This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Small Fleet & Owner-Operator Summit on Wednesday.
FIRESIDE CHAT TOPIC: Should owner-operators downsize in this market?
DETAILS: With the spot rates falling as fuel costs soar in recent months, many independent owner-operators are under pressure. One industry executive thinks they should consider swapping their Class 8 trucks for something smaller.
SPEAKERS: Kris Lamb, uShip’s CEO, and Daniel Pickett, FreightWaves’ chief technology officer.
BIO: Lamb has been uShip’s CEO since 2019. He joined the online freight marketplace as chief technology officer in 2017. For more than 20 years, Lamb has held leadership roles in engineering, product management, enterprise software, security and mobility at public and private companies focused on disruptive technology.
Watch uShip’s CEO make his case for downsizing from Class 8 trucks
KEY QUOTES FROM LAMB
“It means getting rid of your big rig and going into sprinter vans, box trucks or pickups with enclosed trailers. You can cut your expenses and your sunk costs by about half once you do the equipment transition, and you reduce your exposure as the market is shifting.”
“Moving to a Ford Transit van, is it as sexy and as interesting as driving a Class 8 big rig? Maybe not for some people, but I can tell you, what is sexy is taking your expenses from $1.50 a mile on average … and dropping that to 75 cents per mile, sleeping in your own bed, not having to deal with parking and having more flexibility with how you schedule and when you’re on the road and when you’re off the road.”
“In some cases, some of our really highly engaged and operationalized carriers that have made the transition, they’re actually making more than when they worked truckload.”