little truck solutions

[blizzard2014]

True Col. If I was a shipper i'd rather put my load on an owner operators truck "someone who has a lot of time and money invested in their company and equipment" as opposed to some flunky driving a Swift truck! Smaller carriers can't afford to mess things up; they'll go out of business pretty quick. Plus smaller carriers provide better customer service because they are not short-staffed like the bigger guys are. Have you ever tried to get ahold of a live person at Panther!

Col, it's not that hard to get a load recovered - I've had a load recovered in Ritchfield Utah before - the real problem is that once people hear the word "recovery" or "breakdown" they hike up the price sky high when they bid on the load. It's absolutely imperative that you never tell the carriers that it is a recovery load until after they sign the rate confirmation sheet!

Oh, and when it happened to me while I was working for Demaris Transportation and we had to pay most of the money in the load to get the load recovered, I didn't even protest to it. I was so happy that the load got recovered and was only 4 hours late to the final destination instead of 24 hours late to the final destination.

A lot of stuff can go wrong in this business and keeping customers is the difference between keeping them well informed of the situation in a professional manner or ignoring the problem and telling them the teuck broke down 4 hours after the fact!

 

[60MPH]

Your point about 10,000 trucks vs. a large carrier's fleet of 1,000 or so is well taken. However, large carriers gitrdone too. All of them boast on-time stats approaching 100 percent. What other reasons are there for a shipper to use a small carrier instead of a large one?

Phil you know the answer, some of these small carriers do not know how to price themselves and they bid way to cheap on the freight. Or they get tired of hearing drivers complain and bid cheap to get them rolling. Those that know how to bid on freight only get awarded the loads when the customer requires proven performance or they are the only one bidding on the freight. I only win 1 out of 4 loads that I bid on because I will not lower my rate to compete with these low end carriers. A handful of my customers will use me "even" if my rate is the highest because they know the performance they will get. It takes time to build your name, I would rather have a unit sit then to have them run for a sub-par rate but that is how I run my business.

 

[davekc]

Phil you know the answer, some of these small carriers do not know how to price themselves and they bid way to cheap on the freight. Or they get tired of hearing drivers complain and bid cheap to get them rolling. Those that know how to bid on freight only get awarded the loads when the customer requires proven performance or they are the only one bidding on the freight. I only win 1 out of 4 loads that I bid on because I will not lower my rate to compete with these low end carriers. A handful of my customers will use me "even" if my rate is the highest because they know the performance they will get. It takes time to build your name, I would rather have a unit sit then to have them run for a sub-par rate but that is how I run my business.

That would be the answer I see. Many of the small one truck operators bid loads extremely cheap. I am amazed at how cheap sometimes. Supply and demand. Many shippers will give the bargain loads to those operators in order to save some cash.

 

[x06col]

True Col. If I was a shipper i'd rather put my load on an owner operators truck "someone who has a lot of time and money invested in their company and equipment" as opposed to some flunky driving a Swift truck! Smaller carriers can't afford to mess things up; they'll go out of business pretty quick. Plus smaller carriers provide better customer service because they are not short-staffed like the bigger guys are. Have you ever tried to get ahold of a live person at Panther!

Col, it's not that hard to get a load recovered - I've had a load recovered in Ritchfield Utah before - the real problem is that once people hear the word "recovery" or "breakdown" they hike up the price sky high when they bid on the load. It's absolutely imperative that you never tell the carriers that it is a recovery load until after they sign the rate confirmation sheet!

Oh, and when it happened to me while I was working for Demaris Transportation and we had to pay most of the money in the load to get the load recovered, I didn't even protest to it. I was so happy that the load got recovered and was only 4 hours late to the final destination instead of 24 hours late to the final destination.

A lot of stuff can go wrong in this business and keeping customers is the difference between keeping them well informed of the situation in a professional manner or ignoring the problem and telling them the teuck broke down 4 hours after the fact!

You can always get ahold of a "live person" at Panther if you have some good numbers.

We always had a pallet jack and deck plate on all of our equipment for the transfer of freight. Unlike most trucks out there that don't want to bother to be bothered......like many of our contractors. MY .02 to you is......if you continue to play the game of non-full disclosure regarding requirements for pickup......you will not have very many "partners" left in a very short period of time. I understand it is always bidder beware....but really////

 

[zorry]

My father had a first class gas delivery operation in Chicago. An occaisional customer wanted 150 tanker loads a month delivered to a car rental place at Ohare field. 2 month contract. My father gave him a price. The guy called hourly trying to get a better rate. The fourth called informed us that he had a guy 40% cheaper than us. The sixth call revealed they didn't want to use Mr Cut Rate because poor service by the discount carrier cost the shipper an eleven year old customer. My Father responded "Why don't you give that guy all your freight, he can lose all your customers and you won't have to keep bothering me!"

 

[Deville]

What's there website addresss?