Case study:
Hardee Hauling, LLC.

“The freedom of driving a truck and the Truckstop Load Board give me the flexibility to set my own hours, choose the loads that fit my criteria and stay close to home.”

– Wayne Hardee, owner-operator, Hardee Hauling

For East Coast reefer driver Wayne Hardee, success means thriving on his terms.

After 30 years in the freight business, Wayne knows what works for him. His goals? Make as much as he can while working only two to three days a week; stay close to home; and maximize his profits and his time with his wife, Lori.

Ask him what tool powers those goals, and he’ll give you one word: Truckstop.

Wayne started his freight career in the 1990s as an over-the-road driver. He started his own trucking business in ’99, then went to work as a broker at a large firm in 2003. In 2008, he began a 10-year stint as a shipper for a poultry company.

In 2019, Wayne came full circle, opening Hardee Hauling, LLC with his wife Lori. Today, the Hardees run their one-truck operation out of Harrington, DE, covering much of the East Coast and surrounding areas. Wayne first used Truckstop in his broker days to find good carriers.

Now, as a carrier himself, he relies on the Truckstop Load Board to find the loads that fit his needs, plan the most efficient routes, and get the rates that keep him profitable.

It’s more than a job. It’s a lifestyle.

Wayne’s decision to re-ignite his trucking career was very much a lifestyle decision. The freedom and flexibility of driving a truck suits Wayne and Lori, who is a schoolteacher with summers off. As a trucker, Wayne can set his own hours, choose the loads that fit his criteria, and stay close to home.

With the help of the Truckstop Load Board, Wayne earns a comfortable salary working just two or three days a week while sticking within 500 miles of his East Coast home base.

“I try to stay mostly on the East Coast, going a couple days at the most. It works out great for us, having that home time.”

– Wayne Hardee, owner-operator, Hardee Hauling

Tech is the name of his game.

Equipped with the Truckstop Go™ mobile app, Wayne consistently finds the right loads for his reefer truck in his preferred lane, plans routes that maximize his profit, and gets data that helps him negotiate the rates he knows he deserves.

It’s all at his fingertips, whether he’s at home, on the road, or on a cruise. He admits Lori “caught” him on Truckstop Go while the two were on a vacation cruise. He was planning the following week.

“Everything on my business is on my phone. I recommend it highly.”

Wayne can perform as many searches as he needs and quickly zero in on loads relevant to him. The Truckstop Load Board is cleared every single night, so no time is wasted chasing old loads. Every time he logs on, he gets easy access to Truckstop’s high volume of legitimate loads, posted by brokers who’ve been vetted and approved by the Truckstop team.

He can even perform a multi-trip search in advance, which he relies on to increase his earnings while only working a couple days a week. With this trip planning feature of the load board, Wayne can eliminate deadheads altogether, which is key to making the most money every time he goes out.

Wayne can look at truck activity by origin and destination to see the truck-to-load ratio in his area and determine the most lucrative time to be out on the road. This knowledge helps him negotiate his rates, and almost every time, he’s able to get more than the posted rate. He can negotiate with the assurance that he has the data to back up his play for a higher rate.

The bottom line should be your bottom line.

Wayne doesn’t hesitate to give advice to new drivers breaking into the business. His biggest piece of advice is to know some basic math when it comes to making enough money. Determine what your profit needs to be to pay yourself a decent salary after expenses. Surprisingly, many independent owner-operators don’t take this into account, according to Wayne.

1. Set a profit goal that includes your salary.

“Make sure you make enough to include a profit. If there’s no profit, you’re making what you would driving for somebody else.” Wayne says this should be top of mind when it comes to your rate-per-mile.

2. Mind your equipment.

Wayne’s second piece of advice is to keep your equipment in tip-top shape. Equipment expenses and repairs can cost you big-time. Wayne’s current truck is a 53-foot reefer with 2 million miles on it and still going strong. Now that it’s paid off, he’s added a trailer to expand his business and “keep up,” as he put it. He confesses he learned this the hard way with the load board, which leads him to his next piece of advice:

3. Embrace change.

While Wayne knows the importance of strategic equipment updates—and how the right updates can really pay off—he kicks himself for not applying this mentality to the load board. As a longtime user and proponent of Truckstop’s original load board, Wayne was stubborn when it came to updating to the next version. When he contacted Truckstop support, he was encouraged to log in to the new load board. He hasn’t looked back.

“I couldn’t believe what I’ve been missing out on. The new version is very user-friendly. I’m glad I switched.”