Nancy,
I will try to answer your questions as best I can. Some items are alittle difficult not knowing the very specifics of certain runs ect. I will go into alittle more detail than before because my responses were limited a few weeks ago because of the expo.
With your experience as mentioned, I am quite sure you know where the major freight lanes and majority of customers are. With that being said, your other resources may be limited. I follow several load boards, and monitor truck activity closely. Even if a location does a fair amount of freight, that is different than when does the freight come from those areas and what part of the month. Alot of places in Texas only ship at the end of the month, or primarily Monday and Friday. That info has to be put up against how many trucks are there, and how many are due to arrive. That includes Panther trucks as well as competitors. As Hawk mentioned, these would have been considered as well when looking at the Wichita load.
It may or may not have been a winner.
On your Dallas issue;
Several items have to be known as KW eluded to in his post. The first being a Canadian load. Where the other trucks Canadian approved? What kind of Canadian load was it? Where the other trucks permitted for SK? Some may not be. How was the called in? Or was it a bid load? That depends as well because Panthers response time may be limited. If there are three trucks and each has 15 minutes to accept/decline, Panther may be out of time. Many only give a short amount of time and you lose. Because of a time contraint, they may after the first refusal, threw it to their own brokerage board and it got picked up right away prior to going to another truck. I wouldn't call it the norm, but it does happen with every company. Alot of times, customers don't want to wait for an hour to see if you have a truck to cover it. In many instances, the customer will call several companies or a broker and the first call of acceptance gets it. Lastly, is how the load was called in with regards to dimensions? Assuming all are 22 feet in length doesn't ensure it fits. A tall object may not fit in a truck with rollup doors for example. Also of course, would be the weight issues. If a customers calls and wants (specifies) a 22 footer, and has said they have only two pallets, the 22 footer will get called first. If that unit refuses, then they go to the next size that can take it. Some customers specify, and some don't. Others are requests for dock high only (van killer) regardless if it is one pallet or not, no reefer, no liftgates. ect.
As far as truck movement, you can move and not usually lose your position unless you fall out of a 50 mile radius, or their computer trips up when you move out of a certain zip code. It is kinda of a strange setup. All I can tell you on that is to call or QC after you move to ensure your position is still intact. As with likely the other Panther drivers, I can't say this has really been much of an issue for us. For the few times it came up, it was corrected.
Your reposition to KC
That is only suggested, and seldom do we use it. As mentioned, if we know that an area has too many trucks, we do the research that I listed and determine the value of the run on those merits. If we take a load into a saturated area, we (not usually the drivers) start looking for loads long before they get there. Using Dallas for an example, I may look for something short to Houston because I can get my own freight out of those areas if freight is too cheap in Dallas. My other option is of course to look for freight right out of Dallas. As KW mentioned, I may take two loads that pay 80 or 90 cents each. Or, I look a specific lanes. Maybe only one load out of Dallas that goes to Atlanta but pays .60 cents. There may be a load in Shrevesport or Monroe La, that pay 1.50 that goes to or close to the same location. I will book them both. There is usually no time constraints like expedite, and if there is, I double the rate.
Yes, you might lose some time because of two pickups and two drops, but if you are faced with sitting for a period of time, you have to look at the alternatives. We use this as well in the winter. Who wants to drive to a blizzard if they don't have to. Or, when someone needs to go a certain direction or go home. It is a very valuable tool if used correctly. Anyone can take advantage of this regardless of how many trucks they have. There is no magic bullet but the above is why our teams outperform some of the other trucks because our dh and idle time is pretty limited.
That is why we have great experienced seasoned drivers that know all sides of the business.
Ok...there is my self promotional plug.
Not sure if I helped or not, but hopefully it gave you some insight as to how some operate.
Yikes........this is getting long
Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator