Best companies to be leased on with.

panorris62 · Oct 29, 2011

I am starting to do my research to find out what companies are the best to drive for. Currently I will be a solo driver untill my wife gets her CDL. I will either be purchasing a class 7 or a class 8 stretched chassis. An advice on the best vehicle for a beginner would be greatly appreciated as well.

I appreciate any advice that you can offer because you are the ones that are cdurrently out there working for these companies and can probably give me the best pro and cons to each of the many expediting companies.

purgoose10 · Oct 29, 2011

panorris62 said:
I am starting to do my research to find out what companies are the best to drive for. Currently I will be a solo driver untill my wife gets her CDL. I will either be purchasing a class 7 or a class 8 stretched chassis. An advice on the best vehicle for a beginner would be greatly appreciated as well.

I appreciate any advice that you can offer because you are the ones that are cdurrently out there working for these companies and can probably give me the best pro and cons to each of the many expediting companies.

I love seeing and reading these posts. I'm not being sarcastic or smart so take this with a grain of salt please.
Everyone on this forum has an opinion about their company and others too. Like they say read and investigate this forum and it's history and you will probably get all your answers.
I run independant so I can't tell you much, but I will tell you my top picks for an class 8 or 7 or Sprinter.
Load 1 is probably the most popular and John ( the owner is honest and everyone of his people think he's the best.)
They try to make sure their operators make it, and in this business that says a lot.
For a beginner, maybe Bolt 1. Their rates aren't the best but a lot of operators say they are good and getting new owners a jump start and help them out information wise.
Other than that there are several carriers on this form that are good, but you, yourself and no one else can tell you who will fit your needs, that you have to do for yourself.
Hope this helps. Be prepared, the weather is early this year and the first quarter (the slowest time of the year) is just around the corner. Be prepared finacially and mentally.

panorris62 · Oct 29, 2011

Purgoose thank you for the advice. I think the main thing that I am nervouds about is freight, I am a hard worker and have fairly good business sense I just don't to sign on with a company and find out they do not have the cargo to support the drivers. what type of truck would you recommend or what do you run currently?

BillChaffey · Oct 29, 2011

The "Best Company"
is in the eye of the beholder. Some company(s) clearly encourage the people leased on to them to post as often as possible saying how wonderful they are.

cheri1122 · Oct 31, 2011

BillChaffey said:
The "Best Company"
is in the eye of the beholder. Some company(s) clearly encourage the people leased on to them to post as often as possible saying how wonderful they are.

Not the carrier I'm leased to - they tell us where we can go, but not a word about what we can [or should, or might] say about them. When we say something nice, they earned it.
PS Jealousy is in the eye of the beholder, too.

Dynamite 1 · Nov 1, 2011

whats up with that cheri ? you mean you are not on the special pay program. 100.00 bucks for every nice post about load one. you need to talk to the powers that be and get on the program. you are missing out. LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CharlesD · Nov 1, 2011

I'm not going to get into the companies, because I might be biased on that end, but as to the vehicle, if I was starting out right now, I wouldn't get anything smaller than a dock high straight. My wife and I ran for the summer in an 18' truck and hardly ever sat. Now I have another team in that truck and it's still running fairly well. The vans and Sprinters are another story right now. There's still freight for them and there are probably carriers that can keep one busy; even some of our smaller units have been running well, but the straight is the way to go for the revenue and the comfort. You don't really want to cram two people in anything smaller.

Basically, bigger is better right now. The more you can set yourself apart from the other trucks, the more money you can make. A liftgate wouldn't hurt either.

scottm4211 · Nov 1, 2011

Charles are you running the cube van? Saw it on I65 Sunday.

OntarioVanMan · Nov 1, 2011

CharlesD said:
I'm not going to get into the companies, because I might be biased on that end, but as to the vehicle, if I was starting out right now, I wouldn't get anything smaller than a dock high straight. My wife and I ran for the summer in an 18' truck and hardly ever sat. Now I have another team in that truck and it's still running fairly well. The vans and Sprinters are another story right now. There's still freight for them and there are probably carriers that can keep one busy; even some of our smaller units have been running well, but the straight is the way to go for the revenue and the comfort. You don't really want to cram two people in anything smaller.

Basically, bigger is better right now. The more you can set yourself apart from the other trucks, the more money you can make. A liftgate wouldn't hurt either.

I have to side with Charles...lately shippers have been filling my sprinter with full loads...bigger has been the buzz word....If you are intent on buying...a class 8 is the way to go....

jelliott · Nov 1, 2011

I hope I get my 100 bucks for this post!!!! (Really Bill????)

I would go with the larger vehicle. The bigger the vehicle, the more load possibilities. Also make sure that you do not limit when or where you run.

CharlesD · Nov 1, 2011

scottm4211 said:
Charles are you running the cube van? Saw it on I65 Sunday.

