Fleet locks in owner-op pay as recruitment strategy

▤ Summary

Charlie Deull, part of the family that owns and operates the Broadway show-related freight carrier Clark Transfer, experienced the COVID-19 pandemic as an existential business threat. When Broadway began to return in earnest the fleet was essentially half its pre-pandemic size, and efforts to recruit were stymied by a mixture of a booming spot market and the reality that Clark’s business, though above-average in owner-op compensation, is below average when it comes to home time and other creature comforts given the touring nature of its freight. Clark, rather, adjusted its leased-owner compensation structure to provide a backstop it believed would add a measure of income security that would be particularly attractive to business owners whose memory of the pandemic was fresh. My mother had three rules growing up – never lie, do what you say you’re going to do, and never be late.” The minimum-guarantee structure – $3,500 weekly for solo operations, $5,000 for teams – Deull said is a “way of putting our money where our mouths are” when it comes to the promise of revenue achievable leased to the company. Given the big return since late Fall 2021 of Broadway touring business, though, Deull said in early May when we talked about the program, for leased owners who’ve been fully integrated into the company’s operation for some time the minimum guarantee had not applied for a single one.

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