Jason Cowan Get to You Again

Silver Creek Transportation President Jason Cowan, with his company squad Overdrive's 2021 Small Fleet Gnaw.

Henderson, Kentucky-based Silvery Creek Transportation grew out of the owner-operator business of current owner and President Jason Cowan afterwards he purchased the assets of local aggregates hauler Bob Clark Trucking in the mid-1990s.

Cowan'southward begetter, Bobbie, who sadly passed February 12 this twelvemonth, joined him in the business organization near immediately. Bobbie Thou. Cowan had an farm machinery groundwork, owning and operating a John Deere dealership for years, Jason said. When in the 1990s Deere began to transition from a model that prioritized local dealer ownership to what Jason calls "the Caterpillar model," with big multi-dealer networks spread across regions, his begetter jumped behind the wheel of a 1973 Autocar, i of two tractors in the and then four-truck business.

Jason Cowan hadn't been at information technology on his own long at that bespeak, and with his father moved products locally too as farther afield hauling anhydrous ammonia for Grammer Industries, headquartered in Indiana due east and north of their Kentucky location.

Cowan brutal into the groove of business organisation ownership under the influence of Grammer's safety manager, Paul Baute, in those early years as an possessor-operator. "Through his wisdom I learned the value of doing everything the right way to the all-time of your power," Cowan said. "He showed me the value in being safe, in watching your fuel mileage" and so much else. "He'southward the smartest guy I've ever known with the regulations. ... We owe a lot of what we accept to Paul."

That includes disabusing Cowan of fanciful notions of business value inherent in the old "outlaw" image of yore. "It makes for good movies," Cowan said. "Information technology's fun and cornball, but at the end of the day ... everything I don't spend I get to keep. It comes down to some very basic things. We don't want to work 20 hours every day" to make a living. "What's my vision? What practise I want to do? How are we going to get there?"

Baute and the wisdom of long experience and then many others around him, it's clear, have fabricated Jason Cowan and his Silver Creek Transportation team what they are today -- a virtually 30-truck fleet with a diverse client base and poised for further growth. As regular readers will know, Argent Creek Transportation brought home to Henderson Overdrive'southward 2021 Minor Fleet Champ title belt, a feather in the cap of what'due south now a top-performing, growing team focused on staying true to bedrock values no matter the extent of its success.

Overdrive's 2022 Small Armada Champ competition, sponsored past the National Association of Small-scale Trucking Companies, has begun. Find contest details, and enter your small fleet in the running, via this link. Earlier the company moved to its electric current headquarters and shop, in what was once a Halliburton building erected in the 1970s, Cowan said, "nosotros came out of a 40' past 60' edifice" where they could piece of work on just a single truck at a time under cover, out of the elements. Current headquarters along S. Dark-green St. in Henderson, bounded on the property's north side past Canoe Creek as it feeds into the Ohio River, features enough space for multiple units in its bays, and grounds for idled vehicles when operators come in for the weekends.

At once, though, "when nosotros moved here," Cowan added, "we thought we'd be here forever. Now, Saturday night when I come in you can't inappreciably go in the parking lot."

Growth has come quickly in recent years following a plan laid out in 2018-'19, when the fleet sat at nine trucks total, a story told in function in Jason Cannon's 2021 profile of the concern during the Small Fleet Gnaw contest.

Silver Creek owns liquid tankers hauling fertilizer, an anhydrous ammonia tanker, flatbeds and dry vans.

Space limitations at the fleet'southward electric current location have been then obvious that Cowan and his wife, Penny, accept talked in recent times about moving the entire functioning, or at the least establishing a satellite terminal from which to further expand. "It's convenient for us where we are" now, Cowan said, and hard to notice property that makes sense to accommodate the entire performance nearby. "Hopefully we can brand information technology piece of work for a while."

