RE: No bashing, a little advice to X-Conway Now Ow
I guess from the sound of it, many of us have moved on and are now settled in with other carriers/companies. This is a good thing. I do wonder though, if the customers that Panther acquired through the Con-Way buy-out were worth the number of quality drivers and/or owner operators they lost from both companies?
Con-Way is gone, so any trepidations regarding their status in the expediting industry is moot. I do wonder if the aftermath of the buy-out has hurt Panther’s overall reputation especially with regard to the newbie’s coming into the expediting industry. Word of mouth is the best, and the worse, form of publicity/advertising.
I am preaching to the choir, but with the continued rising cost of equipment, fuel, and the HOS regulations, I personally don’t see the pool of new owner operators growing, especially husband and wife owners. The pool of solo/team “drivers†may be stable; I have no first hand knowledge of this. So, maybe the fleet owner will be the real benefactor of the buy-out. However, it seems as though the classifieds seeking drivers are still growing rapidly. I have talked to some fleet owners recently and many say they are having a heck of a time getting drivers, even for the high end White Glove units. Many have said they have had to settle for warm bodies on more than one occasion just to keep their equipment running. This is a sad state of affairs for this industry.
To those of us left from the Roberts era…did you think it would ever come to this? When we are now hauling expedited freight for less than we did 6, 7, or 8…. years ago?!
-mcbride-
--What goes around comes around--
