It would be great IF:

[layoutshooter]

It would be great if we could look up express center information online. Like truck counts, load activity etc. It would also be great if we had ALL of the information we need for making GOOD SOUND business decisions. Like not only knowing that some trucks are White Glove at a given express center. Knowing that if they are temp controlled, TVAL etc would REALLY help. When you have incomplete information to base decisions on you end up making mistakes. Mistakes cost you money most of the time.

 

[LDB]

Spies. That's the answer. Spies at Panther and Landstar who have significantly more informative online systems as far as trucks and express centers. Seriously though, the Landstar online system especially is quite informative.

 

[redytrk]

It would only have ilmited help Most of the time you wind up getting dispatched from some other center

Posted with my Droid EO Forum Ap

 

[jjoerger]

I think it would be great if we could see everything going on. Trucks, equipment, qualifications, etc. Seeing what was in bound into an express center would be really cool too. But IF you had all that info you might not take that load they need covered heading to LA if you knew there were 5 TVAL trucks already there and 8 more in bound.

 

[ATeam]

I think it would be great if we could see everything going on. Trucks, equipment, qualifications, etc. Seeing what was in bound into an express center would be really cool too. But IF you had all that info you might not take that load they need covered heading to LA if you knew there were 5 TVAL trucks already there and 8 more in bound.

If we had that info and the 5 and 8 scenario developed in LA as you describe, Diane and I would not hesitate to take the next load going to LA.

First, we would not take that long inbound run if the money was not good, so if we took it, it would mean a lucrative run now. That's a bird in the hand thing.

Second, it takes time to get to LA. Whatever the all knowing information board would say today will likely change by the time we got there, even if inbound trucks were accounted for.

Third, you have no idea what the inbound trucks will be up to when they arrive. Some may go out of service to rest after a long run. Some may be heading home and will not be heard from for a month. Some may go into the shop. Some may be already pre-dispatched on a short run or a run back east.

Fourth, no board will tell you what shippers are up to. We are in the expedite business after all. You never know what will bubble up or when. Some loads are booked weeks in advance but kept secret until the last minute. Some pop up five minutes after you have just convinced yourself that you won't see anything until Monday.

Fifth, there are things you can do to give yourself an edge over the gaggle of trucks that forms at the TA in Ontario. Mainly, don't go to Ontario. Go to Orange County and wait for freight there. Lots of shippers are there.

Sixth, what's wrong with LA? I'd rather do short runs for a month out there than run up and down I-95.

Seventh, runs to LA are usually long runs that pay $5,000, $6,000 and even $7,000. If that's all you do for a week, it's not a bad week. If you can top it off with a couple short runs, it is a fantastic week. Even if you do nothing for the entire next week but that load back east comes, you are looking at $10,000 to $14,000 for two weeks with good paying miles. I'll take that deal all day long.

You could tell Diane and me that there were 10 trucks in LA now and 20 inbound that are qualified the same as ours. We'd take the next good paying load in without hesitation. The West Coast has been a great market for us; inbound, outbound and in between. Examples here.

 

[jjoerger]

A Team,
You are one of the few that are truly fortunate in that you are able to get out of almost any place.

 

[ATeam]

A Team,
You are one of the few that are truly fortunate in that you are able to get out of almost any place.

I am uncomfortable with that statement. I don't think Diane and I have more good fortune (luck) than others. We get stuck sitting too. The reason we often get out under dispatch is not because we are lucky. It is because we positioned ourselves early on to be a fully credentialed team in a fully equipped truck (WG, reefer, etc.).

Also, and this may be more important, if we get stuck sitting somewhere, we are often content to stay put until the freight gets us moving again. The cost of sitting bothers us less than the cost of deadheading to a better express center that may or may not be better when we happen to arrive.

The freight often gets us out not because we are lucky and not even because we are fully equipped. The freight gets us out because we generally don't leave any other way. We are willing to wait for that freight to come our way. If we deadheaded quickly out, the freight that might have gotten us out a little later could very well bubble up, but by deadheading out we would not see it.

The words "content to stay put" are important. We left our old jobs partly for the peace and quiet that can be found in expediting. It's OK with us to sit for a while between loads. We enjoy the breaks. If we find ourselves getting restless or seeing the costs of sitting mount beyond our comfort zone, the ability to do something about it is no further away than the ignition key.

