greg334
Veteran Expediter
OK my decision has been made; I am going into the expediting world as an O/O. it was a tough decision to stop looking for a job in my profession and change careers at my age.
I have been unemployed for two years now and there are no jobs in the Detroit area in my profession, Computers. Ford, GM, IBM and Compuware (big computer contracting company) laid off more people in the past week and with the influx of Indians and Pakistanis living in Canada and working here (they can jump from one company to another without effecting their Canadian visa status), work is even harder to find. Oh yea Kmart is no longer Kmart and they are letting people go too.
I was sent an email from one of the big trucking companies and started to look at truck driving as an income replacement. I don’t mind the pay cut to 30% of what I made when I was working and I need to be trained, but the problem is I can’t afford training and no one can tell me about time away from home and other things in a convincing way that it is the right choice to make.
After looking at companies like Schneider, Swift and a few others, spending time asking questions and mapping things out, I forgot about expediting. A recent trip to Wisconsin to look at a truck driving school awakened me to the number of FedEx Custom Critical trucks going the other way. So after getting my wife’s approval, I started to read about expediting and put the numbers together.
To jump ahead, I decided to be an owner/operator and drive a cargo van instead of a straight truck because of financial reasons. I looked into driving for a fleet owner, and really haven’t ruled that out yet, I have talked to a few fleet owners but I didn’t like the way it looked on paper. I have made a decision to lease a Dodge Sprinter 3500, 158” WB high top. I looked at other cargo vans but because of reasons I won’t go into here, I decided on the Dodge. As for the lease, I decided to follow the advice of my accountant and not to purchase yet until I build up enough in the bank.
I would like any comments on a Dodge Sprinter 2500 opposed to a Dodge Sprinter 3500. Maybe this is overkill with 4000 lbs of payload, but I figure that instead of a ton payload, 4000 lbs is better. The actual payload is more like 4500 lbs I took in account stuff I will have on board, tools, etc… Price wise there is a $500 difference between the two models.
I ran the numbers and found I can’t go wrong with minimal amount of work.
After reading through a lot of the posts on this site, which I have to say is a great site; I have come to several conclusions about this business and now feel I can ask if my expectations are somewhat correct or unrealistic.
First thing is that I expect this life style change to affect my family and that I will not be home every weekend. This is fine with all of them and it is a matter of me arranging home time. About 15 years ago I lived out of my cube truck for a few years as an owner of an auto parts business. I was buying up old stock across the country and had a small staff sorting and inventory the parts as they arrived. Since then I moved into the Computer field, got married and bought a home. My wife will not join me on the road and the separation will slightly strain our marriage but will not break it. We have an unusually strong marriage and we are both in it together. The rest of the family doesn’t care, they are cats and dogs. As long as they get fed, they don’t care.
The second thing I expect is time between loads. I have ways to take care of my ‘tween times, I still have other projects going on that are second to this work that will keep me busy if I have to wait a day or two. I know there are some places where I can pick up internet access, which will make my life a lot easier and let me do more than sit and watch movies and write.
The third thing is watching my money carefully. Being unemployed and draining every savings account we had changed our lives already. I guess I am cheap to tell the truth, looking for bargains and such. In my financial projection sheet, I took the minimal average drive times (6 hours) and the minimal average MPH (50 MPH) for the year based on a five day week to find when I make money and when I don’t. I also factored in a percentage (7% and 15%) of dead head miles to make the numbers look realistic. Right now I have a figure of 750 miles a week just to pay the bills and make a little money. Remember this is an average spread over the year and I know some weeks I won’t make anything and others I may drive two or three times that minimal number. I am not forgetting food or other essentials, it is all figured into the sheet as is a maintenance escrow for the truck and of course ….. taxes.
The fourth thing is I have a lot to learn about expediting and the freight business over all. I understand it is about being in the right area at the right time, but I also know that a little loads add up to a lot if it there is a reasonable payout. So refusing loads is going to be hard, but each load will have to be looked at as they come in. Reading about people refusing loads sometimes puzzles me, but like I said I have a lot to learn.
