You've decided to purchase a van for expediting but want to know: gas or diesel? If you ask other van expediters, you'll hear a wide range of opinions based on their personal experience. "Gas all the way. I have had no issues with my gas-burner, but I used to have a diesel van that gave me all sorts of trouble." Or... "Diesel. I'm old school. My diesel vans are workhorses, and they last forever!" Historically, diesel engines have held a significant advantage over their gas c...

Meet Patrick Lee. Patrick is a former freelance sound and video production technician who worked with headliner acts such as Miley Cyrus, Blake Shelton, and Charlie Daniels. He got into expedited trucking in 2012 as a team driver for a fleet owner with his business partner Eric Hyfield. About six months later, they bought their first truck to become owner-operators. Then, in 2014, they took the plunge into fleet ownership by purchasing their second truck. And today, only fou...

If you attended the educational workshops at Expedite Expo in July, you likely noticed a common theme that emerged in many of those classes: To succeed in expedited trucking, you must develop a business mindset. That's because whether you're a contract driver, owner-operator, or fleet owner, you're in business for yourself. But if you have spent most of your career working for someone else, you've likely developed the habit of thinking like an employee-where you look to a bo...

Your credit score not only impacts whether or not you get approved for financing to buy your first truck but also several other factors tied to the cost of vehicle ownership, including the required down payment, interest rate (and, thus, monthly payment), and insurance costs. In other words, even if you could qualify to buy truck with a below average credit score, it could still cost you hundreds of dollars (or more) per month, making it much more difficult to make money wit...

As fleet owners take on a more prominent role in expedited trucking, there's been a growing interest among owner-operators and contract drivers to learn how they, too, can make the jump to fleet ownership. And that interest was evident by a packed classroom at the 8 a.m. session that kicked off Expedite Expo 2018 in Lexington, Ky. on July 20. The session titled "Fleet Ownership: Getting Started" featured fleet owners John Kelsh with Cyclone Expediting, Eric Escobar with Fudp...

Expedite Expo 2018, which runs July 20 and 21 at the Lexington Center in Lexington, Ky., is the only trade show in the world geared exclusively to the expedited trucking industry. And this year's show will feature the announcement of the winner of the Expediter of the Year award, which will be presented to one of these three finalists: Tim Paxton, Nancy Hudson, and Eric Escobar. The purpose of this award is to recognize those hard-working, professional and safety-conscious e...

So much has happened in autonomous vehicle development since Google put its first self-driving Prius on the roads in 2008. And industry consensus is that we'll start seeing highly automated vehicles hit the market legally in 2021-which is only three years from now. But there are still many questions-beyond the technology's capabilities-that government, industry, and citizens must answer before robots will rule the roads. Those questions can be boiled down into these three "h...

With the rollout of any new rule, you can expect some unintended consequences. And that appears to be the case with the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate that went into full effect on April 1, after about a three-month grace period. The regulation was finalized in 2015 with the best of intentions: "to help create a safer work environment for drivers, and make it easier and faster to accurately track, manage, and share records of duty status (RODS) data. An ELD synchroni...

A family member passes away unexpectedly. Your partner gets sick or injured. Your truck breaks down. When there's an emergency, what's your next move? The time to think about that is now-before something happens. That's because when you're in the moment, you're emotionally distraught, unable to think clearly and act decisively. What should you think about as you put together your emergency plan-to minimize the impact that crisis could have on your business? Here are three ti...

As an expedite owner-operator, you want the freedom to be your own boss, earn a good living, and provide for your family. But with that freedom comes responsibility. That's because it can be easy-especially if you're new to expedited trucking-to fall into the trap of spending money as quickly as you take it in, driving your business toward a financial cliff. How can you avoid that trap and put your business on a smoother road to long-term success? Here are three factors to k...