Melissa and I should be attending orientation at Landstar next week. We gave FDCC our notice of termination this week and will be trying something new. We are very happy for the change. Thanks to everyone who helped us make this decision and we are looking forward to any help we can get that will make the change easier. Good Luck to everyone and again Thanks
Landstar Orientation
- Thread starter mdscott
- Start date
paullud
Veteran Expediter
Glad it's working out A Team.
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
I am with Scott, glad it is all going good A-Team...and as Dave said, Fedex is certainly doing a bang up job of getting people to sign with Landstar!!
One piece of advice is to hang onto your reefer data logger. You know, the one FedEx made you take out of your truck to make room for the FedEx-owned device they required you to put in. It may come in handy. Twice in two days, two different agents called me to ask if we had a data logger in the truck.
(We do not have a data logger now. Our old one is sitting at home. It will go back in the truck the next time we are home.)
Landstar is not known for its reefer freight and there are only a few reefer trucks in the fleet. Yet agents are putting some reefer freight on our truck and are showing a surprising level of interest in our reefer capabilities.
I asked why they were interested to know about our reefer. Both said their customers are asking if they can book reefer loads and if Landstar trucks have data loggers. Nothing significant has come out of that yet, but I say yet.
Diane and I were researching the costs and benefits of converting our truck to a dry box truck but have put that on hold for now. We have hauled a couple of reefer loads already. More will come. Clearly, customers are looking to Landstar to haul reefer freight. Time will tell what, if anything, comes out of that.
Reefer business aside, we have been making more money at Landstar without the reefer than we did at FedEx Custom Critical with it, especially in the last several months we were with FedEx. There was a time when our reefer was a gold mine at FedEx but those days went away, so we did too.
They tell us at Landstar that a reefer is best viewed as another tool in an expediter truck tool box, or as another service that you can offer. It took us a while to adopt that point of view but it works. We had to let go of the notion that TVAL freight is the best paying freight there is.
(We do not have a data logger now. Our old one is sitting at home. It will go back in the truck the next time we are home.)
Landstar is not known for its reefer freight and there are only a few reefer trucks in the fleet. Yet agents are putting some reefer freight on our truck and are showing a surprising level of interest in our reefer capabilities.
I asked why they were interested to know about our reefer. Both said their customers are asking if they can book reefer loads and if Landstar trucks have data loggers. Nothing significant has come out of that yet, but I say yet.
Diane and I were researching the costs and benefits of converting our truck to a dry box truck but have put that on hold for now. We have hauled a couple of reefer loads already. More will come. Clearly, customers are looking to Landstar to haul reefer freight. Time will tell what, if anything, comes out of that.
Reefer business aside, we have been making more money at Landstar without the reefer than we did at FedEx Custom Critical with it, especially in the last several months we were with FedEx. There was a time when our reefer was a gold mine at FedEx but those days went away, so we did too.
They tell us at Landstar that a reefer is best viewed as another tool in an expediter truck tool box, or as another service that you can offer. It took us a while to adopt that point of view but it works. We had to let go of the notion that TVAL freight is the best paying freight there is.
Last edited:
Wow.....never thought I would hear you say that. It is amazing what people finally realize and how long it takes.
I knew you would rise to say that and I ask readers to note that davekc left out the part where I said "There was a time when our reefer was a gold mine at FedEx but those days went away, so we did too."
The changes at FDCC that prompted us to leave are recent. When TVAL freight and other runs kept us busy at FDCC, Diane and I checked on an ongoing basis other opportunities in the business. Company recruiters from other carriers looked at our numbers, looked us in the eye and told us that we could not do better at their company than we were doing at FDCC. Drivers we talked to from other companies told us the same thing. Production numbers printed out by people in other carrier offices and shared with us showed us the same thing.
You never thought you would hear me say that we had to let go of the notion that TVAL freight was the best paying freight there is (for our truck equipped as it is) because, had I said that earlier, it would have been untrue. In recent months, when our spreadsheet called that belief into question, we got the message and changed carriers. But the message is not old. It is new. We did not make the change before because the facts changed only only recently.
You have always had an ax to grind against FedEx Custom Critical and you have always been quick to accuse other people of being cheerleaders, carrying pom poms, operating under a purple haze or wearing rose colored glasses. When you think about it, that is a terribly disrespectful thing to do to other people. It is hurtful. It creates animosity between you and others who might otherwise be friends.
Instead of discussing something factually and point-by-point, you label happy and successful expediters with something that cannot be refuted and disparage them because they do not share your point of view. Shame on you for doing that. It helps no one and adds nothing useful to the ongoing discussion expediters have.
I suggest that the negative bias you hold against FedEx skews your perceptions of the truth about FedEx, FedEx contractors, and the timing of events, as much or more as any devices you place in their hands, appearal you place on their bodies or glasses you place over other people's eyes.
If you look at any FedEx contractor, you will not see him or her holding pom poms, wearing a cheerleader outfit, standing in a purple haze or wearing rose colored glasses. It takes an act of imagination to produce such an image. An imagination that does so is as capable of skewing one's perceptions of the facts as any glasses you may wish to place on others.
I know my perceptions of the money that could be made by hauling TVAL freight were true because I verified them with objective sources on an ongoing basis. I did not use my imagination to verify the truth. I used facts that would also be recognized as true by any objective observer. For your view to be also true, one of us has to be wrong, and I know who isn't.
Regardless, as it always has, it falls to each contractor to make one's own carrier and business management choices. At present, Diane and I choose Landstar. As I look around, I notice that thousands of other expediters have chosen other companies.
