Questions about expediting in a cargo van

[Renagade1]

Hi yall,
I been looking into expediting I drove the big rigs for over 10 years and have been hauling campers for almost 2 years now. I talked to a panther driver the other day. ( Seems like its hard to find drivers to talk to when your looking to) I asked him about the miles per week. He said he has only been averaging 1300 mi. I told him the recruiter told me 1500 to 2000 Now being a truck driver and hauling campers that don't seem like many miles to me and I asked if 3000 mi was possible and the recruiter said yes. Well first off I know recruiters are trying to get you to sign on So I expect them to lie I figure 1500 mi should be the norm but this driver said 1300 mi and now I'm thinking I can't belive anything the recruiter says.
I'm looking at getting a sprinter probably 1 ton because it gives you more companies you could work for. But I'm looking at the 140 inch wheel base which the dealer says gives you over 10 ft cargo space. I guess what I'm curios about is the miles I know everyone is saying its slow this year so far. The driver also told me he had been sitting since 5:00am that morning and it was 8:00 pm then. I asked why he didn't deadhead to a better place for freight like Memphis,tn It was only 185 mi would have costed him $32.00 for fuel and I would assume he would get a load by the way he just ran 900 mi to get to where he was. Maybe someone could explain why this would be bad?
Another thing he told me was that panther would give drivers a good load say 800 mi and they would let a driver run 500 mi and then take the load away from him and give it to another and the guy forced to give up the load had to wait 7 hours for the other guy to pick it up and he did mention that they added more time to the load for the guy picking up so he could get it there on time. Is this common practice? Sorry about the long post I did talk to this driver for a hour. He didn't seem happy and I may be wrong but I just think sometimes you have to spend money to make more money. Any and all help is appreciated as I go back to reading the archives.

Thanks all
Dave

 

[Renagade1]

I also would like to mention I talk to several other recruiters fedex and conway now and landstar are not hiring vans at this time. I talked to express 1 and that recruiter seemed to be brutially honest he told me I could 1000 to 1200 mi a week Yikes that isn't no money at all. Any express 1 drivers out there that can tell me what they average? wondering about panthers miles too?

Thanks Dave

 

[geo]

i have a sprinter van and on with egl and run mostly local
and doing any where from 800 to 2800 a week and driving only a 1,000 miles a week and home every night avg week is about 1300
sometimes higher or lower depending if i work hard or goof off
if the van is not moving not making money


if you get the 3500 van and to haul reg pallets you have to cut out 4"
from wheel well's this has to be done by auth body shop or you void warranty


with expediting it's not the miles it's the money
one weekend in greenbay wi i ran 200 miles for weekend each run was
10 miles round trip and made 1300 for the weekend so
don't get hung up on the miles
i perfer short miles big buck

last week ran out and back to a place for 1.60 a mile
couldn't get the 1.90 a mile that i wanted and settled for other
won't run for less than 1.60 plus fsc

 

[ryan8374]

Higher pay for low miles would be nice. I too am considering Panther and was told that I would get 1600-2000 miles/week. Panther pays the cargo vans $0.77/mi. I don't see how one can make any money in a 'B' unit doing less than 1600 miles. Does Panther have any type of variable pay? Do some loads pay more? What am I likely to average? What's the average fuel surcharge? I've been racking my brain over this for the last few weeks and it's about to drive me nuts.


Ryan
Expediter Wanna'B'

 

[Renagade1]

geo do you have a 2500 or 3500 sprinter? kinda wondering about what you said about cutting the wheel wells down I haven't looked at them yet but wouldn't that put the wheel wells a lot closer to the tires? And if you have done this what did it cost ya if you don't mind me asking?

I don't think I would be hung up on miles but I'm pretty sure panther is strictly mileage pay I wouldn't mind doing short hops if they pay better I would like to be able to bring home $1300 a week after fuel I could make it on that.

I don't plan on getting rid of my camper hauler I haul 2 campers at once with it. I figure I would keep it for a back up in case expediting didn't make me enough I would go back to pulling campers and maybe put a driver in the van.

