Cargo Vans Who Run For More Than One Carrier: An Editorial
- Thread starter Jefferson3000
- Start date
Who expects exclusive use? In the beginning NLM demanded exclusive use..they've lowered the standard in the name of money...it is almost a dead horse now...
jaminjim
Veteran Expediter
Oh, oh I got this one. Most Carries want exclusive use.
Better check your info Jim.There was a time most did have exclusive but the biz is changing..very few do now...most carriers let you get your own loads and they double dip where possible...
Fedex is an exclusive use I know..E-1 is not..I can get my own loads..for a fee of course. It is all about the money...
greg334
Veteran Expediter
So you redefined what a lease is?
E-1 is still exclusive use even if you get your own loads because you are running under their authority and paying a fee to do so. If they want to change the policy in the middle of the game, then you have a choice of leaving (breaking your lease) or doing what you are told. The key here is the acceptance percentage and in service time metrics and how it affects you when you decide to refuse work they offer and look for your own (or doesn't that mean anything at e-1 anymore?) - both are used to measure your performance while under contract.
jaminjim
Veteran Expediter
You could be correct, but of the top six Carriers some will allow you to do a load on your own, I don't think they would be to happy if you tried to do 5 or 6 loads a month for them.
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Exclusive use means one shipment, one truck or trailer. The shipper is paying for the privilege of having their freight as the only freight on that particular vehicle. Transferring the freight to meet HOS or for some other reason is a gray area.
Bottom line is if a shipper is paying a premium for dock to dock exclusive use as defined in the carrier's tariffs then that is exactly what it should be: dock to dock exclusive use. No double dipping.
Bottom line is if a shipper is paying a premium for dock to dock exclusive use as defined in the carrier's tariffs then that is exactly what it should be: dock to dock exclusive use. No double dipping.
jaminjim
Veteran Expediter
You are correct, I'm misusing the term. What I'm referring to is the Carrier wants you to haul freight for them only, except on the 'rare' occasion when you are in a dead area. I'm pretty sure PII would cancel your lease if you were just trying to use their Authority.
Jefferson3000
Expert Expediter
I was always under the impression that by the very nature of the term "lease", it meant you had exclusive control over whatever was leased. Let's say you lease a Mercedes for your wife to drive. According to the lease agreement, that equipment (the car), should remain in your sole control for the duration of the lease. It is the same if I were to lease a truck to drive from Ryder or Penske. Wouldn't you be surprised if suddenly someone showed up to use the Mercedes you have leased for your wife. That person proceeds to inform you that Mercedes has multiple lease agreements for that vehicle. Someone is going to be quite unhappy.
It not just you Jim. This whole thread has turned into a oranges/testicle thing and has nothing to do with what Jeff originally posted.
Jefferson3000
Expert Expediter
Sorry Lawrence. While I appreciate your loyalty to "big boys", as I know they fund your pocket here, I believe your info to be traditional to truckstop gossip, and not necessarily factual.
First of all, every large carrier (a very relative term) started out by being a smaller one. Even Roberts Express was once Roberts Cartage, with only a couple of trucks. Does that make them the only legitimate expedited carrier? Panther didn't come until later, so I guess it must.
Secondly, I must echo what CharlesD said about profit margins. No new business can grow without acceptable profit margins. As the manager of a small carrier, I can vow with truth that I have barely reduced my rates during this recession. Panther has. FDCC has. Most of my customers have been extremely loyal to us and have not jumped ship for price sake. All of my local customers in Orlando and Tampa are still paying upwards of $2 per mile for straight truck service. But in fact our greatest competition has come from Panther, Bounce Logistics and others who are attempting to steal my customers by offering them rates even as low as 1.50 and 1.60 per mile (including FSC) for expedited service. In fact, I have had brokers at Panther disgusted at me because we wouldn't give them "my best price" when they called at 3am. Although we have and will continue to do business with some of the advertisers of EO, I cannot rely on them for everything, as their rates are craaap!
I have never sold "lowest price", only "highest service." This thread was never meant as an angry ventilation, but rather a thoughtful commentary on a matter I have discussed with several people in the industry, and wished only to offer suggestion for discussion.
guido4475
Not a Member
I am leased to one carrier, and I couldnt be happier. They keep me as busy as I want to be, and my needs are being met.There does not seem to be much loyalty or trust when a person is leased to more than one carrier, as far as I am concerned.
