I'm sure this is a dumb question....

[urbsk8er]

....but I'm a newbie to this forum, and have just been reading a lot.

Question is, Why don't, or why can't, people who are O/O sign on with 2 different companies.

Looking from the outside, it makes me think, if you are the owner of your company, you should be able to run for 2,3,4 companies if you wanted to. Wouldn't that help with getting loads out of dead areas?

I do construction, and am 1099ed. I can and do work for as many people as I can/want. Thats what got me thinking...

 

[Dakota]

You can and some do, I work for three different companies.
Some companies won't allow this, it would be in your contract.
It can be tough to keep three masters happy.

 

[LDB]

Any construction analogy I come up with isn't quite on so I'll skip that for now. What you suggest is possible but not by signing on with the companies. One gets their own operating authority and then becomes a partner carrier with different companies. Some companies use the partner carriers only when they don't have their own power units available. Some companies post to the broker board at the same time or even before offering loads to their own trucks. One could argue those loads are all the junky ones the company can't cover with their own trucks. That isn't always the case though. Some companies put some of their really good loads on broker boards. Also, it might mean a couple hundred miles deadhead for the nearest company truck while you happen to be just a few miles away. Without the huge deadhead it's a good load to you vs a stinker with the deadhead. Hope that clarifies at least a little.

 

[Dakota]

I know the Ceva office here uses other carriers when we are all busy doing other things, and LDB is right alot of them are really good runs.

 

[transporter]

as a matter of law/regulation there is no limit on the number of carriers you can lease onto. however each contract you sign has to allow it.
In practice usually wont work out. most carriers wont allow it.
alot of the carriers who technically allow it put up time delays or other road blocks to stop it. reason is as a carrier it is a pain in @@ to have to deal with this situation.
if you want to do this than do as ld said get your own authority.
i have only known one o/o to have multi carrier contract before and had some success with it. he is a eo member. i will let him comment if he wants

 

[FIS53]

Not a dumb question but this idea is full of small problems. There brokers doing this and for a few it is successful. The company I'm on with has 3 s/t signed on who do not work for us full time but only do calls when they are called or available. So if one is busy they call the next one and so on until they can cover the run. We also have a fecc van doing runs when he isn't busy with them. His complaint is not enough work out of our system for him.

Recently I got a double drop load run and dispatch added another to really make the run pay well. Well they insisted on the third one being picked up first. This caused a problem so I went with it only and they called one of the other three to haul the original double which paid $4/mile (including dh).

For these guys this system works as all 3 are working for minimum 3 companies. So whoever calls first gets the truck. The one problem for some of them is that they miss out on some nice runs, although lately it seems to be myself getting the poor paying ones and one of them the good paying runs (happened 4 times in the last 3 weeks). Freelancing seems to be the thing for quite a few s/t lately as things are still quite slow.
Rob

 

[guido4475]

It's not worth the headache and hassle for me to deal with.I also feel by running for several companies it shows a persons lack of trust and loyalty in who he is originally leased to, just my opinion.Why does the guy with over 150 red Kenworths out of Memphis lease his trucks on with carriers instead of finding his own freight? Think about it.

 

[fastrod]

Why does the guy with over 150 red Kenworths out of Memphis lease his trucks on with carriers instead of finding his own freight? Think about it.

Probably because that is the way he wants to run his business. I am sure he has his reasons and to him they are good ones.

 

[chefdennis]

1 situation to think about with this issue.. You are the O/O of 1 Cargo Van. You are signed on to haul freight with 3 different carriers (most won't let this happen by the way because of what they have in the lease agreement called "exclusive use" of the van) you get a load offer from company 1 and accept it. You go out of service with the other 2 and run the load to KC MS. You drop and then let all 3 companies you are now in service in KC...you just added 3 vans to the van count in the area.....lets say that at that time, you are the only van there..now you will have 3 different companies bidding on freight that will only go in one van, wonder what that is going to do to the rates of freight that comes out of there until you get loaded again.....Each one kept dropping their bid until one of them got it....you just drove your own pay down....Same thing happens no matter if you are the only one in the area or not...where there is really just your van, it shows up as 3 different companies having equipment there....

 

[gsmacker]

1 situation to think about with this issue.. You are the O/O of 1 Cargo Van. You are signed on to haul freight with 3 different carriers (most won't let this happen by the way because of what they have in the lease agreement called "exclusive use" of the van) you get a load offer from company 1 and accept it. You go out of service with the other 2 and run the load to KC MS. You drop and then let all 3 companies you are now in service in KC...you just added 3 vans to the van count in the area.....lets say that at that time, you are the only van there..now you will have 3 different companies bidding on freight that will only go in one van, wonder what that is going to do to the rates of freight that comes out of there until you get loaded again.....Each one kept dropping their bid until one of them got it....you just drove your own pay down....Same thing happens no matter if you are the only one in the area or not...where there is really just your van, it shows up as 3 different companies having equipment there....

I can see where this would cause a bidding war with the carriers but say I was that o/o leased onto those 3 companies. Company 1 bids say $1/mile and then Company 2 bids in at $.90/mile and Company 3 undercuts them both at $.80/mile. Now all three companies should know what their driver's bottom line is. (aka what is the lowest price I'll run for) Well in this situation Company 3 should get the go ahead to book the load, problem is they didnt look to see what my "bottom line is" (in this case we will say $.85/mile). Company 3 dispatch calls and says we got this great load for ya, x amount of miles at $.80/mile do you want it? I would say wont do the load for less than $.85/mile so if you cant that then sorry, call me back when you can. Company 3 then cannot cover the load and has egg on their face. So the shipper has Company 2 try and cover the load. Company 2 calls me and says this load at yer bottom rate of $.85 at x amount of miles. Do you want it? I say yepp. At the end of the day I get a load that I feel I can make $$ at Company 2 makes their cut and Company 3 learns that maybe they shouldnt bid under what their driver will take. Mind you that Company 2 made $$ money for the day and Company 3 didnt. My thought I guess would be you need to let yer company know that you will run loads but you arent gonna drop below that bottow line no matter what. Once you get pushed below that "bottom line" you loose all momentum, and you will just get shoved more and more cause its easier to knock someone off their feet while they're on the move than someone that stands their ground. I'm just sayin.........

 

[chefdennis]

Ahhh I really hate to say this, but the companies don't care what the O/O buttom line is for the most part....if the driver turns it down , they put it back up and let others bid on it and they take their cut.....and in some cases, they will sell it off and pay the other company more then they would have paid their own driver...happens everyday.....

 

[transporter]

i agree with chefdennis it would work out that way alot of times but it sometimes works the otherway. you are the only truck that can do load in time allowed you can place bid above your normal amount and will get it because neither carrier wants other carrier to get it.