We might get stuck waiting for freight once in a while, but we are never trapped waiting for freight.

 

[jjoerger]

The last time we were in CA there were 9 other trucks already checked in when we arrived. I think 8 days at the T/A in Ontario with a <75 qualifies as having patience. Then having to take a relocate to Dallas to finally leave.
We did much better out there when running a fleet owners TVAL truck.
We would like to be able to put a new reefer box, reefer, lift gate and lift axle on our truck We know we would get a lot more work then we do now just running dry van.
Do you know anyone that would finance it?

 

[ATeam]

First, keep FDCC's truck age limits in mind.

Next is a shot in the dark but maybe something to look into. I'll use a known Minnesota example, thinking a similar company can be found in your neck of the woods.

The company is a trailer shop and Supreme truck body dealer. They install landing gear, lift gates, truck bodies, lift axles, etc. If you ordered a reefer body from them and everything else you mentioned, they might have financing options. The reefer would come from the reefer dealer who would be well known to the trailer shop by virtue of previous installations. The reefer may be a separate deal or combined, depending on how the dealers wish to work with or independent of each other.

Another shot in the dark would be Scott's in Toledo. Layoutshooter can tell you more but they seem to do truck work in addition to Carrier reefer work. They are a Carrier dealer.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Ways that I have used to help us as a surface truck with DoD qualifications is that I use Streets and Trips and mark the places in the United States that we pickup loads and where we deliver. Experience or a mentor teaches you where to sit and where not to sit to wait for a load.

We delivered near the Ontario TA's this year and we stopped in not once but twice and were able to get loads out. One was due to taking a less than 75 and the other was DoD. We had not been to the TA's in years due to the amount of trucks usually sitting their. We have found places we usually get out of easy and even if that place is not our layover choice we go where we want. We have found our reasoning is much better than the computers. One of the problems with the computer is that it takes into consideration relocates and counts them as loads out of an Express Center. So the computer sends even more trucks to a dead area.

We have also learned to sit patiently and get other work done while waiting and this has proven to be the key for us. Chasing freight does not always work out well.

 

[ATeam]

I don't talk about loads we are on at the time but now that we are at today's Orange County, California delivery, I can say we have been on our way to LA from New Jersey since Wednesday.

Practicing what I preach, we did not check truck counts before heading west. Now that we are here on a Saturday morning, VRU tells us that in ONT and LOS combined: there is one solo B-unit with <75 status; three C-unit WG teams, one with <75 status; and one solo D-unit. Our CR, WG team truck will show up in the numbers after 9:00 a.m.

We do not know what E or ER-units are here, if any. We do not know what C and D units are reefer or TVAL, if any. It does not matter. Greater Los Angeles is the best area for us on the West Coast. We would have to drive for two days to get to a better place. If we get no freight, the best thing to do is stay put and wait.

We were a little surprised to not receive any load offers on the way out. That's OK. The truck counts are low. We expect to be under load on Monday at the latest.

 

[jjoerger]

First, keep FDCC's truck age limits in mind.

Next is a shot in the dark but maybe something to look into. I'll use a known Minnesota example, thinking a similar company can be found in your neck of the woods.

The company is a trailer shop and Supreme truck body dealer. They install landing gear, lift gates, truck bodies, lift axles, etc. If you ordered a reefer body from them and everything else you mentioned, they might have financing options. The reefer would come from the reefer dealer who would be well known to the trailer shop by virtue of previous installations. The reefer may be a separate deal or combined, depending on how the dealers wish to work with or independent of each other.

Another shot in the dark would be Scott's in Toledo. Layoutshooter can tell you more but they seem to do truck work in addition to Carrier reefer work. They are a Carrier dealer.

Our truck is an 2006, Class 8. It has 767,000 miles on it. I'm not sure if putting a new reefer box on it would be a good idea as the truck may not last another 10 years without a full rebuild.
Even though everything is running great now and I'm hoping to get another 500,000 miles from the motor and transmission, expecting it to last 10 more years would be pushing it I think.
Then again with the price of new trucks and the new motors keeping this one and rebuilding at some point may be the better option.