That's a team out of Missouri. They're in PA now. I'm back home.

ntimevan · Nov 1, 2011

That choice has alot of variables that are different to each person. Where you live, any little children at home, how often you need to get home, and the PAID MILES you need to make ends meet. I 've heard of alot of SHIP jumping lately looking for greener grass and i've seen people return BACK across the fence.. I know at times i scratch my head and i take a peek over the fence but then the phone rings and i get a 600 miler and a smile comes back across my face. Oh yeah ever notice that DEER IN HEADLIGHTS look on newbies coming out of orientation. Man i hope i didn't look like that.

OntarioVanMan · Nov 1, 2011

ntimevan said:
That choice has alot of variables that are different to each person. Where you live, any little children at home, how often you need to get home, and the PAID MILES you need to make ends meet. I 've heard of alot of SHIP jumping lately looking for greener grass and i've seen people return BACK across the fence.. I know at times i scratch my head and i take a peek over the fence but then the phone rings and i get a 600 miler and a smile comes back across my face. Oh yeah ever notice that DEER IN HEADLIGHTS look on newbies coming out of orientation. Man i hope i didn't look like that.

A good O/O will always have their ear to the ground...and try to keep up with what other carriers are doing...
a carrier sometimes makes subtle little changes to a policy that was the very reason you overlooked them to begin with...
I get asked.."Why do you care what they do?" Because this is my business and anything to do with this business is of my concern....

chefdennis · Nov 1, 2011

Gee Bill...I was and still have nothing but good things to say about Bolt...(although I have been hearing a few not so good things lately from "trusted scoures") and they never paid me....But then again I never "cussed" their dispatchers either...

paullud · Nov 1, 2011

ntimevan said:
That choice has alot of variables that are different to each person. Where you live, any little children at home, how often you need to get home, and the PAID MILES you need to make ends meet. I 've heard of alot of SHIP jumping lately looking for greener grass and i've seen people return BACK across the fence.. I know at times i scratch my head and i take a peek over the fence but then the phone rings and i get a 600 miler and a smile comes back across my face. Oh yeah ever notice that DEER IN HEADLIGHTS look on newbies coming out of orientation. Man i hope i didn't look like that.

That is actually a mistake I have been making, I was ignoring the reality of the situation because I would get something decent every once and awhile. The one good one doesn't make up for the four bad ones I got that week or especially when you only get one load and it isn't a good one. Of course if you are going to leave a company I would suggest looking at the numbers over at least a month just to make sure you aren't focusing on a couple of bad weeks. When deciding what company to chose or if you should stay or leave your current company the most important factor should be money because that is how you stay in business. As OVM stated keeping your ear to the ground is a good idea, it gives you the opportunity to know if there is a better company that can help you become more successful, especially if they are paying you to post on EO.

Posted with my Droid EO Forum App

blizzard2014 · Nov 1, 2011

CharlesD said:
I'm not going to get into the companies, because I might be biased on that end, but as to the vehicle, if I was starting out right now, I wouldn't get anything smaller than a dock high straight. My wife and I ran for the summer in an 18' truck and hardly ever sat. Now I have another team in that truck and it's still running fairly well. The vans and Sprinters are another story right now. There's still freight for them and there are probably carriers that can keep one busy; even some of our smaller units have been running well, but the straight is the way to go for the revenue and the comfort. You don't really want to cram two people in anything smaller.

Basically, bigger is better right now. The more you can set yourself apart from the other trucks, the more money you can make. A liftgate wouldn't hurt either.

It is rough for Cargo Vans right now. I can load the few vans I have right now, but the rates and the percentages that I get as the owner of the company are not really worth my time and effort. I'm gonna be scrapping all but two of my cargo van O/O's right now and just focus on my local business out of California and getting some tractor trailers leased on once me and my business partner lease some 53 foot trailers.

I spent 18 hours bidding on and dispatch 2 loads from beginning to completion on Friday and the company only made 100 dollars on the load margins after the drivers were paid. The vans are too much work for too little profit. I am also having problems with drivers moving around all over the place and not telling me. So i'm thinking bigger vehicles, non-expedite loads, and exclusive use trucks (run for my company only)! I will continue to run cargo van freight for myself (because I make the entire percentage) but as far as recruiting more vans, it might be a while before I do something like that!

cheri1122 · Nov 1, 2011

ntimevan said:
Oh yeah ever notice that DEER IN HEADLIGHTS look on newbies coming out of orientation. Man i hope i didn't look like that.

Of course you did, silly - we all did. It's human nature to second guess big decisions, wondering if it was the right choice, now that it's too late to undo it easily.
And as ATeam points out, the more emotion involved [vs reason], the harder it is to be sure. Steven Slater aside [the guy who quit Jet Blue with a flourish, lol] the impulsive decision is usually the wrong one - but no matter how much logic went into it, there's still that niggling feeling that you should have left well enough alone.
That's what makes EO such a treasure: all the fact, logic, and emotion is there to see & learn from, to help make the big decisions easier.
But we're probably still gonna be thankful they're not selling souvenir photos as you exit orientation.