HOW DID YOU DISCOVER EXPEDITING ???

[hedgehog]

As for myself, I saw a local ad in the newspaper posted by C&M in the 90s. After an interview with one of the owners, I did a WWW search and discovered EOL.

I never did drive one of the C&M vans only because of the time away from home.

I can tell you this, however, in the past two (2) years, the interest in what I do is growing daily. (i.e.,) For instance: About six (6) months ago I delivered to Packard Electric in Warren. While waiting for a dock supervisor to show up, many of the potential UAW buyouts wanted to know what kind of money, hours, type of equipment, etc., etc., were involved in expediting. I referred them to this website.

In most cases, the people that were taking the buyout wanted to be paid tourists. Not all cases, but the majority.

So. HOW DID YOU DISCOVER EXPEDITING ???

Be safe.

 

[Jayman]

I started planning a career change back in February of 05. Was going to do tractor trailer. But, found out I wouldnt qualify for a tuition reimbursement program. So, I wasnt going to be able to do the driving school I had planned. Thought about companies like Rhoel and Schneider who have schools of their own, but it didnt feel right. So, I thought I would buy my own cube van and do hazmat shipments. Wasnt sure that would work. Then I talked to a friend of mines uncle. At the time, he had a Sprinter with Nations Express. I looked into it and decided that I would do expediting. But, instead of driving a van, I would do a D unit or maybe an E. Have talked to my friends uncle since then. He keeps trying to talk me out of the big trucks citing the advantages of vans over big trucks. While those advantages exist...I just cant see me doing that.

At this juncture, I am not in a hurry to jump in the biz. I may wait until May to start. I just need to find a good way to get in without having to do the team thing. Not my style of living.

 

[Moot]

I didn't discover expediting, it discovered me! I was quietly minding my own life working for Con-Way Central Express an LTL carrier. I was making 50k, 3 weeks paid vacation, medical, dental, vision, 401k, was number 5 on the seniority list out of 100+ drivers at the Minneapolis terminal and I was hating it.

One fine day in September of 1996 two gentlemen from the newly formed sister company Con-Way Now appeared at our terminal and for 3 days plied us with free coffee and donuts. They were looking for retired people and or drivers from other companies to work part time/on call.
As a Con-Way employee I was not eligible. No raiding the ranks. So that night I contacted them at the hotel they were staying at. I cut a deal with them. I needed to punch the clock in January 1997 to qualify for vacation and the preceding years profit sharing.

I worked one day in 1997 for CCX and then went to Con-Way Now as an employee driving a company owned cargo van or a company leased straight truck. That lasted 13 months. I enjoyed expediting so much I bought the company... I mean I bought a van.

10 years later my quality of life is much improved but my bank account took a hit. So it goes! I still enjoy expediting and being an owner/operator. I plan to continue down this road and see where it leads. I have no mission statement or business model. I'm just winging it.

 

[Coco]

After loosing a job of 25 years in a steel mill, Tod went to work for a small outfit that laser cut parts for John Deere. He worked in the shipping dept.

Hence, the night before Thanksgiving in 2003 he came to me and said "How would you like to drive a truck?" I nearly died thinking the depression had set in and he was in the first stages of certifiable mental illness.

I stalled him all I could while I descretely studied expediting via the World Wide Web and EO. Still not thouroughly convinced, I heard about this truck show in Louisville and thought maybe there would be some expediters there that we could talk to (lol) since I did not believe anything the recruiter was telling us.

To make a long story short, on the way home from Louisville we began to put our plans together to leave our jobs. We were in orientation in July 2004.

 

[hedgehog]

Moot:

Did leaving CCX effect your pension ???

It sounds like you would do it again. Or, would you ??

Be safe and happy.

 

[hedgehog]

Coco (and Tod):

If Tod could regain his previous steel job again, would you sell the truck and go back to life before expediting ??

Be safe and happy.

 

[Moot]

I would do it again! No regrets. I had 13 years in at CCX. My pension will not be near what it would had I stayed for 20 or more years. Seven more years at a job I no longer enjoyed didn't seem worth it. I had been contributing 15% to my 401k. When I became an O/O I rolled that into an IRA.

