Brad Caspick’s first stint as an owner-operator didn’t end well.

“I had some issues,” the Chestermere, Alta., resident told Today’s Trucking in an interview. “I ended up selling my truck, thinking I was getting out of trucking.”

But, as is often the case, Caspick was drawn back to the open road, initially driving a friend’s truck for two years and then spending six months as a company driver at Westfreight Systems. “Then it was time to get my own truck,” he decided.

Turned out, it wasn’t easy to leave behind three decades in trucking. The sour taste of failure subsided. The pride of truck ownership and the allure of entrepreneurship and independence returned.

“It became obvious that’s what I was going to do,” he said of his second go-round as an owner-operator. “So, I went out and started looking at options for financing. My credit wasn’t in a very good position. I’d come off some difficult times and had some significant bills behind me.”

Caspick partnered with PowerLease, a Canadian finance company that helps fleets transition company drivers into owner-operators, providing them not only zero-down financing but also expertise in finding the right truck and the tutelage needed to ensure future success. He found a 2019 Peterbilt Model 389 that was priced right because it was the last of the previous model year trucks on the dealer’s lot. The intended buyer had backed out, and they were motivated to move it.

Caspick took the plunge and has been hauling over-dimensional loads between Alberta and Texas with much greater success. He’s even managed to buy his own trailer. And while the last few years haven’t been easy, Caspick said he’s learned a lot on his journey as an owner-operator, which has enabled his current success.

“Nothing comes easy,” he says of the business. “And it has come harder now than it did the last time. I’ve done the rags to riches to rags and now back to decent clothes again. I’ve fought that battle. It’s just hard work.”

Caspick’s journey speaks to the resilience of the Canadian owner-operator. There are easier ways to make a living. And the last couple years have created a perfect storm capable of testing the mettle of any business owner.

Sluggish freight growth and excess capacity have crushed rates. Increased competition from scofflaw truckers has made trucking not only tougher but also, at times, just unfair. Rates haven’t kept pace with inflationary input costs. Emissions standards and the exchange rate have driven up the cost of an over-spec’d, well-blinged-out truck to nearly a quarter million dollars. And then you can throw the uncertainties of strained cross-border relations and tariffs into the mix.

Still, the owner-operator endures.

A different world

That’s not to say the owner-operator dream hasn’t had to evolve. The fundamental motivators – an entrepreneurial spirit, pride of ownership and independence – remain the principal factors that drive today’s owner-operator. But the realities where the rubber hits the road are different than in past decades.

Rare is the driver who can visit their local dealer and drive away in the most dressed-up, chromed-out truck on the lot.

Johanne Couture of Brockville, Ont., a trucker since 1994 and a Canadian board member for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), owns a 2011 Volvo 730, hauling chemical tankers throughout the U.S. and Canada. But you wouldn’t know it’s a 14-year-old truck by looking at it.

“It’s dealer-maintained. The motor has been redone three times and the transmission twice,” she said, while heading to a delivery in Louisville, Ky.

“By no means is my way the right way. Everybody has a different risk tolerance. But I’m more comfortable paying the shop bill and replacing parts on my 14-year-old truck, where others are more comfortable making truck payments and not dealing with maintenance costs. My view is [that] you spread your loan or lease over a certain time frame, and the first while is nice because you shouldn’t have any maintenance other than regular oil changes and brakes. But when you get to the point when you’re still making payments and you’re replacing a transmission — that’s a really expensive month.”

No one likes shelling out money for repairs. But for Couture, it’s easier to stomach when the truck itself is paid off.

“If I was to buy the same truck with the same spec’s today, I’d pay double what I paid for this one 14 years ago,” she reasoned, adding she also has the benefit of owning a pre-EPA2010-era truck that doesn’t need diesel exhaust fluid.

Any time she visits the dealership to get work done, the salespeople circle. “They say, ‘Is it time yet?’ I say, ‘Has the price come down yet?’ And we agree to talk about the weather,” she laughed.

Scott Taylor, vice-president of Transport Financial Services, has also seen this trend among his owner-operator clients who turn to the business for tax services.

“For sure, owner-operators aren’t buying very many new trucks,” he told us in the thick of tax season. “Everybody seems to be making their equipment last as long as possible and trading repair bills and downtime for payments.”

PowerLease boasts an 83% success rate among its owner-operator conversions for the period ended Oct. 31, 2024, according to vice-president Mark Wallace. But, he hastened to add, that hasn’t come from getting aspiring O/Os into a brand new truck.

“I just had an instance today where a customer wanted a $240,000 truck,” he said. “Unfortunately, that’s not going to work. The payment doesn’t align with what his work is going to be. We don’t move forward with that. Our job is to make sure we set you up for success. If it doesn’t make sense and the customer doesn’t have a chance to be successful, we’re not going to do it. Our credibility would go down the tube really fast.”

