Is expediting worth the time, drudgery and trouble?

mboardman · Aug 14, 2019

I already own a 2014 Sprinter 170ext, which I bought for another traveling type of gig, and outfitted it for camping. Bed in the back, cabinets for clothes, a small kitchen, solars on roof, deep cycles running a small fridge, lights, and movie time laptop. I usually spent the night in state parks or rvparks, if I needed to run the AC. So, Id have to rip the majority of that out, to make room for pallets of freight. Then build a new floor in back for skids, and a small twin size bed frame up near the driver seat, and the rest would be cargo space. My usual gig isnt feeding me any work lately, and Im wanting to make some sort of money with the van, instead of letting it sit. I checked into local stuff, but it seems to be some sort of delivery service crap (amazon, etc), with worse money than otr. Also, Im not thrilled with having to load and unload stuff in the heat. And, Ive read lots of city driving is bad for diesels. My girl has just over 100k miles on her 4cyl turbo so its at that point where things might begin breaking. Hell, I already replaced the AC system.

Question is, at .70-.80 cpm, is it worth it for a guy who already has the van? I keep reading posts of people who intend to buy a van or have bought and are now expediting, and I just cant see how they make it worthwhile... Im not seeing any brokers or freight companies offering much more than the above rate, so what gives? Why does the average person commit to this, with van payments? Understand Im not trying to criticize anyone for doing so, Im just wondering if Im missing something key about the pay.

I know the answer for me would be a giant NO, if I had to buy a van to get started. It also feels like rates per mile have fallen since the early part of the decade? Its just my impression from lurking these and other boards...

Whats it like out there guys? Is the market depressed now?

xmudman · Aug 14, 2019

Stay out. The market is saturated with vans.

Sent from my iPhone using EO Forums

fastman_1 · Aug 14, 2019

mboardman said:
I already own a 2014 Sprinter 170ext, which I bought for another traveling type of gig, and outfitted it for camping. Bed in the back, cabinets for clothes, a small kitchen, solars on roof, deep cycles running a small fridge, lights, and movie time laptop. I usually spent the night in state parks or rvparks, if I needed to run the AC. So, Id have to rip the majority of that out, to make room for pallets of freight. Then build a new floor in back for skids, and a small twin size bed frame up near the driver seat, and the rest would be cargo space. My usual gig isnt feeding me any work lately, and Im wanting to make some sort of money with the van, instead of letting it sit. I checked into local stuff, but it seems to be some sort of delivery service crap (amazon, etc), with worse money than otr. Also, Im not thrilled with having to load and unload stuff in the heat. And, Ive read lots of city driving is bad for diesels. My girl has just over 100k miles on her 4cyl turbo so its at that point where things might begin breaking. Hell, I already replaced the AC system.

Question is, at .70-.80 cpm, is it worth it for a guy who already has the van? I keep reading posts of people who intend to buy a van or have bought and are now expediting, and I just cant see how they make it worthwhile... Im not seeing any brokers or freight companies offering much more than the above rate, so what gives? Why does the average person commit to this, with van payments? Understand Im not trying to criticize anyone for doing so, Im just wondering if Im missing something key about the pay.

I know the answer for me would be a giant NO, if I had to buy a van to get started. It also feels like rates per mile have fallen since the early part of the decade? Its just my impression from lurking these and other boards...

Whats it like out there guys? Is the market depressed now?

Borderline suicidal,

Sent from lost in space.

RoadTime · Aug 15, 2019

You pretty much summed it up. You would have a financial edge with a paid off van, but that just means you get to keep a few more scraps.
If you are determined to do it anyways. I would highly recommend driving for a owner to see if it's something you really want to do, before dismantling and rebuilding what sounds like a pretty nice van.

Treadmill · Aug 15, 2019

mboardman said:
I already own a 2014 Sprinter 170ext, which I bought for another traveling type of gig, and outfitted it for camping. Bed in the back, cabinets for clothes, a small kitchen, solars on roof, deep cycles running a small fridge, lights, and movie time laptop. I usually spent the night in state parks or rvparks, if I needed to run the AC. So, Id have to rip the majority of that out, to make room for pallets of freight. Then build a new floor in back for skids, and a small twin size bed frame up near the driver seat, and the rest would be cargo space. My usual gig isnt feeding me any work lately, and Im wanting to make some sort of money with the van, instead of letting it sit. I checked into local stuff, but it seems to be some sort of delivery service crap (amazon, etc), with worse money than otr. Also, Im not thrilled with having to load and unload stuff in the heat. And, Ive read lots of city driving is bad for diesels. My girl has just over 100k miles on her 4cyl turbo so its at that point where things might begin breaking. Hell, I already replaced the AC system.

Question is, at .70-.80 cpm, is it worth it for a guy who already has the van? I keep reading posts of people who intend to buy a van or have bought and are now expediting, and I just cant see how they make it worthwhile... Im not seeing any brokers or freight companies offering much more than the above rate, so what gives? Why does the average person commit to this, with van payments? Understand Im not trying to criticize anyone for doing so, Im just wondering if Im missing something key about the pay.

I know the answer for me would be a giant NO, if I had to buy a van to get started. It also feels like rates per mile have fallen since the early part of the decade? Its just my impression from lurking these and other boards...

Whats it like out there guys? Is the market depressed now?

Because these people who sit there and believe the you tube videos that you can make boku bucks doing this and when they don’t make it out here then they quit. We’ve tried helping these ones out but they are hard headed and refused to listen. People don’t realize that it takes .40/mi cost to just run a Sprinter and that leaves .30/mi to send home to pay all of their bills. Not good in my book.

RoadTime · Aug 16, 2019

Treadmill said:
Because these people who sit there and believe the you tube videos that you can make boku bucks doing this and when they don’t make it out here then they quit. We’ve tried helping these ones out but they are hard headed and refused to listen. People don’t realize that it takes .40/mi cost to just run a Sprinter and that leaves .30/mi to send home to pay all of their bills. Not good in my book.

Or worse, for those that really know there numbers.
Mostly do in part to a lack of volume, my year to date business operational cost is 70 CPM

Try to survive or get ahead on that

Fisherman · Aug 16, 2019

I think most people who do it simply enjoy the lifestyle of living on the road and aren't in it for the money.

I've run the numbers and I firmly believe that very few van expeditors (probably less than 10%) are netting more than 40,000 a year (USD). And when you factor in all the waiting time as working hours, which I think you should, you're making less than minimum wage most weeks. I've been doing it for about a year and am getting more tired of it with each day that passes. I doubt I'll still be in this industry by this time next year. It was fun at first, but after a few months the novelty wore off.

All that being said, no job is perfect and you shouldn't focus solely on money. But if you plan to get into this industry, you better be prepared to live frugally.