I Knew My Limitations.

Back in June of 1996 I signed a five-year contract to become an owner-operator. At first I had absolutely no interest whatsoever in owning and operating my own truck. The company often sugar coated how being an owner-operator meant I would be running my own business. They said I would be self-employed, working for myself and I would be calling the shots.

My ice cream route #006 would now become my baby.

The truth is it was nothing like that; I would be doing the exact same job I had been doing for the previous fifteen years. The only difference was I would now be burdened with all the headaches and expenses that came with owning and operating my own truck. Sure technically I was self-employed, but I had no freedom to make my own decisions. And there was absolutely no way I would be calling the shots.

There would be no more company benefits, no pension and there would be no more five weeks of paid holidays. Most importantly I would also be losing the security of being employed by a large corporation.

Wait back up a bit.

I was already employed by a large corporation and they were giving all of us drivers the shaft by going owner-operator. So in reality I guess there was no job security working for a large corporation.

Basically, I had been doing the downtown Toronto route since I started with York Ice Cream back in the summer of 1981. I liked my job, I had been doing it for so long. But now and most importantly the company needed to secure a driver on the downtown route more than any other route. None of the other drivers would even consider doing the downtown route. My boss kept trying to persuade me to buy the company truck that I was already driving and I could just continue on doing my same route. It would be a seamless smooth transition he kept saying.

He kind of reeked of desperation; it was almost like he was begging me to sign on.

He kept telling me it was such a great opportunity for me. I weighed out all the negatives against the positives, yet I still wasn’t convinced. However, the fact I would be compensated five hundred bucks for every day I showed up to work was the clincher for me. My route was in the inner city, it was less than a half-hour drive from the depot. My mileage was sure to be much lower compared to the other drivers. With the lower mileage came much lower fuel, maintenance and repair bills, therefore more money in my pocket.

Even though I still had my doubts, I signed the contract.

After my marriage ended in October 2000, I decided I would be staying in Mississauga. I needed to make a decision regarding my future employment because I would need to be earning a half decent income. Afterall, I would no longer have the security of a working spouse in my life for financial support. In addition to supporting myself, I also would now have a monthly child support payment. I was already easily managing all my financial obligations while I was an owner-operator and after most months I had a bit of money left over.

With my five year contract expiring in June of 2001, I decided reluctantly to extend my contract. However I would not be signing a new contract, but instead I would just continue on with the status quo going forward. I had meticulously looked after my now eight year old truck and it paid off. I knew I could get at least another two maybe three more years out of it. I had already priced out a new truck and at $150k, I knew I would never be buying or leasing another new truck.

I decided that I wasn’t going to worry myself over my employment or how I would pay my bills down the road. If and when the day finally arrived and for whatever reason I was no longer an owner-operator, I would cross that bridge when I came to it. Going forward, I decided I would just continue doing what I was doing while collecting my five hundred bucks daily.

During the time while I was an owner-operator, I quickly discovered I had a pretty damn good contract. Mostly because I got paid a flat daily rate. Over the years while doing my route, I met and talked with many other owner-operators from other companies. They all seemed to work a lot harder and put in much longer hours than I did for less money. Their compensation was based on how much they sold, delivered and or how many deliveries they made. Almost all of them told me they would have preferred a daily guaranteed flat rate like I had.

Delivering ice cream was a very seasonal job, but interestingly I earned much more money during the off season. Every winter there was always a few extremely cold, blustery days. I would show up to the depot at 6 am only to find out I had just three or four small orders and there was next to nothing to be delivered.

No worries.

I didn’t even start my truck; I just threw the ice cream in my Jetta and delivered the orders in my car. I was always done within a couple of hours and I still got paid my full daily rate.

Cha-Ching!

There were many other winter days where I would be finished all my deliveries by 10 am and I would just hang out inside the Yorkdale Mall for a couple hours.

Why?

Because I knew there would always be special orders needing to be delivered in the afternoon after lunch. I was always eager to earn some extra money on those days. Whenever I returned back from my route and my boss wanted to send me back out to do 'specials', I was paid extra. I was always more than happy to help them out and make a special delivery to a store that had run out of ice cream. I billed the company an additional fifty bucks per hour for any and all special deliveries.

There were so many cold, blustery winter days when I earned in excess of $700 as an owner-operator. During the summer I never really delivered any 'specials' because I was already working full days doing my own route.

My truck was a GMC Topkick tandem dual axle 6 speed with air ride. The insulated 23’ box was kept very cold inside with a Thermo King reefer and my truck was also equipped with a tailgate. Truck #93031 when leased back in 1992 had a value of just over $120k. Four years later in June 1996 I bought out the lease for just $23k.

Beatrice began experimenting with dual temperature combo trucks to some of the larger chain stores on my route. By doing this it enabled me to deliver refrigerated dairy products to the same stores that I was already delivering the frozen ice cream to. It also saved the company from sending another truck to those same stores. It made complete sense, but I fuck’n hated it. It seemed like all I was ever doing was picking up trays of yogurt cups that were always falling over. Many of the cups would break open and there was always little gobs of sticky gooey 'fruit on the bottom' shit all over the floor of my truck.

Once I purchased my truck, the first thing I needed to do was find a reliable garage close to the depot. I needed my truck every single day to be operating at peak performance. I knew that I would not have been able to rent a truck should I have ever needed to. Ice cream trucks are considered specialty trucks and are not available at any of the daily truck rentals spots.

Yorkwoods Motors was less than a ten minute drive from the depot. Most of the other drivers wouldn't deal with Yorkwoods because they thought they were too expensive. Other than knowing where to put the fuel, oil and draining my air tanks, I knew absolutely nothing about the maintenance of my truck. I was so pathetically inept and I relied on Yorkwoods for all my truck maintenance. Although they were by no means cheap, Izzy the cigar smoking, heavy duty diesel truck mechanic made sure I never went a day without my truck.

Case in point.

I recall one time I was at the No Frills on the Queensway and Royal York. It was late afternoon and I had just completed my last delivery. When I got back into my truck it wouldn’t start and to make matters worse, my reefer wouldn’t start either. I knew the three newer batteries were still good because the headlights were working and they were very bright. I had no idea what was wrong and I figured for sure that I was fucked. I called Yorkwoods; Izzy came down right away and got me going so I could drive back up to the garage. Apparently, both the starter in the truck and the reefer were both shot. Izzy told me that he had never seen it before where both starters quit at the exact same time.

I guess there always is a first for everything; I just wish I hadn’t been his first. Within a couple hours and after Izzy worked late, both of the starters were replaced and my truck was back on the road the following morning.

Dennis the owner always told me I was a good customer and he always treated me like one. Over the years I spent literally tens of thousands of dollars at Yorkwoods Motors. I never complained (oh I complained, I just never complained to them) and I always paid my bill on the same day I picked up my truck. Seriously, for me having a good mechanic like Izzy working on my truck so close to the depot was worth every cent I might have been overcharged.

I never regret being an owner-operator.

Some of the other guys who started as single operators like me eventually ended up with multiple trucks and multiple routes. Running multiple routes could potentially be very lucrative so long as you had good reliable trucks and drivers. I was never even remotely interested in taking on another route, getting another truck and hiring a driver.

I knew my limitations and I never wanted to push my luck.

I knew I was lucky to be doing exactly what I was doing.