The U.S. Owner-Operator Trucker: A Transportation Policy Based on Personal Bankruptcy

This paper describes how a large, highly productive and vital segment of the U.S. intercity freight transportation capacity is subject to violent and, at times, disruptive convulsions as a buffer to absorbing shifts in transportation demand. This segment is called “owner-operators.” It has been estimated that some 100,000 such persons own and operate their own trucks without Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) authority and provide approximately 25 to 40 percent of the intercity truck transportation in the United States. Until recently this segment of the U.S. transportation industry has received little attention. Certainly there was no concern for the welfare of this group of independent small businesses that were ignored by the government and the larger competitors. These unregulated carriers are the elastic that permits expansion and contraction of the U.S. capacity. The behavior of these owner-operators gives many lessons for governments contemplating regulatory policy for transportation.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Forum

  P.O. Box 5074
  Fargo, ND  United States  58105
• Authors:
  • Wyckoff, D Daryl
  • Maiston, David H
• Publication Date: 1977

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Volume XVIII, Number 1
• Features: Tables;
• Pagination: pp 291-297
• Monograph Title: Transportation in Transition. Proceedings of the Eighteenth Annual Meeting

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Demand; Freight transportation; Intercity transportation; Owner operators; Policy making; Transportation policy; Trucking; Urban goods movement
• Uncontrolled Terms: Freight capacity
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Subject Areas: Freight Transportation; Highways; Motor Carriers; Planning and Forecasting; Policy; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01104384
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 17 2008 9:24AM