Time for a change

BigCheese · Feb 27, 2012

Hey Everyone, I've been driving for awhile now and have been thinking about making a switch from regular refrigerated class A long haul to expedited freight. I haven't purchased a truck yet but have been looking around and doing some research on the subject. I was contemplating driving for someone first before I make the jump. Any suggestions? I currently am driving north east regional freight and am under a load now so if I don't get back to your questions or replies right away please bare with me. My load tonight delivers at 10 pm so I will be back driving here shortly. Any advice would be helpful.

Rocketman · Feb 27, 2012

How long is a while? Do you or have you ever owned a truck? Driving for a fleet owner is a good way to learn the business and find out whether you like it before investing in a truck. I knew I wanted to own my truck and could afford it, so that is how I started. Everybody's situation is different though.

I would also caution you that t/t drivers often have a problem adjusting to the hurry up and waaaaait...then hurry up!!!! nature of expedite freight. It takes a certain mentality to succeed in this business. Many just cannot adjust no matter how hard they try.

paullud · Feb 27, 2012

I would drive for someone first to see if you like expediting. There are some differences that may make you decide it is not for you. If you are looking for a change you could always switch to running all 48 or dry/flatbed freight.

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Bruno · Feb 29, 2012

BigCheese said:
Hey Everyone, I've been driving for awhile now and have been thinking about making a switch from regular refrigerated class A long haul to expedited freight. I haven't purchased a truck yet but have been looking around and doing some research on the subject. I was contemplating driving for someone first before I make the jump. Any suggestions? I currently am driving north east regional freight and am under a load now so if I don't get back to your questions or replies right away please bare with me. My load tonight delivers at 10 pm so I will be back driving here shortly. Any advice would be helpful.

I would look up the things you want to know on these forums. You will find everything your looking for here on EO. I wish you the best of luck and be safe out on the road.

BigCheese · Mar 3, 2012

Rocketman said:
How long is a while? Do you or have you ever owned a truck? Driving for a fleet owner is a good way to learn the business and find out whether you like it before investing in a truck. I knew I wanted to own my truck and could afford it, so that is how I started. Everybody's situation is different though.

I would also caution you that t/t drivers often have a problem adjusting to the hurry up and waaaaait...then hurry up!!!! nature of expedite freight. It takes a certain mentality to succeed in this business. Many just cannot adjust no matter how hard they try.

I've been driving OTR since the late 80's. Haven't owned my own Tractor but have had a small fleet of tri-axle dumps running throughout my home state in the early to late 90's. The money side is not an issue that worries me. It's the not knowing the business of expedited that does. This is something my wife and I are looking at doing together after she retires in two years. In the mean time I figured I would drive team with someone in the business until she retires then we will purchase our own truck. I was thinking about Fed-ex custom critical. Any suggestions on who or where I should look for decent fleet owners?

greg334 · Mar 3, 2012

The money side should worry you, most of what companies do do is related to one of two ways of getting their work - automotive or load boards. Watching your money is as improtant as getting good paying loads.

Not to discourage you, but if you read carefully to what some of us are saying, what others think is negative, and prepare yourself financially up front, your level of success and lowering of stress will be easy to achieve. If you look at what some are going through recently, you will understand where I'm coming from.

If you want to know what some of this is about, take a look at a few threads in the general for about the load boards like syculus (sp?), driving for multiple companies and a couple more along that line that are recent, sorry I can't post links with this apple product.

There are other things that are not really important and a few you have to forget about, like this is not TT type work, it is more or less hurry up and wait stuff. The best thing that someone can do if they have TT experience is to drive one in this niche market.

BigCheese · Jul 5, 2015

This is just an up-date on this thread. After several years of research on EOL, a lot of reading, talking to other drivers and fleet owners. My wife and I finally made the move to expediting two weeks ago. We are running in a ST that is leased on with Panther. We did start with a fleet owner that has a lot of experience in this field and is very helpful. I wanted to take a moment to thank all the members on EOL that helped me with my research the last couple years and to those that keep posting here with their stories of expediting and life in general that makes a reader want to keep coming back. Hopefully as I learn more about this field I will be able to help others as you have helped me.

fastman_1 · Jul 5, 2015

BigCheese said:
This is just an up-date on this thread. After several years of research on EOL, a lot of reading, talking to other drivers and fleet owners. My wife and I finally made the move to expediting two weeks ago. We are running in a ST that is leased on with Panther. We did start with a fleet owner that has a lot of experience in this field and is very helpful. I wanted to take a moment to thank all the members on EOL that helped me with my research the last couple years and to those that keep posting here with their stories of expediting and life in general that makes a reader want to keep coming back. Hopefully as I learn more about this field I will be able to help others as you have helped me.

Well I wish you the best of luck,

Turtle · Jul 5, 2015

Thanks for the update. Congratulations to your wife on her retirement. She's gonna love it out here, not having to shower, things like that.

Lawrence · Jul 8, 2015

BigCheese said:
This is just an up-date on this thread. After several years of research on EOL, a lot of reading, talking to other drivers and fleet owners. My wife and I finally made the move to expediting two weeks ago. We are running in a ST that is leased on with Panther. We did start with a fleet owner that has a lot of experience in this field and is very helpful. I wanted to take a moment to thank all the members on EOL that helped me with my research the last couple years and to those that keep posting here with their stories of expediting and life in general that makes a reader want to keep coming back. Hopefully as I learn more about this field I will be able to help others as you have helped me.

Mission accomplished! Thanks for the positive feedback!