Listening to truck drivers consult with the corporate they work for as “household” is not unusual, however Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Ok&J Trucking exemplifies the notion, in accordance to leased owner-operator Theron Thompson.
Thompson was instrumental in Ok&J’s journey in latest years to the very prime of the CarriersEdge Greatest Fleets to Drive For competitors. He nominated the fleet for the primary time in 2021, and Ok&J ended up in this system’s “Fleets to Watch” class, simply exterior the High 20 that yr.
Ok&J, a fleet of round 125 vans that’s proper at 83% owner-operated, was disenchanted at first not touchdown increased on the record. Nonetheless, “then we began listening to, ‘Properly, that’s a giant deal to get an honorable point out as a result of the identical persons are in Greatest Fleets yearly and it’s too exhausting to crack the case,’” stated Ok&J proprietor Shelley Koch. After that yr, the important thing to discovering extra success in this system was “studying the way to inform our story,” she added. “It’s actually what it got here all the way down to.”
In 2022 and 2023, Ok&J did crack the highest 20, earlier than being named the Greatest Total Fleet to Drive For within the small provider class in 2024.
“I can let you know how we acquired right here,” Koch stated. “It’s the workers. God is nice. This group of those who I work with day by day is superb, in addition to our drivers. So I really feel like that is as a lot a win for the administrative workers and the store as it’s for the drivers, as a result of our drivers are such an integral a part of us.”
Jane Jazrawy, CEO of CarriersEdge — which places on the Greatest Fleets program — stated Ok&J does issues, notably for its contractors, that many fleets don’t or simply gained’t do.
“They provide providers for his or her contractors which can be uncommon,” she stated. “Most contractor fleets will say, ‘Oh, we won’t try this,’ due to wanting to take care of the space, you understand, to make them true owner-operators. However Ok&J form of manages to supply the providers, however it’s as much as the owner-operators, as much as that enterprise proprietor, whether or not they need to partake in that or not. However the providing is there, which is what makes it very nice, and I believe an surroundings to develop a enterprise.”
Whereas usually carriers can’t supply worker advantages to contractors, Jazrawy famous, Ok&J does supply quick access to group reductions on advantages by means of a 3rd social gathering (extra on that later). Ok&J additionally helps with teaching, notably enterprise teaching, to make sure success to the owner-operators’ leased there.
“What I discover with the fleets that do take part [in Best Fleets], even when they’re primarily contractor fleets, is that they do it otherwise,” Jazrawy stated. “They don’t do it the identical means. They’re not providing [company-paid] medical insurance, clearly, however there are different issues that you may do to make some place a very good place to, possibly not work, however to do enterprise with. And that’s the place I believe Ok&J” excels.
Proprietor-operator Theron Thompson has labored with Ok&J Trucking for a complete of round 11 years, the final 9 leased to the corporate as an owner-operator.South Dakota Trucking Affiliation
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Theron Thompson’s journey to full appreciation of the ‘Ok&J means’
December 9, 2020 — the day Theron Thompson was identified with head and neck most cancers. The 2021 Kenworth T680 he’s presently hauling with had simply are available in — two days earlier than Thanksgiving. That fateful December day he had simply offered his prior truck. “It’s like, ‘What am I going to do?” he stated. “I simply offered my truck and I acquired this new one, and I don’t know what’s going to occur.”
Thompson has been an owner-operator since he acquired into the trucking enterprise within the early Nineties, minus just a few years after he offered a fleet of 13 vans and labored as an organization driver. A few of that point was with with Ok&J. His life round that point known as for Thompson to be nearer to residence, so he left Ok&J for an area job. He would then observe a bunch of drivers he knew to a different firm, staying there for 14 years, earlier than he returned to Ok&J now practically 9 years in the past, this time as an owner-operator.
Thompson’s at all times loved working with Shelley Koch and the staff at Ok&J, however it was that most cancers analysis and all of the uncertainty that led him to this conclusion: “Everyone at all times says they’re household,” he stated. “After they say it at Ok&J, they imply it.”
Put up-diagnosis, Thompson and his spouse went to Koch and informed her what was occurring.
“She says, ‘Don’t fear about it, Theron,’” he stated. Basically, Thompson stated, Ok&J took on his truck fee and allowed him to repay the word on his personal time after he acquired his most cancers remedies. “She picked up the telephone, known as the financial institution, and stated, ‘That is the way it’s going to go.’ Growth. Not a giant deal. You present me one other firm that will truly go and try this.”
