condo sleeper with interior design by the Evans’. They eliminated the recliner and put in some extra drawers, a double his/her closet as well as a 50″ bunk.
Interior appointments include a large microwave/convection oven, a 20″ flat screen TV/DVD/VCR, 2-door refrigerator/freezer, heated floor, cabinets on the back wall, pull-out workstation and a sink. The interior colors are in silver and blue. A 22′ Morgan cargo box completes the body work details of the truck.
The truck is powered by a 12.8L Mercedes engine turned up to 410HP and tied to a 6-speed Allison automatic running through 3.73 rears.
“The truck is heavy,” says Tom, “with an empty weight of 22,560 (with full tanks.) That leaves a cargo capacity of 9,500 lbs. But, we’ve only missed three loads because of the weight.We love the truck.”
“This is the second truck we’ve gotten from Heath Wood. Our first truck was a 2001 FL70 with a 72″ Bentz mid-roof sleeper that we bought sight unseen. We spent almost 4 years in it – it had 100,000 miles on it when we bought it and 500,000 miles when we said goodbye to it.”
Tina says, “We think of ourselves as highly-paid tourists. Since we joined Con-Way, we’ve seen just about every part of the country. We’ve been up and down the east coast, been to the west coast, almost made it to Alaska. We’ve hit every state but Oregon.”
“We like to run down south because we like to stay warm. We love Texas and California. Fortunately, we get a lot of freight in and out of the south and southwest. It’s amazing the way expedited freight has picked up in the southwest over the past few years.”
She adds, “We stay out for about 3-4 weeks and back home for a week. We make it home for all the holidays and birthdays.”
Tom reflects on the emergency freight business:
“Expedited freight is a different market now; it’s not just automotive freight anymore. Customers are tired of ‘LTL’ing’ their products across the country and seeing it arrive damaged. LTL means that freight will be loaded, unloaded and cross-docked and after working in a warehouse all those years, I’ve seen how it can be damaged through all of that handling. I think we’ll see more of that freight in the future because a company can rely on expedited to get the freight there and undamaged.”
He adds, “We’ve been hauling a lot of prototype freight – from government loads to patio doors.”
Random thoughts about expedited trucking
“People coming over to expedited from big trucks have the hardest adjustment period because they’re used to running all the time. They tend to freak out if they have to sit for a couple of days. They have to remember that they’re making a better rate and running fewer miles in expedited.” – Tom
“I tell people that if they have to gross a large amount of money every week to pay a lot of bills back home, maybe they should consider driving for an owner first to see if they can make it in this business. As an owner, you’ve got to pay for the truck expenses as well, so it might be tough for the person new to expediting.” – Tom
“If we’re running well, we try to eat in the truck. We eat well and it’s a lot less expensive than the truck stops. And, the truckstop meals are all designed for someone who is 6’5″ – huge portions. I take the night driving shifts and when we do our changeover in the morning, I’ll fix breakfast.” – Tina
“The latest Hours of Service change didn’t have much of an affect on us because we have always ran 8 hours on and 8 hours off. When the change came, we just increased our shift time to 10 hours, so we didn’t even notice it.” – Tina
“Save your money! When you have that great 5,000 or 7,000 dollar week, don’t spend it all, the next week might be much less.” – Tina
“Unexpected expenses can pop up at any time and you need a cash reserve to cover those bills. A truck can break down, an accident can result in repair downtime, anything can happen. You should have a cash reserve of at least two months “pay” that you never touch.” – Tina
“Always be good to the people at the company. Don’t bite the dispatcher’s hand that feeds you.” – Tom
Thoughts on their carrier
Tom says, “We have a very good rapport with all of the people at Con-Way Expedite. Most of the dispatchers have been there as long as we have, so we deal with the same people on a regular basis. As long as you haul the freight on time or you help them when they really need an important load covered, you’ll earn their trust. In return, they respect the teams that perform. They give their teams real freedom – they let them run their
own business.”
“They really are a great company.”
