My wife and I are considering the expediting business but we are also considering moving out to Nevada. The question I have is, are there any expediting companies that work nationally or are most of them operating in the eastern part of the U.S.
At a recent ExpeditersOnline workshop, Diane and I watched recruiters from several companies introduce themselves and their companies to the attendees. Every one of them said they service 48 states and Canada and every one of them spoke the truth.
But HOW they service 48 states and Canada and HOW OFTEN varies greatly. Even within the same carrier, western-state runs can vary in their frequency and pay. You might be in and out of there in fantastic fashion three times in a row, and then end up sitting so long the fourth time that the value of the first three is undermined. Or you might have a great couple of months running just in the western states and then see it turn to crap for a while.
In general, the cheaper you are willing to run and the more you are willing to deadhead (relocate with little or no pay), the more you can operate in the areas you prefer. Of course, the trade-off is profitability. The cheaper you are willing to run and the more you are willing to deadhead, the less profitable your operation will be. And there is a trade-off there too. The higher price you charge and the longer you wait in an area for freight to bubble up close by, the fewer your opportunities will be.
Welcome to expediting; a business of trade-offs.
Another approach would to be to consider how often you need and want to get home to Nevada. Think about freeing yourself from Nevada to run as hard as you can anywhere in the country and making special trips home only a few times a year. With that approach, it would not matter where you live. You run as hard as you can wherever you can and simply deadhead home when you need to.
Take a look at my
trip maps to get a sense of how Diane and I run and how often we get in and out of Nevada. Note that your trip map and that of most other expediters will not be the same because load selection priorities differ.
The map shows where we went. It does not show the loads going to or from Nevada that we turned down for reasons that made good sense to us. You might be thrilled with such loads because they take you toward home or back out when you want to go.
Finally, note that companies differ in their ability and willingness to get you home. Some might work hard to get you home when you have been out for a while. Others could not care less. Some companies will say they can dispatch you in a particular direction (toward home), but how effective they are in actually doing so varies, from company to company, and from time to time within a company.
As an expediter, you can, with 100 percent certainty, get home to Nevada as often as you wish and whenever you want, but to do so you may have do drive home on your own dime. If you are in a fleet owner's truck, you will need him or her to tolerate the empty trips home you wish to make and the down time you have while you are there.
