'Strike when the market's cold' -- it might be a maxim for the outlook on small business for Overdrive May Trucker of the Month Matthew Karr, coming off an excellent profit year hauling fuel leased to Quality Transportation out of Halltown, Missouri: https://www.overdriveonline.com/trucker-of-the-year/article/15448529/owneroperator-matthew-karrs-fuel-hauling-hustle-pays-off

Now's the ideal time, as he details in this podcast, to go back out on his own to do things entirely his way, keeping a past small-fleet failure high in his mind. During the height of the COVID market when Karr sold most of his small fleet equipment at a premium and went back to leasing, a friend was "wanting to buy a truck" and get in on the spot freight boom, "when the market was stupid," Karr said -- stupid high, that is, for equipment.

"Luckily, he listened to me" and didn't do it. "I said, 'Robert, I've been through these ups and downs and swings for 25 years. ... If you want to buy a truck and you want to get started" as an owner-operator, "do it when times are bad.' Now, things have slowed down a little bit, interest rates are going up. ... If you can make it in slow times, you will really flourish" when business cycles turn upward.

He’s banking on the wisdom in the maxim he’s shared with others about trucking as an owner-operator, with the new venture, working direct with fuel wholesalers. In today's Overdrive Radio edition, hear much more about Karr's history of ups and down and his recent success, including views from his wife, Koren, who nominated the owner in Overdrive's Trucker of the Year award program for 2023.

Nominations remain open via the form at this link: https://www.overdriveonline.com/page/toptrucker