Ok&J Trucking was formally based in 1979 by Shelley Koch’s dad and mom, Dave and Sharon Koch, with only one truck. Within the Eighties, Dave Koch introduced in a accomplice, Don Jerke, who introduced the J to the fleet’s identify.
The corporate’s first buyer was John Morrell & Co., now Smithfield Meals. Dave Koch employed a time-honored technique for securing direct enterprise as a small fleet owner-operator, asking the corporate for the lane that no person else needed. Vacation spot: Phoenix, Arizona.
In these early years, Ok&J hauled to the border state, bringing produce again to Chicago. The corporate grew from there.
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“I believe we’re a typical household truck line,” Shelley Koch stated. “You begin with one truck and that’s what occurs.”
Dave Koch handed in 1991, and by the late ’80s the fleet was sitting at round 50 or 60 vans, Shelley stated, and she or he’d began working there part-time. “After which I simply stayed there. I used to be form of going to high school and doing various things, however after [her father’s] first coronary heart assault, my dad and mom requested if I might be all for taking up Ok&J someday.”
At simply 25 years previous, she was a strong sure, although “you don’t know what you’re saying sure to” at that age, she stated. “After which 4 years later, my dad handed away, and I took over.”
The fleet’s dimension has fluctuated by means of the years, shrinking some at occasions, rising at others. Ok&J stayed proper round 100 vans within the years earlier than 2022 when it purchased Midwest Continental. Now at 125 models, it is nonetheless doing principally reefer work. The corporate additionally has a van division operating for a devoted buyer hauling cupboards all around the nation.
Ok&J lately accomplished development of a brand new gasoline island at its Sioux Falls, South Dakota, headquarters, coated to assist shield drivers from the weather, particularly these harsh South Dakota winters.
Administration with owner-op success in thoughts
Given the character of Ok&J’s prospects, owner-operators get their alternative of hundreds to a level, although usually the firm runs the identical areas persistently. If an proprietor doesn’t need to run California, Ok&J doesn’t ship him there. If a driver desires to remain out three weeks at a time, the fleet dispatches with that in thoughts.
Workplace workers strives to regulate house owners’ income per mile every week. “If we’ve any individual that’s falling brief due to both our drawback or their drawback, we’ll attempt to make it as much as them,” Koch stated. “They could get provided a higher-paying load that week than another person simply because we’re attempting to maintain all people at a sure stage, as a result of it’s rattling robust on the market right this moment, and we have to hold our drivers as entire as we presumably can.”
As additionally talked about by Jazrawy, the corporate presents different – in some methods “uncommon” – strategies of assist. Koch and firm supply bodily harm insurance coverage amongst the most affordable she’s conscious of, with house owners paying 2% of the worth of their truck with a $1,000 deductible. If operators select to get employee’s comp by means of Ok&J, it’s below $200 a month, she added.
“All of the gasoline reductions get handed on,” she famous. “We have now in-ground gasoline right here, and I believe we put 2 cents on there to offset the associated fee. Our store labor charge is below $80, and also you get our low cost on elements. So, I at all times inform an operator, to achieve success, income is vital, however expense management in all probability is the place your bread and butter’s at.”
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Requested about different advantages, Koch stated the corporate “actually struggled with getting healthcare to our operators They was a part of our group, after which we have been informed they might not be below our group within the state of South Dakota.”
So whereas the corporate doesn’t have a bunch coverage possibility for leased house owners, Ok&J is ready to steer owner-ops to particular person insurance policies with a bunch low cost. Operators may also get imaginative and prescient, dental, IDShield, incapacity, most cancers insurance coverage and extra at low cost charges.
Ok&J’s headquarters incorporates a drivers lounge with a kitchen, recliners and extra.
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Proprietor-operator and small fleet proprietor Doug Newman got here to Ok&J after a 21-year profession in banking. He had identified the way to drive a truck for quite a lot of years, serving to a good friend do farm-to-elevator work, however he hadn’t actually been a full-time driver up till about eight years in the past.
