Work-life balance as an owner-operator, small fleet owner: You have to build it

With this Overdrive Radio edition for June 16, 2023, points of view on the absolute necessity of respecting the needs for work-life balance for your personal sanity, and for the success of your business. That balance can be particularly elusive for independent owner-operators, as Silver Creek Transportation owner Jason Cowan well knows -- he spent much of his early career in those shoes with just a single truck himself, and in some ways balance might elude those of you who fit that bill more than anyone in trucking.

In this edition, we’ll walk through a variety of strategies to achieve it, with a goal of healthy success. The podcast features the bulk of a late-May-held webcast presentation and discussion Overdrive hosted with Cowan, our big 2021 Small Fleet Champ winner, and Adam Wingfield, who’s head of the Innovative Logistics Group consultancy, also a past independent owner-operator himself: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15448347/worklife-balance-as-an-owneroperator-you-have-to-build-it

Work-life balance isn’t all about home time and other personal-life concerns, though -- in part of the Q&A at the end of the webinar, sponsored initially by the Bestpass company for toll-collections management and 2290 tax solutions, among other services, Wingfield responded to a question about how to cope with the stress a down market puts on everyone, with the pressure to run. Direct that stress toward the right spot, he advised.

Small fleet owner Cowan, throughout, offers plenty perspective on ways to build business with driver employees and owner-operator contractors in mind. He invoked the difficulties so many have attracting younger folks willing to stay in trucking as drivers. All trucking companies – from those who pay the most to those who pay the least, seem to need drivers 24/7/365. “Maybe this isn’t all about the money,” he said. While getting drivers home more often and/or on regular timetables is part of his mission as Silver Creek Transportation owner, that’s certainly not all there is to it.

Overdrive radio podcast subscribers should note that a full, unedited video version of this podcast features the original May webcast on our Youtube and Facebook playlists for Overdrive Radio. Those video versions will be available starting Monday, June 18, when the podcast goes live on the world-famous OverdriveOnline.com.

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc1lg9rs1dUAhK7CqgY23njy75EnGlqIU

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watch/201594073189/366175185612296

You can register and watch the webinar on-demand at this link, too: https://www.overdriveonline.com/business/article/15448190/catch-the-replay-worklife-balance-for-owneroperators-in-a-down-market

Adam Wingfield’s Innovative Logistics Group: https://www.innovativelogisticsgroupllc.com/

Jason Cowan and Silver Creek Transportation: https://silvercreektrans.com/