The fifth thing is regardless who tells me that I will jump in and instantly make money; I rather wait until the money is in the bank to believe them. I know they may be telling the truth, but as some say the proof is in the pudding. I know that some of you make really good money, but until I get some experience behind me, I expect to pay my bills on the truck and send a little home. I read that I will pay the bills but I will never become rich. I would love to make 1500 miles a week for two months straight, but if I expect it, I will be disappointed. Oh yea, I also expect it would take a few months to learn the business well enough to call it my new profession.
The sixth thing is that after reading a lot the pitfalls of this business and I decided to set priorities;
• Safety – meaning safe driving, not killing yourself to deliver and getting sleep.
• Giving good service – meaning being on time to pickup and deliver if at all possible and being courteous to all.
• Being the best representative for the company I am contracted to – This is a pet peeve with me and I make it a priority. I get tired of being a customer and being c**pped on by the person I have to deal with as a customer. I am the person the customer sees, not the dispatcher, so I want that customer to use the company’s service so I can drive some more.
As a former courier (I logged an average of 75K a year going everywhere in an Escort wagon), I know that my success depends on sticking to the priorities I set. As a former dispatcher and later acting manager for the same company, I know that it takes time to learn your dispatcher and not to piss them off.
The Seventh and final expectation is that this job is what I make it. I have read some really disparaging remarks about expediting on other sites and even a couple bad remarks on this one. As an outsider, I find it hard to believe that some people just jump into this without thinking and then blame everyone else for their failures but themselves. Their comments don’t discourage me from making the choice to go into the business as a driver, but add to the caution I take in planning this career change. I am told that even though I have had a number of personal setbacks recently, I have the right attitude to make this a success. I know that attitude is what the driving force behind any success is.
Oh yea I forgot one thing, I am looking at Panther ii or Fedex as the company I want to drive for. I heard good and bad things about both, but I want to stick to major companies right now. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
So after my long rambling post, I would like to know what you think about my plans.
Are they realistic or not realistic enough?
Can anyone provide me with real numbers to judge mine by?
Can anyone provide me a breakdown for operating cost? I feel I am missing something.
Thanks in advance
Greg
I have been unemployed for two years now and there are no jobs in the Detroit area in my profession, Computers. Ford, GM, IBM and Compuware (big computer contracting company) laid off more people in the past week and with the influx of Indians and Pakistanis living in Canada and working here (they can jump from one company to another without effecting their Canadian visa status), work is even harder to find. Oh yea Kmart is no longer Kmart and they are letting people go too.
I was sent an email from one of the big trucking companies and started to look at truck driving as an income replacement. I don’t mind the pay cut to 30% of what I made when I was working and I need to be trained, but the problem is I can’t afford training and no one can tell me about time away from home and other things in a convincing way that it is the right choice to make.
After looking at companies like Schneider, Swift and a few others, spending time asking questions and mapping things out, I forgot about expediting. A recent trip to Wisconsin to look at a truck driving school awakened me to the number of FedEx Custom Critical trucks going the other way. So after getting my wife’s approval, I started to read about expediting and put the numbers together.
To jump ahead, I decided to be an owner/operator and drive a cargo van instead of a straight truck because of financial reasons. I looked into driving for a fleet owner, and really haven’t ruled that out yet, I have talked to a few fleet owners but I didn’t like the way it looked on paper. I have made a decision to lease a Dodge Sprinter 3500, 158” WB high top. I looked at other cargo vans but because of reasons I won’t go into here, I decided on the Dodge. As for the lease, I decided to follow the advice of my accountant and not to purchase yet until I build up enough in the bank.
I would like any comments on a Dodge Sprinter 2500 opposed to a Dodge Sprinter 3500. Maybe this is overkill with 4000 lbs of payload, but I figure that instead of a ton payload, 4000 lbs is better. The actual payload is more like 4500 lbs I took in account stuff I will have on board, tools, etc… Price wise there is a $500 difference between the two models.
I ran the numbers and found I can’t go wrong with minimal amount of work.
After reading through a lot of the posts on this site, which I have to say is a great site; I have come to several conclusions about this business and now feel I can ask if my expectations are somewhat correct or unrealistic.
