Here’s one owner-operator with a (slightly) optimistic outlook

Missouri trucker David Payne says he guesses he's just stubborn.

By JERRY BREEDEN
The Trucker Staff

3/6/2008

If not for his upbeat attitude, owner-operator David Payne may have thrown in the towel a long time ago.

Like everyone else in his line of work, Payne has had to contend with rising fuel prices, a prevailing scarcity of freight and a lackluster economy in general. But unlike most of his peers, he’s had to battle back twice from the effects of a broken neck and once from the agony of a broken back.

“I’m kind of stubborn, I guess,” the Camden, Mo., resident said in an interview with The Trucker at a Central Arkansas truck stop in mid-February.

At the time, he was leased to Mooresville, N.C.-based Cheetah Transportation, a division of American Trans-Freight LLC.

“I guess I could just go sit on the curb and wait for things to get better, but I’m not made that way,” said Payne. “I’d rather get out there and try to make something good happen instead of sitting around crying about the way things are.”

Payne has been a professional trucker for the past 23 years, having started as a company driver in 1985. Four years later, he bought his own truck and started beating the bushes for himself.

“As an owner-operator,” he said, “I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want and still make a little money along the way. That kind of freedom means a lot to me.”

Of course, Payne is savvy enough to know that the state of the nation’s economy has to weigh heavily in his daily decision-making process.

“Toll road fees are going up all the time and food at the truck stops is too expensive,” he said. “With everything costing so much, it’s hard to turn down any job, especially when you realize that we’re paying about three times more for fuel today than we were in 2000.”

Consequently, “I’ll haul anything that’s legal,” he said. “I’ll take anything from a single parcel to a full truckload, as long as it’s going to pay the way.”

Payne said if he was asked to advise someone looking to make a career of trucking, “I would tell them to go to work for UPS, FedEx or some other company like that where they’d have health and retirement benefits and could earn a decent wage without spending so much time on the road.”

While believing that the future will only get better, Payne is looking forward to the day when he can overhaul one of his two trucks. But one of two things has to happen first: fuel prices will have to come down, “which isn’t very likely ever,” he said, or freight will have to become more readily available, “which isn’t totally out of the question.”

Once business does pick up, Payne hopes to overhaul the 1996-model rig he was driving before it broke down. He bought a 1993-model “for parts to fix the other one, but it runs OK, so I’m still using it. I do like the ’96 better, though, because it rides and handles a lot smoother and it’s easier on my neck and back.”

When he’s not pounding the pavement to earn a dollar, Payne enjoys spending time at home with his wife, Teresa. They own 4.5 acres of land that he said always seems to need some attention. He also likes working on and riding motorcycles.

Payne and his wife, who is an assistant manager at a nationally known discount merchandise chain, have two children. Their son, John, is in the Army and is currently serving his second tour of duty in Iraq. John and his wife, Sarah, live in Abilene, Kan. They have had two children, one of whom is deceased.

Daughter Serena Lovell and her husband Scott live in Camden and, as Payne said, are “working on their first baby.”