How does one sum up an Independent Contractor career in expediting in such a short space? It was May, 1989 when Rene’ and I signed our first lease with Roberts Express. Our first run was a pickup in St Louis with a straight through delivery in Indianapolis. It seemed like we would never arrive at that first delivery because we didn’t have the luxury of local knowledge of a city we’d never visited, nor the GPS equipment we enjoy today.
We now have nearly 3000 runs behind us that have taken us to all but two of the lower 48 States and three Canadian Provinces. Our five cargo vans have transported us over one and a half million miles through thousands of cities, towns and villages. We stopped at many of them to enjoy the sights, sounds and people they had to offer. We’ve enjoyed lobster with drawn butter at a roadside stand near Bar Harbor, Maine; Clam Chowdah on Cape Cod; an early morning breakfast at a café on South Beach, Miami; tacos in Laredo and Albuquerque; Abalone in Santa Barbara, California; deep dish pizza in Chicago; Canadian style peameal bacon with eggs and brown toast in Toronto and, when in Quebec City, who among us doesn’t order lard peameal de modele Canadien avec les oeufs et le pain grille’ brun.
Rene’ and I have enjoyed the friendship, companionship and camaraderie of many hundreds of expediters from all walks of life who have represented most of the expedite carriers with whom many of us are familiar, and some that are not familiar or long ago out of business. We have celebrated the births of children to fellow expediters; we’ve shared in the joy at two trucker weddings and we’ve mourned the deaths of too many of our expediter friends. We are better people because of these experiences and relationships.
Among our proudest professional accomplishments has been the honor that our carrier, FedEx Custom Critical, bestowed on us by selecting us to participate in a five year reign on the Contractor Council. We trust that this relationship has served them well and that our input has helped to lead to improved policies and procedures that affect our fellow contractors. Our relationship with Lawrence McCord and his staff at On Time media and expeditersonline.com has been particularly rewarding. We have endeavored to be candid and realistic when discussing expediting opportunities with the many people we have met at several Mid-America Trucking Shows where EO has had a booth each year, at Expediter Workshops, and all of the Expedite Expos. I have learned much from the EO forum members and have particularly enjoyed sharing the tid-bits of knowledge, we’ve gleaned over the years, with newbies and veterans alike.
Now, after 19 years of cargo van expediting, Rene’ has dissolved her lease agreement with our carrier, laid me off as her driver and turned in her FedEx Custom Critical contractor ID card. She will now be spending much of her time rearranging her garden and maintaining our home. I have been offered a recently established position with FedEx Custom Critical, so I am exchanging my contractor ID card for an employee ID card. My new employer will be announcing the scope of my duties in the very near future, so I will not be discussing them here in the forum. Unfortunately, I have decided that my continued participation in the forum would not be appropriate. As a rookie employee, I can’t imagine that my company would be pleased with me speaking on their behalf; therefore, I have offered my resignation as a forum moderator to Lawrence and Dreamer. I will continue reading and learning all that EO and its forum members have to offer, but I will not be posting.
I thank each of you for the kind comments and the courtesies that you have afforded Rene’ and me and, for now, I bid you adieu.
We now have nearly 3000 runs behind us that have taken us to all but two of the lower 48 States and three Canadian Provinces. Our five cargo vans have transported us over one and a half million miles through thousands of cities, towns and villages. We stopped at many of them to enjoy the sights, sounds and people they had to offer. We’ve enjoyed lobster with drawn butter at a roadside stand near Bar Harbor, Maine; Clam Chowdah on Cape Cod; an early morning breakfast at a café on South Beach, Miami; tacos in Laredo and Albuquerque; Abalone in Santa Barbara, California; deep dish pizza in Chicago; Canadian style peameal bacon with eggs and brown toast in Toronto and, when in Quebec City, who among us doesn’t order lard peameal de modele Canadien avec les oeufs et le pain grille’ brun.
Rene’ and I have enjoyed the friendship, companionship and camaraderie of many hundreds of expediters from all walks of life who have represented most of the expedite carriers with whom many of us are familiar, and some that are not familiar or long ago out of business. We have celebrated the births of children to fellow expediters; we’ve shared in the joy at two trucker weddings and we’ve mourned the deaths of too many of our expediter friends. We are better people because of these experiences and relationships.
Among our proudest professional accomplishments has been the honor that our carrier, FedEx Custom Critical, bestowed on us by selecting us to participate in a five year reign on the Contractor Council. We trust that this relationship has served them well and that our input has helped to lead to improved policies and procedures that affect our fellow contractors. Our relationship with Lawrence McCord and his staff at On Time media and expeditersonline.com has been particularly rewarding. We have endeavored to be candid and realistic when discussing expediting opportunities with the many people we have met at several Mid-America Trucking Shows where EO has had a booth each year, at Expediter Workshops, and all of the Expedite Expos. I have learned much from the EO forum members and have particularly enjoyed sharing the tid-bits of knowledge, we’ve gleaned over the years, with newbies and veterans alike.
Now, after 19 years of cargo van expediting, Rene’ has dissolved her lease agreement with our carrier, laid me off as her driver and turned in her FedEx Custom Critical contractor ID card. She will now be spending much of her time rearranging her garden and maintaining our home. I have been offered a recently established position with FedEx Custom Critical, so I am exchanging my contractor ID card for an employee ID card. My new employer will be announcing the scope of my duties in the very near future, so I will not be discussing them here in the forum. Unfortunately, I have decided that my continued participation in the forum would not be appropriate. As a rookie employee, I can’t imagine that my company would be pleased with me speaking on their behalf; therefore, I have offered my resignation as a forum moderator to Lawrence and Dreamer. I will continue reading and learning all that EO and its forum members have to offer, but I will not be posting.
I thank each of you for the kind comments and the courtesies that you have afforded Rene’ and me and, for now, I bid you adieu.
