Reply #23: The percentage of independents vs. "company" drivers is going down....

[A HERETIC I AM]

if anything. There hasn't been a large increase in Owner/Operators.

So, to say "Many truckers today are independent. They all have state issued license plates" is somewhat irrelevant. ALL trucks, be they independents or company trucks have "state issued license plates".

The easiest way to tell if a truck is likely driven by its owner is to look for the words "Leased to" or "Leased by" followed by the company name - usually the company name that appears on the trailer. That is still no guarantee that the driver actually owns the truck. There are plenty of small fleet owners who might own 10 or 20 tractors, lease them to a single or many different firms and hire drivers to drive them.

Edited to add that there are also many, many companies who hire ONLY owner operators and that truck owner/driver may not have any indication on his truck that he is an O/O.