Cowan's son Zebb, heavily involved on the dispatch and customer-relations side of the business organisation, has "talked virtually a vision to grow beyond this terminal to put trucks in some different places," said Jason. "Nosotros've fifty-fifty entertained the idea of acquiring different companies and and then forth. The only thing nosotros put on our growth" in terms of limitations is an absolute requirement to "go along the integrity and the culture and the values that we've set up. If we can't practise it the correct manner, I'm expert where nosotros are."

Cementing a company culture through safe process/data appointment, and much more

During Overdrive's March visit to Henderson to the Silver Creek headquarters, Cowan laid out that civilisation and those values, of a way, showcasing an increasingly fine-tuned operation that seeks to actively involve its two-dozen commuter employees and five leased owner-operators in achievement of company safety and maintenance goals. Fundamentally, as well, Cowan is forever trying to respond this question for himself: "What tin I exercise to help them accept a better life?"

Part of that is Silver Creek's recent enabling of access to a regional drop-in health-care clinic in addition to a traditional insurance programme employees have long had.

The National Association of Small Trucking Companies is again sponsoring this twelvemonth'southward Pocket-sized Fleet Championship. Finalists receive a twelvemonth'southward worth of membership in the association, with access to a myriad of benefits from NASTC'south well-known fuel plan to drug and alcohol testing services and more. All will be recognized at the association's annual conference, where the winners will be announced in October 2022. Notice more nearly the association via their website. Owner-operators are paid a straight percentage of the load "tiered depending on how much they want to invest in their ain business," said Cowan, with lower tiers for owners who offload responsibility for "plates, 2290 tax, IFTA" and more than on Silver Creek. The percent goes upwards in steps for owners who are taking care of those various responsibilities for their own businesses.

Company drivers are paid principally per-mile, at levels based on their experience and what trailer types they're pulling. The company's freight breakup is virtually "40% dry van, xl% open deck, and the balance tanker," said Cowan. "We guarantee a minimum each calendar week if a driver is available to work," $1,150/weekly, bonuses for clean inspections and if the operator engages with a video series Silver Creek's put together with partners and, increasingly, on their own. Company rubber lead Amber Jenkins is working on the ability, also, to tailor preparation videos accessible via in-cab tablets to individual drivers' requests.

"We have the applied science available" not but to offer up videos, merely give operators options, too, Cowan paraphrased: "'Send me something about finances, about family, about raising my kids' – they can pick and she tin can transport them something." Ultimately, he said, when browsing time allows, we all accept a choice to make: "We can effort to better ourselves, or just hang out on TikTok all day."

Fostering engagement with company compliance information and condom performance is an ongoing project, too, through which Silver Creek in diverse ways encourages practiced-natured competition amidst drivers. The company seeks to give operators plenty in the manner of visual access to only how their performance impacts federal measurements in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration'southward Safety Measurement System, impactful on company insurance rates and the ability to secure customers.

In a well-trafficked hallway betwixt the company role and store, just inside the principal entry door for virtually drivers coming into the shop, Jenkins posts Silvery Creek'due south SMS scores, giving operators a window on the company'due south information in that system to illustrate clearly how violations impact scores.

The Samsara electronic logging device system the visitor currently uses enables the carrier to rail speed relative to posted limits on roadways beyond the nation, calculating a score for each operator Jenkins hangs in the hallway with names removed. The report charts incidences of light, moderate and more than excessive (15-mph-plus over the limit) speeding, again giving operators a physical manifestation of their own performance. (On the day Overdrive was in Henderson, the weekly chart showed merely a couple of those excessive speeding incidents.)

Every bit a longtime operator himself, Cowan understands how such incidences can occur, whether coming into an area where limit signs are obscured or absent, or another state of affairs. "I've been on both sides as a driver and the company owner," he said. "Part of our civilisation is we don't desire people to exist agape. 'Oh that'due south just one more than matter to fuss at me nearly.'"