Thanks for your reply
Dave

 

[hondaking38]

i currently run a 2500 sho sprinter high top 158 in i highly recommend this set-up you can fit 3 pallets in it and with the high top version i often get small straight truck loads.. at a higher rate
recently did a 781 mile load at 1.00 a mile with a 15 cent fuel surcharge.. hardly a week goes by that i dont get a special load because of heigth and lenght...plus get 22 mpg well worth the price.

 

[greg334]

Dave

I am going to be brutally honest with you. I am a newbie, 5 weeks into the game and I have had to face a few realities that I have been warned about. I am going to pass these on to you.

The first thing is shop around for a company to work for, don’t let the recruiter tell you a bunch of numbers and take it at their word. Scott from Express-1 told me exactly like it is and that is one reason why I am contracted with them, among other reasons I won’t discuss here. Talk to the drivers face to face, not in the forums. You learn a lot more doing that. Of course posting qeustions here is important too.

The second thing is you have to think about this as a business, not a job. You need a plan and you need to stick to the plan. I have been in business for myself for a long time and I learned that there are good times and bad times and you always prepare for the bad times hope for the good times. This business is not like retail and it is not like a supplier, it is a true service business ‘business’. Oh yea, don't look at how much you make by the week, you will go crazy doing that. Look at it by either a two week period or by the month.

There are a lot of variables that are out of your control and your success is based on 20% of your effort and 80% of the company you are contracted to. As I said prepare for the bad times, put money away for the times you are sitting for a week or two and set you a budget and stick to it. Once you build your cash flow up, then channel some of the money to you in the way of bonuses, etc… my personal feelings about any company is that they need to be agressive for everyone involved and even pay thier dispatchers on some sort of commission to keep us moving.

Your business model should have a target of an average 1000 mile a week for the year. This of course will vary, but truthfully it is a good target for your business model. If you make all the numbers work based on that average, than you will be successful. Now of course this does not mean that you will not get a few months of 1500 or 2000 miles a week, it can happen. I talked to a driver last week while I was sitting waiting for a load and he thought I was really lucky to get in 1500 miles a week, he was really hoping for 1200 and said that he normally gets 1100 a week. He did show me his load logs and his income statements, so I can honestly say he ain’t making this up. This seems to be a theme for many drivrs who are contracted to many diffeent companies.

As for the sprinter, try, I mean really try to put as much money down as possible to lower the payment to keep your fixed cost down. Fixed cost is the killer. As I am looking at it, my ‘per mile’ cost is fixed at 48¢ per mile and I can reduce that to 43¢ per mile if I can reach 2000 miles a week average for two months. My cost includes fuel, maintenance and even food while on the road, I average 17.5 MPG loaded or unloaded. Right now with gas prices as high as they are, sprinters are the way to go.

Freinds at D-C said that there is litle diffence between the 2500 and 3500. I would look at a 158 hightop 2500, compare the GVW between this and the same style 3500. I think there is less than 300 or 400 lbs difference that you could carry.

Well that is my 2¢

 

[Renagade1]

Thanks for the reply greg, I'm still up in the air on this I currently haul campers with my own truck and there is up and down times with it as well. I do have a little more say so on how many miles I run. But I have talked to some guys that seem to run pretty good miles expediting too. It will take time to make a descission. I really appreciate the replies that everyone has given and I hope you all are doing better since this should be the busy time for yall.

Thanks again
Dave

 

[M A WEBSTER]

If you already have a equipment to haul trailers. My advice is stick with it for now. Why buy a $35,000 vehicle to get into a business that isnt a sure thing at this time. As for pantherii they are loaded to the gill's with b-units. I quit them 2weeks ago because of not enough income to survive. I was with them for 3yrs 3mo. A the end was doing 300-400 week. Run your trailer pulling business for now. At least you know what you can make.

 

[bryan]

HI
Personally I'd steer clear of putting a van on right now.There are too many out there right now. I've only talked to 1 or 2 that are making it. And here is why.
1. Income is stagnant.
2. Cost are up.
3. Too much competition for loads. Carriers have to low bid loads just to get freight on the trucks.
4. Too much time between loads.
5. Too many empty miles.
6. Driver didn't know what he was getting into.