Looking for Drivers input :)

[cherokee727]

Hello my wife and i are a team with panther been here 3.5 yrs now. the last 2 months freight has beenREALLY slow we get a good week then 2 bad weeks. By bad i mean 600- 800 miles out best week was 2600 miles 3 weeks ago. this week we have been in nashville since monday did one 234 mile recovery load. We have heard from some people that companies like express-1 and tristate have been doing good were lookin around leaning toward express-1. can you all please give feed back about how you are running and what company your are with. thanks a BUNCH

 

[piper1]

Welcome to the fray cherokee!

I drive a B unit for FedEx. Generally I would consider it slow. I have had weeks that suddenly get quite good and then it slows again. I am a Canadian driver however so that means I rely on cross border freight to keep busy, that has a lot to do with it.

 

[pjjjjj]

..... By bad i mean 600- 800 miles out best week was 2600 miles 3 weeks ago.....

........ were lookin around.... can you all please give feed back......

Why not stay where you are.. ain't no greener grass.. just dry old brown crusty grass everywhere.. at least with Panther you can do something to help yourself if you wanna.

 

[cherokee727]

Why not stay where you are.. ain't no greener grass.. just dry old brown crusty grass everywhere.. at least with Panther you can do something to help yourself if you wanna.

what do you mean by help ourselves?

 

[cheri1122]

You can help yourself to a load that you find independently, then run under Panther's authority - AKA a 'backhaul'. Usually not the best paying loads, [Panther takes a cut too], but preferable to sitting still or deadheading, no?

 

[pjjjjj]

what do you mean by help ourselves?

Yes, that's what I meant, what Cheri said. From what I understand, Panther only charges 15% to look after the paperwork and allow you to run a load under their authority. Sounds like a great deal to me, better than sitting for days.

And besides, doesn't sound like Panther people are sitting any more than others are. Just might seem that way, til you get wherever you're going.

 

[cherokee727]

Yes, that's what I meant, what Cheri said. From what I understand, Panther only charges 15% to look after the paperwork and allow you to run a load under their authority. Sounds like a great deal to me, better than sitting for days.

And besides, doesn't sound like Panther people are sitting any more than others are. Just might seem that way, til you get wherever you're going.

yes we can do backhauls however, a $400 backhaul for 2,000 miles pays $.17 cpm after panthers cut that covers most of the fuel but not the bills.

and every panther i talk to is sitting a lot running maybe 500-900 miles a week. i personally know 3 fleet owners that have pulled all there truck from panther. one moved to tristate like 20 trucks and the solos are avg 3 lds a week where at panther they were getting one. this week we have run a shocking 2200 miles and if it keeps uo we wont leave . however 3600 for a month isnt goo either . and we do not cherry pick loads we have over 80% acceptance

 

[mjolnir131]

yes I'm sure you do know a couple and i know a couple that there panther trucks are carrying there other trucks mainly because of the lower rates Tri-state pays.

part of it is the area you are in vs number of trucks in the area there are allot of trucks sitting waiting to take freight to the car makers that are not there right now so it don't matter who your running for in that area.

i would seriously not make that kind of decision right now.

 

[inkasnana]

I really don't think the grass is any greener on this side of the fence. Things are slow all over right now. My opinion, changing carriers is not the smartest thing to do at this point and time just for the hopes of finding lusher pastures.

 

[TeamCaffee]

I would agree right now the learning curve at a different company could be the straw that broke the camels back.

If you are thinking of changing get a good mentor and you need some money put back as you are going to go a few weeks with no pay.

 

[greg334]

So here is one thing, if you look for your own work because panther allows you to, you can make money.

The problem I see is this thinking in the box thing, I mean and not to sound pessimistic and all that but you can't look at the weekly averages and complain, you got to look at the monthly averages and see how to improve things in the next month.

For example I make money on most of the loads I take but I don't make money on every load - sounds stupid but there is a reason. If I am stuck, I get what ever I can on my truck to move it back to where I need to be the next day, which means that if I have to take one or two 50 cents per mile load to go from South Bend to Toledo, I do and then I worry about what it looks like at the end of the month.