EnglishLady
Veteran Expediter
I know for sure that drivers ask other drivers for spare shower credits.
To smell as bad as tknight says that driver did there is no excuse IMO
Panther rates???
- Thread starter wvcourier
- Start date
I know for sure that drivers ask other drivers for spare shower credits.
To smell as bad as tknight says that driver did there is no excuse IMO
The future here, if I'm understanding all this low rate business at this moment in time, appears to be going more and more down the toilet. In May of 09 , I was running freight for 85 cpm in my cv. Now 4 years later the stories are the same with no change in sight. Are the glory days gone in expediting? If you compare the mid 80s rates, yes, the glory days of expediting are tarnished somewhat, but it is still a fun job. I'm not yet convinced totally its a money maker to raise a family of 4 and have a stay at home housewife and mother career, but some of you make it work: note some of you is the key statement.
If you are the owner of several trucks and or cargo vanners work for you, maybe you are better off, but in reality, the one man show is ok, (but not a great money maker as an owner operator ...I'm referencing cargo vans now). The overhead in a new TerraMax or Nissan's vans or a Sprinter at 40k a pop destroys your profit, way to much overhead imho. This overhead thing is a killer as many of the more experience drivers have all written about that in here. Yes, buy used first and try it...
My fun job statement: It was still the most fun job I ever had. Travel, lots of things I saw I would never have seen and that was great. A money maker, well it fed me and that's all I ever needed and still do if I came back into it. If you're retired and have a pension and in good health and want to see America, its the best deal going by far IMHO...it is a fun job.
If you are the owner of several trucks and or cargo vanners work for you, maybe you are better off, but in reality, the one man show is ok, (but not a great money maker as an owner operator ...I'm referencing cargo vans now). The overhead in a new TerraMax or Nissan's vans or a Sprinter at 40k a pop destroys your profit, way to much overhead imho. This overhead thing is a killer as many of the more experience drivers have all written about that in here. Yes, buy used first and try it...
My fun job statement: It was still the most fun job I ever had. Travel, lots of things I saw I would never have seen and that was great. A money maker, well it fed me and that's all I ever needed and still do if I came back into it. If you're retired and have a pension and in good health and want to see America, its the best deal going by far IMHO...it is a fun job.
Think I said that "hang around the machine and beg"
Tennesseahawk
Veteran Expediter
What are you saying, OVM? To run the less-than-stellar freight, so you can starve slowly, and wish for a magical unicorn to come down and make everything right? That's like saving your water in the desert... it doesn't work. Not for you, not for the biz. It does help three people, however... the shipper, of course, the carrier who can bid $3 on a load, and know you'll take it for 55 cents, and the grubby Penske driver who cares little about anything but money, since the only thing he pays for is fuel and paczis.
That is the thing...Carriers by the way they are going, are turning this into a second income opportunity situation...a working wife, some kind of pension...there is no room for kids, a college fund, a mortgage....
The reduced rates on vans may be just limited to vans? Not really sure. That doesn't mean we aren't offered any that are reduced. When just looking at straight trucks, the only times we really see anything like that is areas that lack traditional expedite freight. Northwest, Florida, sometimes TX if it is a convention down down there with numerous "bottom feeders".
I don't know that they are "obligated" to bid on those load, but they do. Just simple math. Better to bid on something verses just paying vehicles empty moves out of areas. Kind of a catch 22 in certain areas.
I do agree though, that running at this 1.12 for numerous miles would be a disaster if just following the numbers. If you say do this with a new truck (which costs around 130k to 160k) you will squeak through the first year. That truck is breaking even in the second. By the third year, you are going backwards. Simple as that. There is something to be said for volume, but you have to know your CPM to make it work and many fixed costs are simply climbing regardless of any "many more miles" claim. For the ones that hang on, look for a aging fleet of yellow trucks.
As for cheaper rates to the customers, not really seeing that, but there are less overall loads through the first two months of the year. If you look at E-1 stock report, it doesn't reflect that either. It appears they are trying to maintain the same level of profitibilty with less loads, thus putting the balance on their fleet.
I don't know that they are "obligated" to bid on those load, but they do. Just simple math. Better to bid on something verses just paying vehicles empty moves out of areas. Kind of a catch 22 in certain areas.
I do agree though, that running at this 1.12 for numerous miles would be a disaster if just following the numbers. If you say do this with a new truck (which costs around 130k to 160k) you will squeak through the first year. That truck is breaking even in the second. By the third year, you are going backwards. Simple as that. There is something to be said for volume, but you have to know your CPM to make it work and many fixed costs are simply climbing regardless of any "many more miles" claim. For the ones that hang on, look for a aging fleet of yellow trucks.
As for cheaper rates to the customers, not really seeing that, but there are less overall loads through the first two months of the year. If you look at E-1 stock report, it doesn't reflect that either. It appears they are trying to maintain the same level of profitibilty with less loads, thus putting the balance on their fleet.
to quote myself Hawk
"Run it....you go broke later....but have hope things will change, but if you run it now, why would it change, you still lose...."
Tennesseahawk
Veteran Expediter
It's a quandry wrapped in an idiom, cuddled with a soliloquy. Are you a relative of Yogi Bera?
Careful Dave facts about rates aren't often believed here. Everyone is so fast to assume low pay per mile means low bids.
Sent from my Fisher Price - ABC 123
It's a quandry wrapped in an idiom, cuddled with a soliloquy. Are you a relative of Yogi Bera?
simple works for me...it is like a dog chasing its tail...LOL...
Still....with the business morphing at least the CV segment into a 2nd income gig...
I guess some good people will be leaving us...
ain't that the truth...some know so much and yet understand very little...
You know what they say when one "ASSUMES".
With regards to rates, it is more of "watch what they do, rather than what they say".
The results may surprise a few.
Not sure I think often it is just easier to say they are bidding cheap. Its that initial reaction thing. It only takes a few pennies to win a bid. A carrier doesn't have to be offering a huge price drop over another. Now that might not be true with the fly by night carriers but when it comes to the big ones they do have shareholders to please.
I think a lot of drivers probably know that if they stop and think first. It is just easier to blame the first thing that pops in our head. We are all guilty of it at times.
Sent from my Fisher Price - ABC 123
You know what they say when one "ASSUMES".
With regards to rates, it is more of "watch what they do, rather than what they say".
The results may surprise a few.
Hmmm...seems we are into a "Little Hope and for a little Change" here now....
yes we often say.."darn some cheap bidder got that load" BUT was it cheap?....or just cheaper then the high bidder....BIG difference...
cubansammich
Not a Member
So much yammering about the rates. Like any business to be successful one must adapt or die. Big picture people stand a chance. Little picture people will fall by the wayside. What gets me about this is that the same cynics who want to pontificate about what it takes to make it will actually be delighted when the weak succumb to going broke. The herd will thin via the basic principles of the free market.
Panther Partners is nothing more than talk to make you feel good about being leased to them. They want you to think your a "business partner" but in reality your just a tool they use to make money.
I believe that I read on here that in the early days of expediting most drivers were just using this as a second income Didn't Roberts Express have a problem at one time with van drivers that just took the winter off instead of driving in bad weather?
I came in just when Fedex bought Roberts....and my first 6-7 years I was a Canadian expediter...