Depression? What depression? Lost me there.
Re: An Injustice Averted
- Thread starter Freightdawg
- Start date
I cannot and will not speak for other people who buy high-priced trucks. I can only speak for Diane and me.
As things are today at FedEx Custom Critical, we would not build the truck we built in 2006 because today we are seing rates decline as well as the volume of the lucrative freight we happily hauled for several years.
Nor would we build a big-sleeper dry box truck. FDCC is adding flat-rate dry straight trucks to the fleet and giving them preferential dispatch over percentage-paid dry straight trucks. As that grows, the same thing is likely to happen to dry truck contractors as is happening to reefer contractors.
We would not build a fancy truck now because the money is not there to support it, or if it is, we do not have the confidence that it will be for long.
Back to 2006, it hurt us not a bit to buy the truck we did when we did. It cost $251,000 and we paid it off in 22 months with money earned hauling FedEx Custom Critical freight. It has several good years left in it and we plan to drive it for as long as we possibly can.
As the market value of the truck declines, insurance costs also decline. Our fuel economy has always been higher than the fleet average. We save a fair amount of money on maintenance costs because I do some of the work.
The more time passes, the closer we get to operating costs that rival those of a $30,000 truck because our truck is itself approaching that value. The difference is, we won't have to pay $30,000 to buy a $30,000 truck because we already own it.
With the money no longer at FedEx Custom Critical that once was, we are moving to another opportunity where more money can be made. We will continue to drive this truck and insist on profitable rates, and if such rates cannot be found, we will look elsewhere or leave the industry.
We do not expect to leave the industry. We plan to drive our present truck at profitable rates until it can be driven no more. If we choose to keep our hand in expediting several years from now, it would be as hobby expediters, in which case we would replace our present truck with $500,000, dock-high B-unit and shift to a lifestyle that is more RV oriented than expediting oriented.
That's the number you yourself provided as to how long it would take to run that load.
It would seem that you value your time and equipment too much... period, without qualification.
That's known as cherry picking. Everybody out here knows that you have to figure things, including profits, on a longer time scale, like monthly or quarterly. If you're going to cherry pick a load, then you also have to cherry pick your costs per mile for that run and that run alone, versus your costs per hour to sit and do nothing. It's almost a dead lock certainty that your overall cost per mile for that run would have been lower, for that run, and you lost more money by sitting than you would have lost by taking the run.
Just because you've played Shakespeare In The Park for big bucks doesn't mean you should get, or deserve, the same big bucks for Dinner Theater in De Moines. The Grey Poupon line, while hilarious, was spot on, especially for someone with a paid-for truck.
You may like to think that you would do it that way, but it's still cherry picking. You can get away with that for a while because of your equipment, but eventually your carrier will tire of it and you'll be offered primo loads only when they have to, and more and more of those are going on company owned trailers. There ya go.
The same smart people will also tell you that clearing $400 profit for 21 hours yields more profit than does clearing zero dollars for the same 21 hours, especially since at the end of those 21 hours you'll be in a good express center in both cases.
Why is SO hard for people to understand that everyone has a business plan that suits THEIR needs. What I need or want has little bearing on what Turtle needs or wants.
If Phil chooses to run his business a certain way that is OK with me. Others can read what he, and everyone else in here thinks, and build their own business plan to suit their individual need.
It is that simple.
If Phil chooses to run his business a certain way that is OK with me. Others can read what he, and everyone else in here thinks, and build their own business plan to suit their individual need.
It is that simple.
WOW! Care to splain that one? Could it be that you typed in mid thought and may have left something out?
How can sitting C O S T you more than when you are moving???? Remember you said it twice here.
Dang, now I have to build and program a Greg334 decoder ring....
On a VERY FUNNY side note. I just got a "spam" phone call, recorded, from FDCC wanting me to sign up to run for them!! How funny is that?
I'll call your one and raise you two.
Got the same call on my primary cell, emergency cell, and home phone.
Persistent little buggers aren't they?
I'll call your one and raise you two.
Got the same call on my primary cell, emergency cell, and home phone.
Persistent little buggers aren't they?
I only got it once, so far any way.
All three were on voicemail. Apparently it's programmed to wait for the greeting to be over since the entire message was there.
Tennesseahawk
Veteran Expediter
It's all in the attitude.
Do you think that these high dollar straight trucks value will drop even quicker as the fed is getting away from utilizing them?
Not all of the trucks being affected are going to be "high dollar". It will, sooner or later, affect all trucks.
I get that, but just like an older model luxury car, I think the depreciation on those trucks will accelerate.
Who knows in this crazy business? Not so far at least.
In the immediate, short term picture, it doesn't. But in the long term big picture, it costs a lot more to sit than to move. The clock ticks relentlessly on fixed expenses. Every minute you sit, those costs go up in relation to revenue. Every mile you drive, those costs go down. It affects nearly everything, including and especially your CPM. The more loaded miles you put on in a year, the lower your CPM. Every minute you sit, your CPM goes up.
I see so many trying to persuade Phil he is wrong..
As Joe said...it is HIS and HIS alone business plan. Period...
It not wrong, it is not right.....Its HIS plan....your plan don't work for me....1.40 is NOT a good rate IF you are going to run at that...and THAT only...1.40 might be more acceptable IF you never ran a DH mile and never had to idle...
As much as you could knock Phil for being a high brow...because he demands a higher rate..one could say you are a CHEAP freight runner...3 years ago you'd be called a scum bag at 1.40...now it is ok.??...did things get cheaper?
As Joe said...it is HIS and HIS alone business plan. Period...
It not wrong, it is not right.....Its HIS plan....your plan don't work for me....1.40 is NOT a good rate IF you are going to run at that...and THAT only...1.40 might be more acceptable IF you never ran a DH mile and never had to idle...
As much as you could knock Phil for being a high brow...because he demands a higher rate..one could say you are a CHEAP freight runner...3 years ago you'd be called a scum bag at 1.40...now it is ok.??...did things get cheaper?
"scum bag" was used less than 3 yrs ago
Yeah, there's 2 or 3 of them. The Ingersall Dinner Theater, one of the oldest, is no longer a full-time dinner theater, and is just a restaurant now. But there are 2 or 3 theater troupes that perform at various locations around town, depending on if it's the "Jest For Fun" comedy murder mystery theater troupe, or one of the "Entertainment to Go" musical reviews or plays. Many are put on at the Hoyt Sherman Place Theater (which is a neat place to visit in its own right, just for the art gallery).