 

[BigBuzd1]

Like I've said in another post, Everything happens for a reason!
I used to fly stunt kites in my early 20's and a few years ago i decided to get back to doing that. That day, on a whim, I go buy a stunt kite and took my wife and kite to Crystal River beach in Florida. As I am flying and grinning ear to ear feeling the power of the wind pull and tug, and the rip roaring buzz of the kite filling my ears, I notice my wife talking to a dude lounging in a lawn chair sitting next to a cooler, looking like the typical tourist.
About an 45 mins later I lay the kite down to get a drink and take a dip. My wife calls me over and says..."Listen to what this guy does...this would be perfect for you, you'd love it!"
I signed up here to see what the deal was and
1 month later I was flying to IL to pick up a straight truck and drive it to Seville for orientation.

I drove solo for 5 months in a D unit and van, and then my wife joined me! Rest is history

 

[TeamCaffee]

We where becoming empty nesters and just didn’t want to go the way of others we saw stuck in a job you hated and hating life in general and dreaming about retirement you wouldn’t be able to afford when it got here. We really thought this was called hot shotting and so it took a lot of searching before we found EO and what we knew almost immediately was the life for us. We had enough back ground in trucking to know the life style and to know I really did not want to have 53’ foot of trailer following me. We wanted to work hard and enjoy life just as hard. We quit our 9 to 5 jobs that we had been at several years and really didn’t dislike Bob was the shop foreman at a county shop and I was a department head for data processing. We had vacation time, sick time, holidays worked for the government so we had a lot of holidays, and a very nice retirement started. We rolled our retirement over into an account we now control and contribute to and I believe we are lots better of financially and mentally. We sold our house, moved to another part of the country and we have never looked back.

 

[TJ959]

I spent 30 years in outside sales and all that time I really wanted to drive a truck. I made very good money in sales and I was fairly good at it but it really didn't suit my personality. I worked my way into management but all that did was increase the pressure. One day I saw a really neat straight truck with a small sleeper on it. It also said Roberts express on it. That started some research that filled me in on the expediter business. A few years later I was downsized out of my sales management position. It took several years but after dragging my feet for quite a while, I bit the bullet and went to truck driving school. I tried the big trucks for a while but they just wern't for me. It was time to try expediting so I drove a company "D" truck for Try Hours. It wasn't long before I moved on and I bought a truck of my own. I lurked on this website for a couple of years before I signed on to it and it was a great help. The best thing that ever happened to me was getting downsized. No more pressure.

 

[highway star]

I discovered expediting back in the '80s when it was just starting to grow into what it is today. I started seeing vans that were hauling freight. When the first guy I talked to told me what he was making, I laughed and walked away. When the second guy had the same story, I thought there must be something to it. But, having a job with decent benefits and kids, I stayed where I was at.

I jumped in the end of '98. I haven't made the money I had hoped to, but I like it and I think I'm determined to keep plugging away.

It's now the end of day 2 waiting for a load in Columbus. Hmmm...

 

[greg334]

How did I discover expediting? Oh boy lets see.. getting side swiped by a roberts express truck in the middle of the night helped clue me in what expediting was all about at that time.

It wasn't until I think 2005 that I ran out of options and had to get something going, so I was searching for jobs and found EO.

The rest is will be in the expediters history section.

 

[pelicn]

My hubby spent 21 years in the Navy, 71 of it on submarines as Nuclear Machinist Mate (ELT- Engineering Laboratory Technician). I spent an average of 7 months out of every year as a single mom with 3 boys. When hubby retired, we moved to Albuquerque, NM when he took a job at an Intel site. That lasted about 1 year, when he came to me and said......"Honey, what would you say if I told you I wanted to drive a truck?" THUD.....You want to do WHAT???
Ok, fine...Research, research, research....we made plans to move back east, he went to school, and started driving for Millis Transfer. I rode with him as often as I could, and decided I hated sitting in the passenger seat not being able to help. So I went to school, and was hired by Millis as well.
After a while, we were approached by the company to pull their recruiting trailer. We attended truck shows, (Louisville was our first) job fairs, etc. We had fun, but we could make more money hauling freight so we went back to that.
Hubby then asked....What would you think about trying "Expediting"? Hmmm....research....what the heck is a "D" Unit?...T-Val...what's this percentage stuff?? Came to EO...got my questions answered by helpful folks.
Lousiville again last year...while working for Millis, happened across some of those "Expediter folks" and made the jump.
Went to work for a great fleet owner, with FedEx...but that ummm...didn't last. We now work for the same fleet owner, but with Panther now. Sure is nice not having to drive something that bends in the middle

