companies charging fees to haul for them?

[miker]

I recently read in a thread that I think was from about a year ago.
the thread was from a discruntled driver who was obviously not that bright. One thing that was interesting in all of it was the mention that the expediting company that he was driving for was charging him a fee of about 1500.00 a month . and one of the more trusted drivers on here had mentioned that they had known people who were in the same program and that it was working well for them. did I read that correctly? this is also a company that had possibly thought about working for with a cargo van as an IC ,
Is this a common practice ? what are these fees for ?

 

[ATeam]

Can you provide a link to the thread?

 

[juliewray60]

It sounds like the Driver Solutions story

 

[chefdennis]

The link would help, but i think you will find if what you say is true, it is some kind of equipment lease on a straight truck or TT, nothing to do with a van. I could be totally off base, but i don't see anyone paying any company to haul their freight in a van......

 

[miker]

I cant quit figure out how to provide the link, but it is on page 3 of newbies , titled anyone signing on with bolt express should read this before signing or something like that, you might be right about it being a lease on a straight truck or tt. Bolt is a company that I am considering running for in a cargo van, when I spoke to the recruiter I explained to her that I currently run for a small company that not always can keep me busy, so I was checking with them , would that be a problem if I worked for both? she said not at all but she mentioned that if I got a load from another company that Bolt would require that they are to receive 20 % of the total cost because using thier insurance. But as it is now the other company that I am running for carries thier own insurance. I don't quite understand this. I am certain that I would understand it all if I attended the orientation but since thier in Toledo,Ohio and I am in SC that might not be so easy to attend and then find out that I dont think that we can do business together for whatever reason, so if you can enlighten me on anything I would greatly appreciate it. I am the type that will run anywhere as long as its paying decent. so I'm not concerned about my ability to make it work but it cant be just enough to cover expenses if you know what I mean. I also would think that someone as large as Bolt would have the ability to keep one running pretty much most of the time due to the size of their company. any thoughts?

 

[pjjjjj]

That post was fairly recent, and very screwed up. I don't think anyone can know for sure exactly what the writer was talking about, but one thing is for sure, they were not understanding basic information. They seemed to be confusing one thing for another thing.
The reference to the $1500 was probably regarding 'escrow', which most companies deduct slowly over time, until they collect the stated amount, which is a surety for them in the event you are in a position of owing them money for whatever reason. Do a search on escrow. Most seem to collect around $1000-$1500, taking an amount each month from your settlement until you reach it. It is like a savings account with your money in it, but gives the carrier protection in case you leave, owing them money for something (qualcomm, insurance, fuel, whatever)
Do a search on Bolt, or whichever carrier you're interested in, and talk to some of their drivers/ex-drivers. Call a recruiter with specific questions, after you know which ones to ask.
As far as I know, you can't be covered under two different carriers' insurance policies, but maybe I'm wrong. If an occurrence ever took place, it would add complications in determining who will pay. You could possibly get your own insurance, which may allow you to run for both companies, not sure. It gets really complicated and one or both carriers may not want to expose themselves to liability risk without having control.
Hope I'm somewhat making sense here, but things are not always as simple and straightforward as we'd like them to be.

 

[miker]

that makes sense , we used to call it a reserve in the construction business that i was in for contractors that were that were no longer with us and we had to service thier work. i really would rather not work for 2 companies simply because if you are sittn waiting on a load and you have let both companies know that you are looking then all of the sudden one calls with a load and you take , then all of the sudden the other company calls with a load and now you cant take it because you just committed, i think that any one company would only put up with that so much and i couldnt blame them. I just have a dream or maybe a fantasy of never being empty . Thanks for the help

 

[danthewolf00]

pj has it on the nail it's only till you reach the 1500 then it's just qualcomm and transflo/tripp pak fee....

 

[miker]

how do you like bolt? by that i mean , much downtime? how many loaded miles can you run in a week? ann mentioned to me that the pay was .80-1.00 a mile depending on what the contracted amount was plus the fsc , my only concern with that is how often is the lesser between the rate plus the fsc?
I will say that I get the feeling that they are an upstanding company, ann the recruiter is very polite and helpful

 

[BillChaffey]

Anna M. at Bolt is very straight forward to talk to and a nice person to boot. As far as Insurance goes I doubt the Company you are with now is going to want to cover you running for Bolt. Bolt Express needs to cover them selves, same as if someone borrows your van & runs over someone you may not have coverage for that driver.

 

[chefdennis]

Anne will NOT BS you. She knows her job and will not tell you something just to get you in orientation. The $1500 is the escrow and they take it based on how much you make a week, it is never a large amount.

As for the insurance PJ hit it, no 1 is going to allow you to carry 2 policies on your truck, even if the company was aware of it, the insurance company would cancel you as soon as they found out about it.

My question is, if you are looking to go to another company, why do you feel the need to run for the small company? chances are that both companies are working the same load boards and are bidding on the same loads. Now if the small company is jusr doing local runs, how will you continue that running all over the place and not being local for them? As for getting your own loads, Bolt will work with that and you can run them thru them, they take i think 20% and the rest is yours.

As for downtime, you are going to sit, thats the way of this business. I really don't think anyone company is letting their drivers sit just to do it and bolt is no different, they all what those trucks rolling. I just left laredo. I was there 2 days. I was one of 14 vans there and some of them had been there 3-4 days. They were from more then a few different companies. The run I got was from another expediting company (and one of the bigger ones) that brokered it to Bolt. I was there 2 days, and moving, others are still there. Bolt will work for you as will the other companies. So yea you will wait, it is the way of the business.

You will also be DH'd to loads, you will get empty moves because of sloww freight in on area or another. You will get dry runs for whatever the reason. But you will make money as long as you don'ttry to micro manage dispatch.

Do a business plan, know how much you need to move your van and if you are covering that and making a profit , roll when dispatch calls. Some runs will pay more then others for the same conditions, thats the way it is. But Bolt will not mess you around.