Driver Lifestyles
The Tylers: In For The Long Haul
Expedited trucking is typically populated by older, "mature" individuals and couples who, after a career or two in non-trucking related occupations, decide that it's time to get on the road and see the country.
The subjects of this Drivers Profile are among the younger group of owner-operators in the fast freight biz, but they still have an extensive work history behind them. It was this previous business experience that gave them a head start in successful expediter trucking business ownership.
Originally from the northeastern Ohio area, Lance and April Tyler,36 and 31 years old respectively, are now veterans of the world of business ownership and of expedited trucking.
The Tylers, who have been married for 13 years, are approaching 3 years in the emergency freight industry as owner-operators with FedEx Custom Critical's White Glove division.
After graduation from Akron University, Lance took his Bachelors degree in Finance along with an MBA into a career in banking, working as a branch manager and loan officer for a nationally-known financial institution. April worked at a local radio station as the office/traffic manager. They left those careers to work in the family business - agents for North American Van Lines.
Lance says, "My dad and I owned the business and this provided April and me a chance to work together. The company had four trucks and ten employees."
"April and I worked in the office and sometimes we would take a cross-country load. That's when we realized we enjoyed being on the road and away from the office."
Their work vehicle was a 32-foot (total size with "attic") moving truck and a 24" cot behind the seats. That necessitated a lot of motel rooms.
"Compared to household moving this is a walk in the park," says Lance. "That industry itself is very competitive and it's very hard to find reliable help because it is so labor-intensive. The customers are very hard to please - so many folks are building these half million-dollar homes and they just spent 80K on a dining room set. That makes them very sensitive and very picky."
He continues, "My dad had owned the business since the early 70's and I came on board around 1993. We got to the point however, where the stress of owning the business began to get to us and my parents wanted to retire."
"Rather than keeping the company with April and me operating it, we looked into selling it. We set up a strategy on expanding the business and making it marketable. We sold the business as a package, which is rare in the industry because if you buy a used truck, you're in the moving business."
Lance tells us that for about the last year and a half before he sold the moving company, he had been researching the expedited trucking business: "I would spend every night on ExpeditersOnline.com and I would talk to any expediters I could find in the truck stops. We got a pretty good feel for the industry before we actually pulled the trigger."
"Prior to the closing of the sale of the moving company, I had been making plans to buy a truck. But so many of the veterans on EO felt that a newbie should drive for an owner first so we went that route."
"We hooked up with Pat Hopkins, a fleet owner from Columbus, Ohio. We had a good experience with him, he was very helpful in getting us started. We were White Glove-qualified within thirty days of starting."
Lance explains, "Pat's brother Tim is also an expedited fleet owner with his own trucks and between the two of them, they put us in touch with their drivers and we learned a lot from them."
April tells us that when she first heard of expedited trucking, she was a bit skeptical: "We started going to truck shows as part of the research and I asked questions of the lady expediters. We decided to try it and now I love it."
Lance continues, "We drove dry box and reefer for Pat for around fifteen months and it was at that time that a used truck happened to become available. Everything fell into place and we've been real happy with this truck."
"We had met the owners, Scott and Vicky Littlefield before, but when they posted the truck on ExpeditersOnline classifieds, we made our decision to go for it. We were in New York City at the time and we figured that if the Lord wanted us to have that truck, He would find us a load taking us to Missouri."
"As it happened, we got a load from NYC out to Beverly Hills, CA and the truck was literally one mile off our route. We liked what we saw (it only had 45,000 miles on it), so we bought it then and there!"
The truck is a 2005 Freightliner Columbia with a 450HP MBE4000 tuned down to 410HP along with an Eaton Fuller 10-speed UltraShift. The truck is equipped with the SST100 sleeper package from Stoops Freightliner and with its drop axle, it can handle up to a 24,000 lb. payload. A Leyman 5,000 lb. capacity lift gate and 22' dry box complete the package.