I do not dress them in imaginary costumes because they have. I do not question their vision. I do not equip them with pom poms. I do none of those because I recognize that they may know something I don't.
I also respect the fact that people make choices for many reasons. While the choices they make may be different than mine, that in no way gives me the right to mock them and cast their character in a bad light you have done to people at FedEx over the years.
Last edited:
greg334
Veteran Expediter
If you look at any FedEx contractor, you will not see them holding pom poms, wearing a cheerleader outfit, standing in a purple haze or wearing rose colored glasses. It takes an act of imagination to produce such an image. An imagination that does so is as capable of skewing one's perceptions of the facts as any glasses you may wish to place on others.
Really?
Wow I saw a bunch of them yesterday at the truck stop while I was filling up my tanks, they were in full uniform, and left streamers all over the place which got the maintenance guy upset because he had to clean them up.
Well to the OP, congrats and welcome.
To Phil, welcome to the real world.
Really?
Wow I saw a bunch of them yesterday at the truck stop while I was filling up my tanks, they were in full uniform, and left streamers all over the place which got the maintenance guy upset because he had to clean them up.
Well to the OP, congrats and welcome.
To Phil, welcome to the real world.
Well Phil, let me give you a little different prospective. The perception that some have given off over the years, has lent itself to the endorsement of being called cheerleaders. That doesn't mean all, but a review of past threads by other members clearly says that. Even a designated cartoon character for it by another member.
Times do change, and I am glad you woke up and are capitalizing on it. Anything I have said was factual but it did irk some because it broke some of the traditional myths that kept being told. None of this is "new" information.
We know now, that what I said then over the years, is now true today.
Is that being shameful? I don't think so.
We have received numerous emails over the last few years that usually fall into two categories.
The first is, "Thanks for telling us how this industry really works, we were so misled". That applies to several carriers.
And the second is," I wish I had read your responses earlier. Now we have a 200k truck we are upside down in and need to get out".
I never like to see people mortgage their house for a truck or get into financial straights because of the wrong information that some promote. We all know it has happened.
It has never been whether someone agrees with me or not. It is putting the correct information out there for people to know. In a somewhat secretive industry, we are glad to help some folks steer clear of the many obstacles and do well for themselves.
Your move to your new carrier is a testament to that very information.
We wish you well in your new endeavor.
Times do change, and I am glad you woke up and are capitalizing on it. Anything I have said was factual but it did irk some because it broke some of the traditional myths that kept being told. None of this is "new" information.
We know now, that what I said then over the years, is now true today.
Is that being shameful? I don't think so.
We have received numerous emails over the last few years that usually fall into two categories.
The first is, "Thanks for telling us how this industry really works, we were so misled". That applies to several carriers.
And the second is," I wish I had read your responses earlier. Now we have a 200k truck we are upside down in and need to get out".
I never like to see people mortgage their house for a truck or get into financial straights because of the wrong information that some promote. We all know it has happened.
It has never been whether someone agrees with me or not. It is putting the correct information out there for people to know. In a somewhat secretive industry, we are glad to help some folks steer clear of the many obstacles and do well for themselves.
Your move to your new carrier is a testament to that very information.
We wish you well in your new endeavor.
It is sad that someone allowed to be in a moderators position would be so biased towards such a large portion of members here on EO.
Dave you are rude to us. You belittle our business.
I would think after all the years you decided to bail out of Fedex because of conditions put before you, you would/ could
get over it.
I am not saying you arent successful after having fled the FED, I am saying you havent gotten over it.
Your inability to handle that rejection is target towards good, honest hard working people, just trying to make a living.
Instead of encouragement in expediting we read your crap of how we are making a mistake, being misused, lied to, are nothing more than cheerleaders in a "PURPLE HAZE".
Dave, do the honorable thing, resign as a mod here.
A member of EO.
Last edited:
Hey "Don't shoot the messenger".
Whether I am a mod or not has little to do with the well proven facts, debunked myths or the message.
Sorry, if you didn't like the message.
I think that is enough on this and we should wish Mdscott luck on his new gig and help him get acclimated to his new carrier which is the purpose of this thread.
Whether I am a mod or not has little to do with the well proven facts, debunked myths or the message.
Sorry, if you didn't like the message.
I think that is enough on this and we should wish Mdscott luck on his new gig and help him get acclimated to his new carrier which is the purpose of this thread.
Ahhhhhaahahahahaha
I too wish Mdscott luck with his new carrier.
Dave you should quit being insulting to Fedex expediters.
Ohhhhh, messengers have been known to get shot.
Most because they are BAD messengers.
An EO Member
Last edited:
Monty
Expert Expediter
I "fled the FED" before it was the "Fed" ... but then I would have fled any carrier that has a central dispatch once I got a taste of running my own business.
So my fleeing was just that, they did not meet my goals of a carrier I wanted to invest in.
When I left Robrts Express, I went to Hot Shot Express, with a semi, and stayed there until I joined Express America. Both carriers allow me to run my business as I see fit, and if I fail it is all on me.
And that is why I am with Landstar now.
There's nothing wrong with Fedex, that isn't wrong at all the carriers, inmho ...
So my fleeing was just that, they did not meet my goals of a carrier I wanted to invest in.
When I left Robrts Express, I went to Hot Shot Express, with a semi, and stayed there until I joined Express America. Both carriers allow me to run my business as I see fit, and if I fail it is all on me.
And that is why I am with Landstar now.
There's nothing wrong with Fedex, that isn't wrong at all the carriers, inmho ...
An honest answer by someone who has experience.
Now if a Mod could see the sunshine.
An EO Member