Kinda like a person that cheats on their spouse and expects to be trusted.
Kinda like a person that cheats on their spouse and expects to be trusted.
I think the truth is really somewhere in the middle. There is pressure on rates for a variety of reasons. Every carrier including non expedite ones are fighting for freight. The bigger companies do have more costs, but are always battling smaller outfits that run cheaper. On the other side of the fence, you have small carriers that can't compete for the larger accounts or some specialty freight, so they live off the scraps of the larger carriers and compete where they can.
Lets not kid ourselves either in the fact that there is many van drivers not leased to a carrier and run on the cheap with no authority or anything else.
Should one feel sorry for the carriers? Absolutley not. Their internal competition between leased drivers creates and fosters the very thing they fight daily against.
As for exclusive use, it matters on certain loads if it pays. Outside of that, it doesn't exist.
Times have changed.
Lets not kid ourselves either in the fact that there is many van drivers not leased to a carrier and run on the cheap with no authority or anything else.
Should one feel sorry for the carriers? Absolutley not. Their internal competition between leased drivers creates and fosters the very thing they fight daily against.
As for exclusive use, it matters on certain loads if it pays. Outside of that, it doesn't exist.
Times have changed.
I think it is the bigger carriers that are driving the rates down. Because of the large amount of trucks they have under lease and the large number of loads they do each day they can make a smaller profit on each load. It is the Walmart theory, make a small profit on each one but the large volume of sales makes the profit add up. The mid size carriers have no chose but to lower their rates even lower to try to maintain their market share. This only works when a carrier has O/Os willing to run cheap freight and so far there seems to be no shortage of O/Os willing to do this.
As far as van drivers running cheap and illegal I dont think that is happening on a large enough scale to affect rates for all vans. The bigger carriers are the ones driving van rates into the ground.
As far as van drivers running cheap and illegal I dont think that is happening on a large enough scale to affect rates for all vans. The bigger carriers are the ones driving van rates into the ground.
Think also Jefferson is trying to point out...when there appears to be a whack of vans and there really isn't...there is a few ghosts out there...So when your carrier says there is no money in the load for DH because there were other vans in that area...just maybe there wasn't and you are taking the hit..for no reason. And it can happen to the straights as well...
There is certainly no shortage of o/o's willing to run on the cheap. We see daily that loads passing through the system and turned down by the carriers drivers are quickly picked up by a lot of brokers. For everyone that runs at a decent rate, there is another that will haul that same load for way less than the carrier would pay their own driver. That fuels the fire as I indicated earlier. One will notice a carrier willing to barter with their drivers only when they can't broker it out. You may think you're the only truck in town, when in fact there could be several broker trucks that the carrier sees and knows they will run it less than you will.
We are guilty as a willing participant because we will do broker loads, double dip, deck straight loads to get a tractor rate you name it.
The expediting environment has evolved into a different way of operating verses 10 years ago.
We are guilty as a willing participant because we will do broker loads, double dip, deck straight loads to get a tractor rate you name it.
The expediting environment has evolved into a different way of operating verses 10 years ago.
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Yessir! Those that have that pie in the sky, big hotshot, "exclusive use" mentality, are a dying breed [literally].
Never could figgure out why someone would want to run "exclusive use" for a buk seventy, when they could go the same direction for tree seventy/
Never could figgure out why someone would want to run "exclusive use" for a buk seventy, when they could go the same direction for tree seventy/
Yep. And that is why I have never understood the mentality of spending upwards to $200k for a reefer truck only to haul something for two dollars a mile.
greg334
Veteran Expediter
I'm not talking about exclusive use in the context of sales (FedEx) but within the context of the contract the the contractual limitations that an owner has. Most who sign with a company, like say E-1, have to provide their own authority, have their own insurance and remove the company signs in order to use your vehicle for anything outside the company while under contract - that is what I mean when I say exclusive use.
I am contracted with a company and have had multiple customers on the truck to increase my revenue. It is not exclusive use of the truck for the customer but of my property by the company.
I am contracted with a company and have had multiple customers on the truck to increase my revenue. It is not exclusive use of the truck for the customer but of my property by the company.