Operators Are Low Paying Freight

Many Operators believe their Accountant is the best… they’ve been told their Accountant gets all the latest CRA updates before anyone else and they know everything about lowering taxes. The confidence they show towards their Accountant is very impressive. However, how much of that “confidence” is based on fact and how much on ignorance? (please don’t take this personally).

Being an Independent Operator in Canada is a special career field. Hauling 80,000 pounds across our country is no small task. It requires skills and training like very few careers do. Safety in winter and navigation in hazardous conditions are the norm in the life of an Independent Operator. The industry is truly a profession in society. However, driving truck does have its limits; there are not many clear paths of upward mobility. 80+% of the skills can be acquired within a 2-year period. The earnings difference between someone in the industry 2 years verses 30 years is hardly 30%. Earnings can very easily “plateau” and not advance over years. Due to this general impression, the occupation has often been considered “capped” or a “dead end job”.

Accounting is a very different profession. There are those in their basement preparing taxes one client at a time and there are highly specialized Accountants in very lucrative and technical positions. The amount of education and training can range from “self-trained in a weekend” all the way to 7+ years of classical training with 10+ years of experience. Earnings in the Accounting industry vary as widely as the training. Preparing taxes in a basement over the weekends can bring in $40-60 per hour… maybe even $100. Highly trained Accountants don’t start their car for less than $800-1200+ per hour. Only certain kinds of clients can pay $1000+ per hour for an Accountant. The Independent Operator industry is NOT one of those clients.

Operators must understand that, to an Accountant, the Independent Operator industry is ‘Low Paying Freight’. It is labor intensive, and low margin. Operators generate 25-80 pages of paper per month. Each page must be entered into an accounting program, transaction by transaction, month over month. It can take anywhere from 2-8 hours per month per client or 20-90 hours per year. The average Accountant can invoice an operator only $2500-3000 per year, that’s only $25-150 per hour.

If we all understand supply and demand, we must acknowledge that the high paying Accountants rarely, if ever have Independent Operators as clients. A firm may hire people off the street for a basic wage to do all the work for an Operator, say $20-40 hour and possibly contribute to the firm’s profit, but very few highly educated Accountants even entertain Independent Operators. Remember, you are ‘Low Paying Freight’. If an Accountant is desperate to serve the trucking industry, the assumption is, they are desperate… and you will get what you pay for.

This means that an operator who brags that his Accountant is “top in Class” doesn’t know his true value as a client. Either his file is given to an employee off the street, or the Accountant is “All Hat – No Cattle” (as the Texan’s say). Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to insult anyone. Serving the Independent Operator industry for the last 30+ years has been an honor and a privilege; it’s been a career I would do all over again. But I could have made much more money in other industries. In fact, I was offered a lot of money many years ago, but I declined. I like what I do, I like the people I serve and work with… I’m sorry… but I’m just weird that way. I’m not in it for the bucks.

Choosing the right Accountant is about receiving the highest VALUE for the services you need. How much taxes can you save over what fees you pay? I talked to a guy the other month who was getting his Accountant to pay for his personal hydro bills, home insurance and tire repairs on his car. That’s a lot of service… he was paying his Accountant several hundred extra dollars a month for about 1-1.5 hours of work. In my opinion that deal brought very low value to the Operator. It was work that he easily could have done while on the road or with a little forethought.

Since February 2024 I have interviewed well over 450 accounting firms from coast to coast in Canada. Here are the stats. 90% of firms that serve Operators use a desktop system, many but not all offer e-mail services for sending paperwork (less than 5% of firms are interested in digital online services). Very few NON-CPA firms specialize in serving Operators (less than 10% have 20+% of clients as Operators). Most CPA firms (95%) do not solicit Operators for clients, many do not even accept them. Accounting firms only serve Operators when there seems to be no other choice in the local market. When something more lucrative comes along… Operators are left in the dust. In other words, YOU are ‘low paying freight’.

Don’t take it personally; make your choice of an accounting firm wisely. Look for VALUE and industry commitment and above all avoid the liars (those who lie on your behalf to CRA). False returns take YEARS to recover from if reassessed, and frankly cheaters never win in the long run. You are in a business to build after tax wealth honestly and you need to have someone who knows how to do that legally and consistently.

I have a whole chapter on choosing an Accountant in my first book “Making Your Miles Count: taxes, taxes, taxes”. Check it out or listen to some of the 200+ PODCASTS we have posted in the last year. Make the best choice with the best information. Research, Research, Research!

About the Author:
Robert D. Scheper is a leading Accountant and Consultant exclusively serving the Lease/Owner operator industry in Canada. His first book in the Making Your Miles Count series “taxes, taxes, taxes” was released in 2007. His second book “Choosing a Trucking company” is the most in-depth analysis of the independent operator industry today. He has a Master’s degree (MBA) in financial management and has been serving the industry since he and his wife came off the road in 1993. His dedication, commitment and strong opinions can be read and heard in many articles and seminars.

You can find him at www.makingyourmilescount.com or 1-877-987-9787.