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You are asking great questions, Kyreax. Since we have already met and talked, I'll leave it for others to answer. I just want to clarify one thing. We do not have an unmanagable truck payment. Very soon, we will have no truck payment at all. We made a nice down payment with money we saved...

In the last few days, Diane and I have visited with more than the usual number of expediters on the road. The visits happened mostly by chance as we stopped at truck stops in the Southwest and stumbled upon expediters from a variety of carriers who were waiting for freight. Some of the visits...

Check out the American Trucking Association Technology and Maintenance Council. It will cost you some money to join but it may be well worth the price your employer pays. Lots of good information there. You can also learn how fleet managers think about the issues you now face in your new work.

Diane and I have never been afraid to turn down a low paying load, and there is nothing in the new system that would change that. There is nothing precious about a low paying load. If others want them, they are welcome to them. In fact, as i think about it, I would be delighted if they take...

Some time ago, two or three years, I don't remember for sure, I met the owner of that Peterbilt and he gave me a tour. It is a nice floor plan and a solo driver would be very comfortable in it. At the time, the truck was leased to All-State Express. The owner said he and his wife had been in...

Keep in mind that FedEx Custom Critical likes its trucks to have white boxes (truck bodies). They will not put the full size FedEx Custom Critical lettering on a box that is not white. Some owner-operators that lease to FedEx Custopm Critical prefer to not have the FedEx logo on their truck...

Exactly right on both points! I expect that most expediters have had times where sleep needs trump the need to be available for load offers. If that is the case, go out of service, turn Qualcomm off, turn your telephone off and get the rest you need. If you are not too tired to drive and...

The pleasure was ours, Kyreax. When your time comes to jump in, fleet owners who run solo drivers will be wise to snap you up.

That is a very good point, Terry. Dispatchers don't have a lot of free time. We try not to waste it. If we receive an offer that pays too low, we immediately decline the load. There is no need to mess around. We are proud of our acceptance rate, but if the load does not pay enough, maintaining...

Now there's a reason to avoid FedEx Custom Critical! Don't sign on with them...your Qualcomm will keep you awake with too many load offers!

Here and on my blog, for a number of reasons (all good), it is my practice to talk about where we have been but not where we are in real time or where we will be. Exceptions are when we are organizing an event like inviting expediters to help fellow expediters move, or inviting expediters to...

Yes, Greg, that is correct, but that is not the whole story. As I understand it, the three (or other number of) trucks that receive the load offer at the same time all have the same 10 minutes to respond to the load offer that trucks had before. The important thing to note is that rank order...

This is good information, nightcreacher. Thank you for sharing it. I have chatted with a few E-unit (not ER) drivers on the road who do not have the success story you do. Is it as simple as that; drive team, stay mostly east of the Mississippi, stay in service 75% of the time, accept 70% of...

We met John one time at the MATS truck show and had an extended conversation with him. He was a good person and nice guy. It is sad to hear of his passing, but thank you for sharing the news.

dabluzman1, In another thread, that has now gone off topic, you offered to share your "'fresh' point of view about going into expediting" and offered to answer questions. Kyreax is considering the expedite opportunity and asked, in part, "So...what's different than what you expected?" I am...

The failures failed because they did not learn the business. It's the same as driving a four-wheeler. It is not hard to learn how to drive a car safely and well. Sadly, there are not a lot of people out there driving cars safely and well. While it is easy to learn, and the how-to information is...

My point exactly, DaveKC. That is why I am asking you a simple question. The question is, what is the formula for calculating ROI? More to the point, you are the most outspoken ROI advocate in the Open Forum. You own trucks. You are an expediter (fleet owner today with prior on-road...

Great post, Kyreax! Among experienced drivers, it is a natural occurance to forget what it is like to not know what they now know. This business is not hard to learn. That fact is demonstrated over and over again by those newbies who enter with no experienced and are soon putting up numbers...

The case presented is not my case, it is a hypothetical case of a one-truck owner-operator team. It is a formula I seek. I want to know how to calculate ROI. I am asking about a formula so we can avoid slipping into a debate about truck cost, sleeper size and lifestyle choices. I want to know...

Doh!!!:( I said above I would not post in this thread, and then I did. Embarrassed here. I meant to put this not in this thread but in the General Economic Conditions thread, so as to honor my promise not to post in this one. The reason the link to "the other thread" points to this one is I...