Instead, PowerLease has identified the sweet spot for an aspiring owner-operator to be of the 2022-23 vintage. “There’s some really good pricing on low-kilometer trucks that really fit the bill for a lot of our work,” Wallace said of these trucks. “Now we’re getting the owner-operator into a truck with some warranty left that’s still a good asset. A 2023 Freightliner is perfect for most applications.”

And, he adds, those trucks with a mid-level spec’ come with plenty of bells and whistles.

Keys to success

Not everyone thinks the owner-operator business model is viable, given the astronomical cost of new trucks and evolving transportation dynamics, including shorter average hauls.

I asked an executive of a large Canadian trucking company that utilizes a small number of O/Os in addition to hundreds of company trucks. “I don’t think so,” he said of the future viability of the owner-operator model. “Number one, the price of equipment is incredible. And most owner-operators don’t want a fleet-type tractor, so they’re already putting themselves at a higher admission price. And with the lower-carbon, sustainable future of longhaul trucking, if the rail network is built right, longhaul should continue to reduce and owner-operators don’t thrive in a short-haul environment.”

Don’t tell that to Couture. She still sees a bright future for owner-operators, though she admitted there’s little room for mistakes. One wrong decision could be fatal. Her best advice for aspiring owner-operators is to keep a “rainy day fund” in the bank. This is difficult to do when times are tough, and equally so during the booms in which hard-working O/Os are suddenly feeling flush.

“Be prepared. Have a nest egg in the bank.”

Johanne Couture

But you don’t have to look back far to see how the temptation to splurge can bite a fledgling owner-operator. Just look at how many bought their first trucks, or obtained their own authority, to chase hot spot rates during the post-Covid boom, only to see rates drop as quickly as they spiked, leaving too many truckers chasing too little freight. Anyone who didn’t squirrel away money during the short-lived boom has likely sold their truck or left the industry altogether.

“Be prepared. Have a nest egg in the bank,” Couture stressed.

Leasing on with a reliable carrier is vital to a new owner-operator’s success. “A whole lot of things can go wrong in that first six months,” she warned. “Sign a contract with a good, reputable carrier — preferably one you’ve already been driving a company truck with — so you already know the ins and outs of that carrier.”

Wallace agreed that leasing on with the wrong carrier is one of the most common contributors to an owner-operator’s demise.

“One of the things we found is the carrier – who they choose as a carrier to work for – is one of the biggest leading indicators of success,” agreed Ernie Holmes, another PowerLease vice-president. “If you work with a top carrier who’s got the loads, who has a good culture and treats you well, then you have a good chance of success versus … somebody that may pay a bit more per mile but doesn’t have the loads to keep you busy and may not treat you fairly throughout your term.”

Managing expenses

Breakdowns are also going to occur. It’s just the nature of the beast. But Couture noted how you manage them will go a long way toward determining how impactful they will be to the business. She considers all options when needing repairs on the road, right down to the current exchange rate while in the U.S.

“If something breaks down in the U.S., you’re throwing 47% right out the window because that exchange rate doesn’t get you any more parts or service time,” she said. When possible, she elects to get work done in Canada. Even if it means getting a tow back across the border to a friendly dealer that won’t charge her in U.S. greenbacks.

“Know your numbers,” added Caspick, when asked what advice he’d give a fledgling owner-op. “And be realistic. We can’t all run 20,000 kilometers consistently every month. That’s not reality. Take into consideration the ebb and flow of the industry and know your numbers. If you want to be an owner-operator, then you need to be a business owner. There’s no half measure.”

Taylor added owner-operators need to be diligent about their finances and to pay themselves a salary.

“The pay-yourself-first mentality has always won the day,” he said. “Always set up two bank accounts. Even as a sole proprietor, you have to have a business account and a personal bank account. It’s the only way to budget and to think about what you’re spending, both for the business and for yourself.”

What’s the benefit?

With all the challenges associated with being an owner-operator in an era of high costs and rising uncertainty, what continues to be the draw? Why not drive a company truck, collect a steady paycheque, and not worry about who’s sleeping in or driving the truck while you’re spending time at home with your family?

Couture is pragmatic about it.

“Am I making more money than as a company driver who is home every weekend? Maybe some years. Others, not so much,” she reasoned. “An owner-operator ends up having a slightly better tax advantage. You can write things off as an owner-operator, and what you can write off you should be investing into your retirement or putting aside for your next truck, or the trailer you’re going to add because it’s going to give you more revenue.”

For Wallace, who himself has worked as a truck driver and owner-operator, it’s about the unlimited possibilities entrepreneurship presents.

“As anybody who is successful is going to tell you, unless you make that plunge, you’re never going to know and you’re always going to be a company driver,” he said. “It’s just a much more enjoyable way to do trucking.”