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I did not check Bridgestone. I have a brand loyalty to Michelin. I know that brand loyalty can result in paying a higher price for tires and I am certain that there are people out there with stories to tell about how other tires do just as well. That's OK. I like having Michelin tires on my...

I have posted it many times. For clarity, let me post it again. There is not such thing as the best carrier. There is only the carrier that is best for you.

You do like to make things personal and take things into the dramatic, don't you? "Have you been living in a cave?" is not an attack. It is a straightforward figure of speech. Get over it.

It's a double step drop up, and I'm asking Diane to give me two for Christmas! :D

Have you been living in a cave? I have been in this business over five years and not a month has gone by where I have not heard some trucker, including many here on EO, moan and groan about not making the money they used to. It is part of the background noise of thus business. You can verify...

A day or two ago I, a FedEx Custom Critical contractor, handed two Trip-Pak envelopes to the UPS man who was unloading the Trip-Pak box at a truck stop. There is some humorous irony in that.

Oh Yes! :D

Not in our case. We have noticed a slowdown in freight but it is a recent development. Most of 2008 has been just fine. Our revenue is down not because of freight reasons but personal choices to spend more time out of service and go home more often. In the last several weeks we have noticed a...

We bought eight new drive tires yesterday. Once ready to swap eight dual drive tires for four Michelin super singles (Michelin X One), we ended up going once again with dual drives. The reason was simple. Michelin could not deliver the X One tires. We ordered them weeks in advance but no tires...

I believe rates will go up when the economic recovery begins. Trucking industry economists and analysts are all talking about the truck capacity crunch that will develop when the economy picks up. This will shift the balance of pricing power from the shippers to the truckers. As general freight...

Back to the post that started this thread, the November retail numbers are being reported now (not just Black Friday numbers). Thomson Reuters tracks sales at 35 retailers. Reports are in from 24 of them. As reported by CNN, "Thomson Reuters forecast that last month's overall same-store sales...

I have the same memory. My dad took me down to the bank. I deposited my first-earned paper route money and walked out with a passbook showing my savings account balance. When I went in with subsequent deposits the people in this small town bank knew who I was and treated me like I was a VIP...

The facts are slightly different because of the time frame, but six years ago when Diane and I started researching the expediting industry, a number of experienced expediters complained bitterly about increased competition, less money, fewer loads, more restrictions, higher costs, etc. Anyone...

Or a doctor, dentist or Beno salesperson.

Or, they were engaging in selective research, believing only the parts of the expediting story they wanted to believe. Not unlike the millions of homeowners who believed their real estate values would continue to grow to the sky and they would always be able to refinance. It is not uncommon for...

This statement confuses me. If you want the point to stick, you will need to be more specific, as in providing a link to where someone said "could never happen." What exactly are you talking about?

Let's assume, DaveKC, that I am among those you refer to, since I have made posts about becoming a millionaire expediter, and written "flowery tourist stories" (see my Stories From the Road on my web site). I have not said Diane and I are predispatched all the time. I have said we are...

As an indicator in any year, Black Friday sales have more to do with media hype than economic reality. Same-store sales of a given month compared to the same month a year ago is a far more meaningful indicator. Black Friday sales reveal revenue numbers for a given day or weekend but they do...

Fair enough, ebsprintin. You posted your words on 9/7/07, presumably in response to my words in this post of 9/2/07: "No one knows when it will come or how severe it will be. My own best guess (and it is nothing more than that, one man's best guess), is the recession will begin in late 2007 or...

Makes sense to us. The anticipated resale value of our truck when we move into the next one is $2.95. Maybe a bit more if the fuel tanks are full. ;) We plan to run this puppy past its useful life and into the ground. We hope to have 1.5 million miles on it before even having to think about...