Rather, he hopes sharing such information engenders self-questioning for each operator, also as back-office personnel. "What can we do better on the road?"

Amber Jenkins moved the company toward a goal of improving maintenance-issue awareness by gamifying, if you will, the pretrip-inspection process, with remuneration. Cowan in this photograph is pointing to a sticker found during a pretrip in a location non 100% uncomplicated to access. A clean inspection nets $100 to an operator, every bit noted, merely finding i of these stickers nets an easy $l. "At the end of the week she posts everywhere there was a sticker," Cowan said, letting operators know "how much coin they left on the table."

Improvisation in the confront of adversity

As have many carriers, Argent Creek has struggled in recent times with the lag in new truck builds, limiting much further execution of its 2019-implemented growth strategy. To an extent, though, the Cowans have turned to older project units. Longtime Silver Creek operator Richard Riddle, for example, is currently hauling in a 2005 Peterbilt 379, running generally locally, that Zane Cowan took on every bit a project truck a few years ago.

The 2005 Pete 379 is here pictured rolled into headquarters for fuel from the company's bulk delivery tank, where Silvery Creek'south currently contracted at $3.45/gallon, well better than the region'due south $v/gal. average. "It's going to exist a expert thing for us as long as [operators] tin can fuel here," not an easy option over-the-road of course, he said, and keep to work to accomplish the best fuel mileage possible. "That'due south the thing that I emphasize, even with our owner-operators. I want to assistance guys be successful. When I got started, I was all virtually 'I want the truck that looks nice.' Now, I endeavour to balance" that with efficiency, comfort and everything else. "How tin can we keep a commuter comfy, give him a nice piece of equipment, simply … if I have a truck that gets 8 mpg versus 5.5, that'due south a lot of coin. And at $v for fuel that'due south a whole lot of coin."

"I of our friends hauled ammonia" previously with the'05 379 "and was young and passed away" manner too early, Jason said. That possessor-operator was Kevin "Racecar" DePugh of Rockville, Indiana. "We bought it and took the [slightly damaged] sleeper off of information technology" for local service. "We remember erstwhile Racecar every time we drive information technology."

Zane'southward current project rig is this 1994 Peterbilt 379, powered by a 3406E Cat with a 15 speed.

The rig has a rich Henderson-expanse history, Jason Cowan noted. It had been owned by an possessor-operator couple "here in Henderson County," Cowan said, who'd been leased to Landstar. The principal operator took ill more than x years ago and "parked the truck on the side of the road" not far from Silver Creek's headquarters. "He ended up having cancer and passed abroad." The rig sat by the roadway earlier Silvery Creek purchased information technology last summer. The operator'south widow, Cowan added, got to come across it running one more fourth dimension with its original pigment work in the local Christmas parade this by season, earlier she passed at the end of December.

And yes, for those of you with sharp optics, that'south a Double Hawkeye sleeper on the 1994, well-evident via the scalloped structure of the dorsum wall.

Operator Riddle pointed to the family aspects of Silvery Creek as ane amid many keeping him on board -- he'southward hauled for the company now for around nine years after a career in the military and law enforcement, though he'south known Jason Cowan since the two were in middle school together in next Wedlock Canton. Cowan "puts his employees showtime and tries to do everything he tin can to make sure we're taken intendance of," Riddle said.

Riddle's wife, Christi, too drives for the company in local courier service. Silver Creek owns a few vehicles it uses for such, including running "the post for the school arrangement and other piece of work," Cowan said.

Versatility in freight throughout the concern is something of a calling menu for Cowan, illustrated by this Silver Creek SUV used as a courier vehicle locally. "My buddy calls me the Junkyard Dog," said Cowan. Recently, "He called me and said, 'Tin can you clean my boat up besides?'"

Honoring the legacy of all who laid the groundwork for success

Operator Roy "Pipeman" Spainhoward hauls "slinky coils" for a local direct customer that'due south been a part of Jason Cowan'southward stable almost since he started hauling on his own. The 69-twelvemonth-onetime Spainhoward, though, hasn't always been running for Silver Creek.

