An owner-operator is a
small business
Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...
or
microbusiness owner who also runs the day-to-day operations of the company. Owner-operators are found in many
business models
A business model describes how a Company, business organization creates, delivers, and captures value creation, value,''Business Model Generation'', Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith, and 470 practitioners from 45 countries, self-pub ...
and
franchising
Franchising is based on a marketing concept which can be adopted by an organization as a strategy for business expansion. Where implemented, a franchisor licenses some or all of its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its busines ...
companies in many different
industries like
restaurant chains,
health care
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...
,
logistics
Logistics is the part of supply chain management that deals with the efficient forward and reverse flow of goods, services, and related information from the point of origin to the Consumption (economics), point of consumption according to the ...
,
maintenance, repair, and operations
The technical meaning of maintenance involves functional checks, servicing, repairing or replacing of necessary devices, equipment, machinery, building infrastructure and supporting utilities in industrial, business, and residential installat ...
.
Trucking
In the United States and Canada, the term typically refers to
independent contractors who hire out and drive their own
semi-trailer trucks. In trucking, an owner-operator is a self-employed commercial
truck driver
A truck driver (commonly referred to as a trucker, teamster or driver in the United States and Canada; a truckie in Australia and New Zealand; an HGV driver in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the European Union, a lorry driver, or driver in ...
or a small business that operates trucks for transporting
goods
In economics, goods are anything that is good, usually in the sense that it provides welfare or utility to someone. Alan V. Deardorff, 2006. ''Terms Of Trade: Glossary of International Economics'', World Scientific. Online version: Deardorffs ...
over highways for its customers. Most owner-operators become drivers for trucking companies first to gain experience and determine whether the career is for them.
The
Motor Carrier Act of 1980 deregulated the industry and made it easier for manufacturers to set their own prices on shipping goods, and also allowed owner-operators to be more successful by taking some of the control out of the hands of the larger motor
carriers. It was now possible to find a carrier willing to haul goods for what customers wanted to pay rather than what the larger carriers' rates were.
* An owner-operator is free to either haul free-lance (non-committal to any one firm or product) or enter into a lease agreement to dedicate their equipment to one customer or product
* The owner-operator typically has to pay higher rates on
insurance
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...
due to smaller size than most larger companies, meaning they have to charge more to balance the cost
* There are many things to consider before becoming an owner-operator, including business setup,
accounting
Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entity, economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activit ...
, type of vehicle, and licenses
References
External links
Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association
Business models
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