 

[cheri1122]

I never bother making New Year's resolutions, but in 2000 I made a New Millenium resolution: Even though I still hadn't figured out what I want to do when I grow up, I would find some way to earn a living that never caused me to wake up in dread at the thought of going to work. Work is necessary, but life is too short!
It took a few years of bumbling to narrow it down to driving, then a couple more to zoom in on expediting, but I think I've got it down, cause I haven't dreaded "going to work" yet!

 

[greg334]

Judy,
is this a typo?

"My hubby spent 21 years in the Navy, 71 of it on submarines as Nuclear Machinist Mate (ELT- Engineering Laboratory Technician)."

 

[hedgehog]

Amazing stories.

The common thread here seems to be a sense of uncommon independence and some hutzpah.

When you think of what a small percentage true expediters represent it boggles the mind.

I almost bought a D truck several years ago. I wanted to team with a very close lady friend of mine. When I explained the concept of living in a truck for weeks at a time it didn't make sense to her.

She was a triage nurse at Cleveland's leading hospital and her benefits and monetary rewards were outstanding. Needless to say, like probably the average person, she was comfortably numb.

The point is, for whatever reason we expedite, we are different than from those in the "normal" job force.

And, truth be told, I hated my real job, but the money was very good, the benefits excellent. Had I not taken an early buyout, I would have spent the the last 10 years being miserable from 9-5 everyday.

Congratulations to all of us for being lucky to have found this unusual occupation.

Be safe.

 

[nightcreacher]

My best friend introduced me to expediting.
At the time I was produce hauler,outlaw,tractor trailer owner opp.
running from coast to coast,border to border,even crossed,oops shouldnt talk about that.
To make a long story short,we went in his truck,pulled my trailer,just in case.Robert's Express,didnt keep us loaded,but to my surprise,we just pulled expedite freight.
What I was doing grossed more money,but his take home pay was killing me,and thats when I decided I had to make the move
Six months later,Oct 1984,Roberts Express,and I became truck number E246
There are so many stories,I should write a book,
I was meant to be a truck driver,and expedite is the best part of my work

 

[RLENT]

Hmmm .... well I sort of discovered it in stages .... kinda like osmosis.

I grew up in the Akron area ..... I have a very dim recollection of seeing Roberts Cartage trucks as I was growing up.

About 30 some years ago when I was around 12 years old we moved from in the city to about 10 miles southwest of town. My parents owned a business in Akron on Arlington Street and when I became old enough to drive (16) I started working for them after school and on the weekends. So pretty much every day I drove into work on Arlington Road past this little place near Krumroy & Arlington called Roberts ....... was always sort of curious as to what they were all about .... but never enough to really check them out.

Eventually I started noticing a variety of different Roberts vehicles in the area ..... many of them with sleepers - and these weren't big OTR tractors ..... the only thing that I had ever seen sleepers on up to that point...... interesting.

Later I noticed these funny little domes on all their trucks .... hmmmm .... wonder what that's all about ?

Since then I've noticed all sorts of expedite company trucks plying the roads.

A few years back the old junkyard over on Boettler Road (about 5 minutes from our home) closed down and the surrounding farmland was cleared to make way for a large industrial park. Eventually a large building was put up ..... that was the Fedex Custom Critical HQ.

About a year or so ago my oldest son was looking to get started in some sort of business. He saw an ad in the local paper for Fedex Home Delivery contractors and checked it out. When he mentioned it to me, I suggested that he also contact Custom Critical since the HQ was about 5 minutes away.

Ultimately he didn't take me up on that advice before becoming a Home Delivery contractor ... but I ended up deciding to research expediting myself and eventually found EO .....

..... and have since been spending time on the boards trying to research the industry.

This is my first post BTW, after lurking for months.

 

[highway star]

Welcome on board RLENT. Using the archives to educate yourself is a great way to get to know the business.

 

[Coco]

>Coco (and Tod):
>
>If Tod could regain his previous steel job again, would you
>sell the truck and go back to life before expediting ??
>
>Be safe and happy.


No, just plain old no.