First thing is that I expect this life style change to affect my family and that I will not be home every weekend. This is fine with all of them and it is a matter of me arranging home time. About 15 years ago I lived out of my cube truck for a few years as an owner of an auto parts business. I was buying up old stock across the country and had a small staff sorting and inventory the parts as they arrived. Since then I moved into the Computer field, got married and bought a home. My wife will not join me on the road and the separation will slightly strain our marriage but will not break it. We have an unusually strong marriage and we are both in it together. The rest of the family doesn’t care, they are cats and dogs. As long as they get fed, they don’t care.
The second thing I expect is time between loads. I have ways to take care of my ‘tween times, I still have other projects going on that are second to this work that will keep me busy if I have to wait a day or two. I know there are some places where I can pick up internet access, which will make my life a lot easier and let me do more than sit and watch movies and write.
The third thing is watching my money carefully. Being unemployed and draining every savings account we had changed our lives already. I guess I am cheap to tell the truth, looking for bargains and such. In my financial projection sheet, I took the minimal average drive times (6 hours) and the minimal average MPH (50 MPH) for the year based on a five day week to find when I make money and when I don’t. I also factored in a percentage (7% and 15%) of dead head miles to make the numbers look realistic. Right now I have a figure of 750 miles a week just to pay the bills and make a little money. Remember this is an average spread over the year and I know some weeks I won’t make anything and others I may drive two or three times that minimal number. I am not forgetting food or other essentials, it is all figured into the sheet as is a maintenance escrow for the truck and of course ….. taxes.
The fourth thing is I have a lot to learn about expediting and the freight business over all. I understand it is about being in the right area at the right time, but I also know that a little loads add up to a lot if it there is a reasonable payout. So refusing loads is going to be hard, but each load will have to be looked at as they come in. Reading about people refusing loads sometimes puzzles me, but like I said I have a lot to learn.
The fifth thing is regardless who tells me that I will jump in and instantly make money; I rather wait until the money is in the bank to believe them. I know they may be telling the truth, but as some say the proof is in the pudding. I know that some of you make really good money, but until I get some experience behind me, I expect to pay my bills on the truck and send a little home. I read that I will pay the bills but I will never become rich. I would love to make 1500 miles a week for two months straight, but if I expect it, I will be disappointed. Oh yea, I also expect it would take a few months to learn the business well enough to call it my new profession.
The sixth thing is that after reading a lot the pitfalls of this business and I decided to set priorities;
• Safety – meaning safe driving, not killing yourself to deliver and getting sleep.
• Giving good service – meaning being on time to pickup and deliver if at all possible and being courteous to all.
• Being the best representative for the company I am contracted to – This is a pet peeve with me and I make it a priority. I get tired of being a customer and being c**pped on by the person I have to deal with as a customer. I am the person the customer sees, not the dispatcher, so I want that customer to use the company’s service so I can drive some more.
As a former courier (I logged an average of 75K a year going everywhere in an Escort wagon), I know that my success depends on sticking to the priorities I set. As a former dispatcher and later acting manager for the same company, I know that it takes time to learn your dispatcher and not to piss them off.
The Seventh and final expectation is that this job is what I make it. I have read some really disparaging remarks about expediting on other sites and even a couple bad remarks on this one. As an outsider, I find it hard to believe that some people just jump into this without thinking and then blame everyone else for their failures but themselves. Their comments don’t discourage me from making the choice to go into the business as a driver, but add to the caution I take in planning this career change. I am told that even though I have had a number of personal setbacks recently, I have the right attitude to make this a success. I know that attitude is what the driving force behind any success is.
Oh yea I forgot one thing, I am looking at Panther ii or Fedex as the company I want to drive for. I heard good and bad things about both, but I want to stick to major companies right now. Any suggestions would be welcomed.
So after my long rambling post, I would like to know what you think about my plans.
Are they realistic or not realistic enough?
Can anyone provide me with real numbers to judge mine by?
Can anyone provide me a breakdown for operating cost? I feel I am missing something.
Thanks in advance
Greg
