Prestige About to Go Under

TimeBandit · Aug 23, 2008

I have been working for Prestige for about six weeks now and they can't find me loads anywhere in the country. I keep on hearing excuses like; it's monday and things are slow on monday, it's friday and things are either really busy on fridays of really slow fridays.

They keep on telling me that they are bidding on over a hundred loads an hour. That's more than one bid per minute. Their dispatchers must be really good. I heard they had to call in the fire department to hose down the keyboards because they were bidding on so many loads the keys caught on fire. I also heard they have to buy new CPU's every couple of hours because they burn them out due to the amount of bidding they do on NLM. Yesterday, they almost had me a load, but the computer overheated before they could win the bid.

Oh, wait in the area "we have regular customers!" Well, apparently after I was hired on "all of their regular customers" conveniently stopped calling in loads. I guess this company is going to hell in a handbasket. I heard they had trouble paying the light bill this month and had to use parafin candles to light up the dispatch office. They also make their dispatchers come to work wearing glow in the dark t-shirts so they can see where they are going in the middle of the night. Sometimes they force their dispatchers to leave their cars running in the parking lots with HVAC hoses piped in off their ac units to provide the office with air-conditioning. It's really bad; beware of them!

flattop40 · Aug 23, 2008

I know you were being sarcastic but why anyone would sign on with a non-top 5 company is beyond me.

Go big or go home.

x06col · Aug 23, 2008

Hooo Boooy, have we got a couple clowns here that have mucho to learn??
Or, what???? Lawrence, did you drag your clown magnet somewhere lately???

CharlesD · Aug 23, 2008

I spent a few months leased to them before I went independent. I don't remember things ever being that bad, but that was last year. The first thing I would ask is what kind of vehicle you have. Cargo van freight is very competitive right now due to the number of vans in the market and the number of loads available. Not too long ago I spent an afternoon in their office shooting the bull with their dispatchers. (I was in Cleveland and had a few hours until a load picked up.) What I observed backed up my own experience as an independent bidding on my own loads. I saw them bidding on load after load after load and being outbid, even when bidding at rock bottom rates. Cargo van loads are going that cheap these days, with a very small margin, that companies have to bid at such rates that if they get the load the van driver is getting most of the revenue. That's not always the case, but that was what I saw that day and is even the case for a lot of the van freight I see when I'm looking for loads. I saw them bidding .75 a mile on some of those loads, and they were going to pay that rate to the driver just to get him moving.

Now I know that there is sometimes more money in cargo van loads, if you're in an area where there just isn't much competition or the load is going somewhere nobody wants to go. I got a great rate a couple weeks ago to go to Wyoming because nobody was bidding against me. Anyway, I can understand your frustration. Maybe the larger companies have more contracts and have more available loads, but with a van the competition is brutal right now. So when they tell you they're bidding, I don't think they're blowing smoke. If things don't work out there, you can always try another company or move up to a larger vehicle. I don't think I would blame everything on them because they're just going through what a lot of other companies are going through right now, especially when it comes to van freight.

arkjarhead · Aug 23, 2008

flattop40 said:
I know you were being sarcastic but why anyone would sign on with a non-top 5 company is beyond me.

Go big or go home.

Why so you can have more rules put on you than the FMCSA already has on you? So you can be known as a number and not as a person? I sat more when I ran for one of the biggest outfits in the "busy time" of 2005 than I did with one of the smaller outfits in the "slow time" of 2006. It's all on you. I bet ya if you could talk to all the non-top 5 drivers you would find more satisfied drivers than you would at the top five. Even if you figured the results on a per capita basis.

ACE · Aug 23, 2008

Prestige has some advantages no qualcom fees. They are due if you are not getting any loads your top 5 will require them.
Not as many rules that your top 5 have.
Not a truck # [already mentioned].
I worked for a top 5 company years passed and did not like the enviroment so I left.
If you are unhappy you may want to change but I would talk to drivers that run for the companies that you may be intrested in before you jump.

Good Luck.

mcclain · Aug 23, 2008

I dont get it.

If they can't run thier AC and the staff has to wear glow in the dark shirts to see where they are going I personally thing them bidding on loads at that rate is a lie!!!!!!!!!!!

Afterall, how are they running the computers if they have no lights and no AC. Man, something is not right here - somone is tossing BS to their drivers,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

greg334 · Aug 23, 2008

Sometimes they force their dispatchers to leave their cars running in the parking lots with HVAC hoses piped in off their ac units to provide the office with air-conditioning.

This says it all.

