Running his four-truck fleet, P.O.E. Farm, brings enough headaches of its own, but John Hodges, 35, pushes the envelope even further. He also runs a cattle farm, pastors a church and stays close to his wife and four children. Hodges demonstrates the potential for what can be accomplished if you can dream big and multitask well.
Or, on the cautionary side, he’s an example of why any leased operator should think twice about going independent.
Consider the May day I rode with him. Driving a 1998 Freightliner Classic, he was picking up a load at the last minute because one of his drivers called to say he’d forgotten a personal appointment.
When we got to the Tamko Building Products plant here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to load shingles, he called the office from a yard booth phone and returned to the cab.
“It shipped yesterday,” he said, relatively unperturbed.
Hodges called Keisha Odum, his longtime broker with Unlimited Freight, to see if the receiver, an hour away in Birmingham, might schedule another pickup.