Lance tells us that their ride now has 210,000 miles on it and is achieving 10.5 mpg.
The Tylers carry an substantial amount of cargo handling equipment: 3 dozen pads, 2 dozen ratcheting straps, 4 dozen rubber bands to secure pads, pallet jack, 2 and 4 wheel dollies, 10 load bars and other items.
Lance comments on their White Glove experience: "With our background in moving/storage and with our experience with special handling loads, the job doesn't present too many special challenges. In expedite, a worst-case scenario has us wrapping a White Glove load, a computer for example, and rolling it in the truck."
One run remains in the couple's memory: A round trip beginning in Virginia with the second stop in San Francisco and a return to Virginia. In San Francisco, they had a 24-hour break while the material was processed. This allowed the Tylers to take a sunset cruise and an eleven-mile hike the next morning. Total length of run - 5600 miles.
Lance offers an overview of the couple's vocation: "Not having any children, expediting is a real good fit for us. One of our goals was to find an occupation with no boss, no employees and relatively little customer interaction."
April adds, "We enjoy the traveling and the tourist-type things we do between runs. I used to sit in an office for 8-9 hours a day and now my office has constantly changing scenery. I like being outside and working with Lance. We get to see our family more often now than when we owned the moving business and we were working all the time."
"We have brothers and sisters in different parts of the country and we get to see them more frequently. I had never seen any of the Western U.S. before so I really enjoy the sight-seeing out there.I have an interest in photography and I've filled up a photo album with my pictures of the road."
"Another past time that we enjoy on the road is visiting the Internet. We have two laptops and one aircard and it's always on.
We spend a lot of time looking at fuel prices, stock prices, weather, online shopping (Christmas shopping) and of course, ebay."
When they hit the road, the Tylers are usually out for five weeks at a time unless a route will take them close to home.
"If we're off on a weekend, we like to find an RV park with shore power and other conveniences," Lance explains. "If we can't find an RV park, we'll try to park in a Wal Mart or shopping center. Truck stops are for fuel and showers only, we can't handle the truck stop life real well."
"In the interest of keeping expenses down, we almost make a hobby of thinking of ways to save money. We do a lot of fuel shopping online and we try to plan our runs in regards to the cost of fuel and fuel taxes.
"We have at least half our meals in the truck and we keep the motel visits down to a minimum."
"I do whatever PM on the truck I can do myself. We use Speedco for our oil changes and analysis. We keep our speed down to 65 mph and we diligently monitor our tirepressure; I gauge them twice a week and thump 'em in between."
The Tylers average around 135,000 miles a year, but they still find time for other interests. Says Lance: "In the fall, I like to make it home for hunting season (Lance is a dedicated bow-hunter), and we usually take off for a six-week period."
"I know that's not a good business decision because that's one of the most profitable times to run, but that's another reason we're in expediting. We enjoy the flexibility and the independence to do what we want."
The Tylers are active in their local church and to maintain their church-going routine on the road, they use a web site called BibleBelievers.com to find places of worship.
They enjoy disc golf (frisbee golf) and Lance says there are courses in just about every zip code in the country.
April: "We read, swim, visit malls, snow ski and play golf."
Their tips for those new to the expedited business include:
*Keep track of all your expenses, mark down everything you spend and keep receipts.
*Avoid buying in truckstops. Shop at Wal Mart or the big box stores. April says decide how you're going to spend your money before you hit the road.
"People will drop sizeable sums of money in casinos, buy DVD's and smoke three packs of cigarettes a day - all of that is just throwing your money away."
*Decide what market within expediting you want to service, whether it be reefer, government work, etc. You have to differentiate yourself from all the other expediters out there, Be available to do the Haz-Mat loads, the Canadian loads and so on.
"If the money's right, we'll do whatever needs done."
Lance asks, "Where else are you going to find a job with this kind of income that still allows you to take off eighteen weeks a year? We consider ourselves to be semi-retired now. Hopefully, we'll be able to stay in this business for some time."