Drilling Deep: What tax returns said about trucker pay in ’21

Also on the podcast: The crazy jet fuel market and its impact on diesel prices

Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves; ATBS

Todd Amen is the president of ATBS. That gives him a ringside seat for how independent owner-operators in the trucking market are doing financially.

ATBS processes thousands of tax returns for owner-operators every year. It’s getting toward mid-April, when taxes need to be filed, and Amen joins Drilling Deep host John Kingston to discuss what he’s seen in this year’s tax returns coming off the strong freight market of 2021.

Also on the podcast, Kingston reviews the market for jet fuel, which has reached dizzying heights, and explains why that could impact the price of diesel.

More articles by John Kingston

Drilling Deep: The case for releasing lots of oil from the SPR

Drilling Deep: The state of road safety post-pandemic 

Drilling Deep: A truck stop goes from opening to the top quickly

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John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.