He came to the company, Cowan said, after hauling for years with Ag Transport, a small fleet that was run past another local trucking associate Cowan learned from early on and throughout his career. "Ruth Adkins was a larger-than-life grapheme," Cowan said. "She was tough equally nails" and had run a local horse track, besides. Her fleet "ran v or six trucks," and Cowan "worked for her in the evenings" early in his career. She "helped me with my first trucks."

Operator Spainhoward, when Adkins retired, "came over and worked for u.s.," Cowan added. "He's been hither about ten years." Cowan lauds Spainhoward for close attention to, and care for, the equipment. "He'll go more than out of a truck" than most. "He's like shooting fish in a barrel with it, never had a manual go down."

Said Spainhoward, loaded but at the shop the day Overdrive visited in demand of a trailer airbag replacement Zane was working on as we spoke, "I don't abuse somebody else'southward equipment. Equally much coin equally that man has to put out on this, I never have, and I'm 69 years onetime and I'thousand non going to start now."

Roy "Pipeman" Spainhoward

When Cowan was young and also helping out Ruth Adkins as a commuter, Spainhoward was the blazon who'd jump a 4 a.m. start fourth dimension for a series of loads "just to shell the residuum of united states out of there past a half-hour."

Onetime-school, equally Cowan suggested, then asking, "Y'all reckon we'll ever be erstwhile-school?"

Looking dorsum over his career, Cowan well knows what worked for him in the past only also that those things may not work forever. "You call back about change -- sometimes it's hard to accept [change to] some of the things that we know in the industry are redundant or don't make sense. But that's what I want to exercise. How can we piece of work things to make it improve for everybody -- make the job easier, instead of harder."

Cowan is a proponent of giving eighteen-twenty-twelvemonth-olds more opportunity to become into the interstate hauling game. "Become a guy or a gal out of high school, when they're excited" about futurity prospects, he said. "We have the engineering science. We can picket, we can train, we can set the trucks where nosotros desire them. ... All those guys driving on the farm at xiv and 15. My ain boys could practise information technology all by the fourth dimension they were xv or 16. Allow's become them into the manufacture earlier they're 23 when they're already doing something else and have to spend a lot of their life going through a school. That would really help our industry if nosotros can get them in and train them as we become as a company."

Perchance the 2021 Pocket-size Fleet Champ isn't 100%erstwhile-school or new-schoolhouse, equally the example may be. Notwithstanding he looks dorsum with respect and cheers to all the men and women who have been on this journeying with him, every bit he noted in the video below, featuring the Cowans' custom restoration of Bobbie K. Cowan'south 1973 Autocar, the rig that did so much to get Silver Creek rolling toward what information technology is today.

Trucking has an atrocious "lot to be thankful for," particularly when it comes to the men and women who "went before us," Cowan said. "You understand why people idea they were heroes and the Knights of the Road" simply every bit interstates were coming into play, along with so much else that eased certain aspects of the work of trucking.

He'south thankful for the men who, when he was just 12 or 13 years old "and just in dearest with a truck," deigned to answer his questions. "In my neighborhood in that location were four or five guys [who] would run out Due west and come in on the weekends, and perhaps they're working on the truck putting CBs or something in it."

Though "I was probably merely aggravating them," he added, thinking back and laughing, "they would let me stand effectually around ask questions. ... I remember those guys a lot in 24-hour interval-to-twenty-four hour period life. A lot of them are gone on, but they paved the way for what we could exercise.

"There's always something to be thankful for," Cowan connected. "Nobody does anything entirely by themselves."

[Related: Enter the 2022 Minor Fleet Championship here]

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Source: https://www.overdriveonline.com/small-fleet-champ/article/15291067/a-vision-for-growth-jason-cowan-silver-creek-transportation

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