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Great post! I especially like what you said about read, read read. When Diane and I were researching a career move into expediting and knew nothing about the trade, we found the EO open forum to be a vital resource and we read, read, read. The Open Forum was eight years younger then and there...

Link to story: Scrapped heavier-truck provision a victory for OOIDA membership Excerpt: "OOIDA is crediting its members who called and wrote to federal lawmakers this week for helping to defeat the longer-heavier truck provision in the House highway bill."

The Sylectus Annual Conference 2012 is being held near Orlando, Fla., Feb. 10-12. I know that some Open Forum members are involved with Sylectus. If you will be attending, I'd love to meet with you there. I'll be covering the event for EO and Expedite NOW. The agenda lists some interesting...

Your point about 10,000 trucks vs. a large carrier's fleet of 1,000 or so is well taken. However, large carriers gitrdone too. All of them boast on-time stats approaching 100 percent. What other reasons are there for a shipper to use a small carrier instead of a large one?

Yes it helps and I get the freedom part that you talk about at length. Now I have another question. I followed your link to your On Call Logistics site. Finding your DOT number there, I went to the FMCSA SMS site and learned that you have one power unit in your fleet (excluding vans if you...

Can you say more about this? What exactly about getting your own authority appeals more than leasing your truck(s) to a carrier? It seems like more and more expediters are doing this as time marches on. I'd be interested in learning more (research for an article I am working on). Also, if you...

You were told wrong. While it is true that a termination letter was issued for reasons unstated, it is also true that the letter was rescinded the same day by the same person who wrote it, also for reasons unstated. We received both letters in the mail the same day. It remains a mystery to Diane...

Diane and I have had a great January, 2012, but have not made a dime with the truck. We and it are parked at our Florida vacation house to avoid winter driving and pursue other interests. We will return to the road in mid-February. One January highlight was Landstar BCO Appreciation Days. We...

As others have mentioned, Glen is up and around, active on Facebook and driving a truck. He owns and operates a Kenworth W900 and leases it to a power-only carrier. He recently hauled a trailer for a circus loaded with live tigers. Because of injuries sustained in that horrific accident...

I'm working on a piece about the EO Form topping 15,000 members and am seeking comments from members about what the Open Forum means for you. For what do you use the Open Forum? Why do you "regulars" come back again and again, sometimes for years? What prompts you newbies to become members...

Diane and I were at ARI earlier this month to have some sleeper repairs done (replace a leaking sleeper water pump and generator exhaust flex pipe). They are running at full production mode, building numerous new custom sleepers. The plant is as busy now as in the good old days with a healthy...

My daily blog is now featured on Overdrive magazine's web site. This came as a surprise to me. Out of the blue, Overdrive called and asked me to post my blog on their site. It was easy to say yes since I blog anyway on my own site. Most of what I write will go on both sites. All of what I...

You might want to try calling several truck tire dealers near home and in the areas you find yourselves. One recently told me he once had dozens of used wide-single rims on hand (gone now). They came from a fleet that tried super singles (wide-singles) for a while and switched back to dual...

In the years Diane and I were with FedEx Custom Critical, a number of people who joined the company after us told us that we were influential in their decision to also sign on with that carrier. Influential, perhaps but decisive? Not at all. No one has ever joined a carrier because they...

For every owner-operator, there are always ways to make a trucking business work. And when changes come, there are always ways to adapt and make the business work again. But it is not effortless or cost-free for one to change one's business plan or ways of operating. Whether such efforts are...

You may very well be right. The problem is, the supply seems to be unlimited.

The career path I would lean towards if it came to that would be trading (explained here). As explained on the linked-to pages, I don't talk about my trading strategies or results. Trading has nothing to do with expediting and I mention the activity here only because you asked. Suffice it to...

In the short eight years Diane and I have been in the business, we have seen many somethings happen and we are still here. It's not that this is a crisis that will bring the industry down. It's that this is one more thing that is having a cumulative and negative effect on the desirability and...

I was wondering the same thing.

Diane and I have read a little but have not yet put a lot of thought or study into the new hours of service regulations. We will be attending a meeting about them later this month at Landstar HQ when we are there for BCO Days (an annual event Landstar holds for its contractors a/k/a BCOs). After...