Hello E/O friends... this week I was told by a recruiter that Panther has 530 cargo vans in their fleet currently. I wonder how this number compares to six months ago or even one year ago. Does anyone out there remember? I am scheduled to return to Panther next week as an owner/op and am trying to grasp the kinds of change and magnitude of change that has taken place. When I first leased on to Panther in 2001, I don't think there was more than 400 trucks in the entire fleet( including vans, straight trks andTT). I have been doing local work the last 4 months and am eager to return to expediting. I miss the action.
530 Panther vans?
- Thread starter aristotle
- Start date
530? seen that many arked in cornfields waiting for loads
There are definitely too many vans with Panther, and a lot of it is Panther's own fault. They push hard for fleet owners, rather than owner/operators. When you're driving a cargo van for an owner, splitting things 60/40, you're gonna turn down pretty much everything under about 300 miles, (some use 500 as the yardstick) cause you can't make any money at anything under that. The result is you've got people out here with silly acceptance rates of 20 and 30% and Panther needs more vans than loads just to get the loads covered. And even at that they still have to farm a lot of loads out on the bid board. Stressing fleet owners over owner/operators makes it a numbers game to Panther, despite them referring to us a Partners.
are12
Expert Expediter
Turtle, I have to agree with you, that Panther has become more of a fleet owner company and is forgetting about the owner/operator's - it is not just with the vans but with the straight trucks too.
Don't get me wrong, we liked working for Panther and made money with them but, towards the end, we felt like we were being lost in the shuffle and knew it was time to move on.
Don't get me wrong, we liked working for Panther and made money with them but, towards the end, we felt like we were being lost in the shuffle and knew it was time to move on.
A Panther van got here W. Memphis LAST Friday and it was 6th out...their load board said they averaged 3 loads a day....so much for boards eh? Funny thing after 5 days of sitting the queue for loads per day didn't drop....actually went up to 4 per day...they do funny math...
They must not update those load counts too often...
They must not update those load counts too often...
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The loads boards are a 5-day average. They are updated once a day, overnight I think. The load count could go up if a 0, 1 or 2 load day from 5 days ago drops off the average counts, and the new 5 days worth of loads is more. Also, just because dood didn't get loaded out doesn't mean there weren't any loads going out. He may have turned some down, or had a bad acceptance or on-time percentage. In addition, that load board comprises not only Memphis and Millington, but Olive Branch down in MS, up to Ripley and Dyersburg, as well as Brownsville in TN - places we also get loads out from. There might have been trucks in those locations that got loaded out first.
Don't take too much of what drivers tell you as gospel. I had a straight truck driver who was always telling me how he wasn't getting offers. The last time he told me how it had been a few days since an offer. I was at Seville and saw with my own eyes the 8 load offers he had turned down in the last 36 hours, the same hours he told me he hadn't had a single offer.
I don't usually Leo but shes an owner with vans and straights on with P2 so I figured she'd have no reason to bull me around....
BTW...there's an owners meeting the first of the month?
BTW...there's an owners meeting the first of the month?
Jack_Berry
Moderator Emeritus
some folks will run every run offered going with the "it all will average out" while others have the fixed number and won't budge under it. so if that number is not met then that person got no offers.
warlordblee
Seasoned Expediter
The sad thing is some recruiter for Panther is telling some poor soul that it is a good idea to put on a sprinter. I remember this from back in the Roberts Express days, 1994 to be exact. I was in Erie which was a board back then and I was being sent their with two vans in Erie already. I ask the dispatcher how many loads went out yesterday, she says one, I said why would I go their and wait three days.
Common sense tells me that this scene is playing out all over with the Panther vans, I sure hope those people can make their van payments this summer and put some food in their stomach.
Common sense tells me that this scene is playing out all over with the Panther vans, I sure hope those people can make their van payments this summer and put some food in their stomach.
hondaking38
Veteran Expediter
ya it seems after dropping a load, most boards appear doubled up on vans....one on every corner....but saying that i have had my best two weeks in a row in quite awhile...now i just gotta get a load north east towards michigan for the holidays