Newman knew Ok&J by means of a good friend, and he acquired in contact with Koch about approaching as an owner-operator. She needed him to work for six months as an organization driver earlier than leasing on, so he did that, then signed on with a 2017 Kenworth T680 he ordered. He’s purchased seven vans since then, promoting two on the peak of used-truck costs a pair years in the past, and is now off the highway himself whereas placing drivers in three vans he nonetheless leases to Ok&J.
“They do my payroll; they service the vans; they dispatch the vans,” he stated. “It’s simply an superior working relationship.”
As a fleet proprietor himself, Newman stated he tries to align the advantages he presents his three drivers with people who Ok&J presents its personal, “simply because it makes issues move smoother. Drivers discuss to drivers.”
By the top of July 2024, small fleet house owners with authority (as much as 30 vans) can enter Overdrive’s Small Fleet Championship, sponsored by NASTC, by way of this hyperlink.Koch “is simply an unbelievable girl,” he stated. “She’s simply open, sincere, straightforward to speak to. She’s acquired good enterprise sense. She’s acquired good folks expertise. She’s not afraid to let you know if you’re fallacious, and she or he’s not afraid to offer you compliments. She’s simply an all-around good particular person.”
A cautious strategy to lease-purchase
As famous, most drivers at Ok&J are leased house owners like Newman, but the corporate does make use of firm drivers and has ushered some right into a lease-purchase program when curiosity and talent appear clear. Lease-purchases have lengthy been a hot-button subject in trucking, getting hotter of late with the Federal Motor Provider Security Administration’s Truck Leasing Job Drive shining a light-weight on predatory practices by some fleets.
Koch stated Ok&J strives to be totally different. First, with the intention to even get right into a lease-purchase with Koch, six months’ price of driving for Ok&J as an worker is a prerequisite. “We have to get to know you, and you should get to know us,” Koch stated. “We don’t allow you to stroll by means of the door and lease a truck with us. I do not know how one can learn about an organization and try this personally and be ok with principally getting on the hook for a truck.”
If eventual truck possession by means of lease-purchasing is one thing a Ok&J driver is all for, “we will begin watching your efficiency and begin teaching you on higher methods to do your job,” she added. “That may be gasoline economic system. It may be higher load choice. It may be higher security practices, various things like that.”
Ok&J leased owner-operator Eric Calloway is proven right here together with his truck.Six months in as an worker, although, drivers aren’t assured a truck. If there are considerations about efficiency, how the operator handles cash, upkeep, something like that, the corporate works with the drivers to handle these points. In the event that they’re comparatively minor, “we’ll let you know, ‘You’ll be able to go forward and lease a truck, however these are our minor considerations and these are issues we assume will prohibit you from getting probably the most profitability out of your enterprise,’” Koch stated.
Within the occasion of main considerations, the corporate merely does not assist a driver into any lease-purchase. Moderately, they provide the operator 90 days to make adjustments, then reassess the scenario.
As soon as in this system, operators make weekly funds based mostly on a depreciation quantity equivalent to what Ok&J paid for the truck. “They’re getting the good thing about our discounted pricing from our OEMs once we buy the vans,” she stated.
The corporate coaches operators on tax legal responsibility, and the way that works as a enterprise proprietor. “It’s actually form of a complete strategy to, ‘How do you run a enterprise and the way do you achieve success operating your small business?’” Koch stated. “As a result of anyone can get right into a lease fee and should pay all this cash and simply barely make ends meet. That’s not success in our e-book.”
On the flip facet, after all, owner-operators can and do deliver their very own tools to Ok&J. Typically, the corporate tries to stay to a requirement that an house owners’ tools be 4 years previous or newer. Given latest financial realities, they have been extra versatile on that if upkeep information are as much as par, the truck passes an inspection, and a plan is laid out on upgrading to newer tools when the economic system is extra favorable.
“We’re not all for operating previous tools right here endlessly,” Koch stated. “In an ideal world, it might be 500,000 miles or much less. We’re not dwelling in an ideal world. So, we take it case by case.”
For leased small fleet proprietor Newman, the connection’s been a match. Certain, Ok&J is the solely trucking firm he is ever labored with, but he is sure, too, it would hold that standing for the remainder of his time within the enterprise. He plans to remain leased to Ok&J till his retirement.
Entry previous options in Overdrive’s occasional profile sequence of fleets leasing owner-operators, together with some previous Small Fleet Champ contenders, by way of this hyperlink.