Falligator · Aug 24, 2008

Yep....you could go to a big company and sit with the masses...

aristotle · Aug 24, 2008

It's not any company's fault that there is a scarcity of freight right now. Large or small, every expediting outfit is scrambling for any freight that can be found. Hypercompetition means bids will go lower and lower until little or no profit remains. The U.S. automotive industry is hurting big time and most expediting companies have tied their fate to the American car market. A little competition is healthy, in general. Too much competition drives rates down, down, down, down, down, down.

arkjarhead · Aug 24, 2008

To me it seems like people are trying to ride a dead horse (auto industry). Why not diversify and get some other freight? Had someone started doing that from the get go I don't think there would be as many problems as there are now in the industry. You never put all or the majority of your eggs in one basket. A good salesman should be able to go into any place that ships and convence them that they need to use expedite from time to time. Regardless of what industry they are in.

aristotle · Aug 24, 2008

What I'm saying, in a nutshell, is expediting has become a victim of its own success.

ThibodeauxBayou · Aug 24, 2008

arkjarhead said:
To me it seems like people are trying to ride a dead horse (auto industry). Why not diversify and get some other freight? Had someone started doing that from the get go I don't think there would be as many problems as there are now in the industry. You never put all or the majority of your eggs in one basket. A good salesman should be able to go into any place that ships and convence them that they need to use expedite from time to time. Regardless of what industry they are in.

You're exactly 100% correct. It's not like this is NEW news. The auto biz's has been falling off for many years.

It saddens me to think that hard working folks are sitting...sitting and sitting some more. Just ain't right.

Load boards have been fat with freight all summer long and rates have gone up bigtime. You still must shop for "best rate" LTL and be in decent locations, but anyone worth a grain of salt is moving. And, has been moving. Those interested in getting out of this rut may just wanna start thinking about the "other" ways to make you and your truck some income.

CharlesD · Aug 24, 2008

Getting the non automotive loads is key right now. If I was just a leased on O/O and didn't have my authority, I don't know how I would be doing right now, probably not good. Most of my recent loads have not been automotive. I just brought a load of computers and copiers down here to Atlanta on Friday. I got that load off an LTL board, but it paid me $700 for a 500 mile run. That's not bad for LTL. You don't have to think outside the box; you have to destroy the box.

x06col · Aug 24, 2008

bayou, save your finger skin. They won't get it, or, don't wanna get it. It'll be wayyy tooo much work and effort to not wait for the beeeep.

mcclain · Aug 24, 2008

The company I work with is mostly TL, but, here in Fort Wayne we run the LTL stuff as well.
But, we did not and will not toss our whole LTL division into the basket with all the expediting companies and depend on the automotive industry to keep the expedite trucks moving.
We can offer up our smaller trucks to haul anything our standard TL customers may have but don't want to spend the money to ship it TL.
In alot of cases we place a couple of those loads on one straight truck and we are good to go and the customer is pleased as well.
The expediting companies have painted themselves into a corner with their success like stated on a previous post above. Now, in order to survive the sales forces has to get out there and find other markets to reach. The draw back to that is - the TL companies already have those covered.
Its going to be tough for the expedite companies to take away from the TL companies but it will and has been easier for the TL companies to tap into the LTL market.

Moot · Aug 24, 2008

mcclain said:
Its going to be tough for the expedite companies to take away from the TL companies but it will and has been easier for the TL companies to tap into the LTL market.

How true! Especially since the traditional average expedite load is much smaller weight and volume wise than the average TL. When using TL, may I assume you mean truck load and in the year 2008 that means at least a 48' trailer and most likely a 53 footer?

As far as the TL companies tapping into the LTL market that has been going on for at least 30 years that I can attest to.

Thanks for the kumquat-mango-donkey analogy. I can see clearly now the oranges are gone. I can see all apples in my way.

On a more personal note Frank, Chuck, Fort, Greg, Sybil or who ever you are today; when it comes to posting meaningless, useless drivel I consider myself in the top 10 here on E.O. I believe your posts to be competition and I will do my best to remain in the top 10 above you. You're going to have to do better to over take me.

I guess if all of your posts were under one name only, I would have to concede the title of Drivel King to you. But they're not! So BAN THE VAN! Practice the blown steer tire drill. Drink blinker fluid daily. Eat celery and post like tomorrow is just another word for the day after today. Buy union, eat union and live union. But when it comes to liver... I don't even like liver. But I do like onions. Teamster picked onions! Teamster trucked onions! Teamster grocery house distributed onions. I like onions. Put them all in the same bowel and what do you get?