You will never know for sure until you fully embrace the opportunity, which means getting all the credentials fully-credentialled ER teams have, getting the truck fully qualified (TVAL), and getting an ER unit, the length of which does not keep you out of Canada.
Enough about you, Streakn1. Now on to comments for anyone who is disappointed in his or her numbers.
I almost never take information from drivers about how busy they are at face value. Even if they are telling you the truth about the exact numbers they generate and prove it by showing you their settlements, one never knows the reasons behind it.
Indeed, sometimes the drivers themselves do not know. Or, they come up with stories about the freight, or the competition, or others being treated special, or dispatch to explain what is "really" going on, when they have not fully looked into themselves.
Sure, it might be slow freight. But it may also be one or two or three of a dozen other reasons; including poor relocation decisions, going home too much, medical issues, time out of service for truck repair they are not telling you about, turning down loads they should take, taking loads they should not, etc.
There are also a bunch of drivers out there that believe the pie is only so big. They lie to others about how slow they are so as not to encourage others to come after "their" freight.
And even if freight is genuinely slow, that happens in this business, as most everyone in the Open Forum has pointed out. It has been said here probably hundreds of times that drivers and owner-operators should be prepared for the slow times. Not everyone listened, did they?
That said, this slowdown does not seem to me to be the vanilla variety of slow times. Fuel prices have not just risen. They have soared. It is not just drivers having sticker shock these days. Shippers are too. Just yesterday, Jevic, no small player in LTL freight, shut its doors, citing reduced freight levels, rising fuel prices and other factors, including the tight credit market. I believe there are a whole lot of meeting room discussions going on at shippers about how they configure their freight and do things differently to combat skyrocketing shipping costs.
If you are thinking about a carrier change or getting your own authority, that is always an option. But when you see one driver after another on OOIDA's magazine and web site pages talking about parking their trucks, and companies like Jevic closing their doors, where will you go that is better?
And if you go to that better opportunity, what will you do to distinguish yourself from the many others that will line up for that seemingly better opportunity too? Or, if they are not lining up, there might be a message there as well.
Being prepared for slow times means just that, being prepared. If you are in a financially weak position, you will be forced into decisions you might not otherwise make. If you find yourself making such decisions, that is a big red flag. An example would be taking a bad run because you need to make your truck payment, or taking runs you otherwise would not because you are trying to build reserves that you do not now have.
As I have said in previous posts, if you are not prepared for the coming recession (or the one that has already started in some peoples' view), get out while the getting is good. Though, it may already be too late as used truck prices are dropping and the money you get for your equipment may not be as good as before.
Right now, Diane and I are disappointed in our numbers too. But most of it is due to the fact that, this year, we have taken several days off to fly Diane home for dental appointments (braces). Every time we feel like we have gotten into a good series of runs, we break the streak to fly her home.
That is on us and us alone. I'm in no position to say how the freight is running compared to last year because we are breaking the streak this year like never before. I take driver reports with a grain of salt. And even if carrier run counts are said to be lower (I don't know if they are), I put little stock in that because I presume that other trucks will quit, leaving enough freight for us.
I can say that because FedEx Custom Critical (our carrier) is not expanding its fleet size. The waiting list to get into White Glove shows that a bunch of folks have identified WG as the better opportunity for them. But FedEx is not taking them on. They are instead trying to balance contractor and customer needs in the current freight environment.
If you know of a place where there is more freight to be had and better money to be made than where you now are, the smart play is to go there. Just be sure you are being honest with yourself about why it might be slow for you where you are now are.
Also be careful about hearing what you want to hear about the other opportunity. Jevic and OOIDA member failure stories are not without reasons behind them. General economic conditions have indeed deteriorated from earlier levels. If it is slow where you are now and better someplace else, a rigorously honest look at both sides of the fence is in order.
Lawrence McCord said it best. "Expediting does not tolerate a personal agenda." The more willing you are to give yourself over to the industry, the better you will do.
Yes, in the eyes of some, that means not having a life. Though in the eyes of others, it can mean having the lifestyle of their dreams.
Conversely, the more you try to fit expediting into your personal agenda, the more frustrated you are likely to become, and the more sense it may make to get out.
