Weekend Freight (or lack thereof)

[bruchar]

How many teams out there (especially with Fedexcc) actually run freight over the weekends? In our experience, we might get something on Friday that delivers Saturday or dispatched on Friday for something for Monday. But what happened to all the freight with some miles that kept you busy over the weekend?
Has it disappeared to a sister company? Just curious how the rest of you handle the sitting over the weekends.

 

[x06col]

You may have hit the nail squarely on the head. When they bought American, I was gone the next day. Seemed I could see the writing on the wall.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Since we started reading EO and learning we expected to be sitting on the weekends. With FedEx when we get a weekend load we just consider the load a nice bonus!

We use the weekends to clean the truck inside and out. Get laundry done, watch movies and get ready for another busy week.

 

[greg334]

I am with Teamcaffee on this one, I enjoy having the weekend off so to speak and try to catch up on things like cleaning and the wash. But my last run was over the weekend from NC to northern Ontario and I drove as much as I could so I could enjoy the nice weather while I was on the lake. No it was not a tourist moment but just an unwind from driving 1400 plus miles.

I have had three like this this year but I don't expect them at all, like TeamCaffee said, it is like a bonus.

 

[Moot]

>You may have hit the nail squarely on the head. When they
>bought American, I was gone the next day. Seemed I could
>see the writing on the wall.

x06colon you mus be one of them clairvoyant type peoples. I wudda never thunk dat the purchase of one of them L.T.L. freight pickeruppers wud be the undoin' of one of the top expedite companies in dis here u s of a. Congratumalations on being way ahead of the rest of us yoyos! Does you have any hot stock picks?

 

[x06col]

Nah, not clairvoyant, waz jes FedUp wiff em. Doubt the pickeruppers will be the undo'in of anyone cept the ones might'a got that xtra bonus weekend run, that stead went on a pickerupper that coud git r there by Monday. Stock picks? I hear yoyo's are going to be back. Maybe a yoyo company. Or, a Medical Equipment Company that manufactures things to check bungholes (colons).

 

[davekc]

I can't really think of a weekend we had a truck sit through the entire weekend in a long time. That might be a company specific issue. I quess that would be a good question. Did those opportunities leave when they started up their LTL business?










Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[jaminjim]

No, No, No, I keep telling yous guys that P11 has taken those customers because we provide a quicker, better service! All fed-ex does is keep shoving there customer base to us one of their other freight companies. Oh and besides that I think I saw something on a forum about a bankruptcy.:9

 

[greg334]

I got to say it... no I just got to.

Ok if FedEx is headed down the drain and all of the customers are running to Panther, why is Fedex still the second largest top fortune company for transportation services behind UPS and why are companies still shipping with FedEx?

 

[Moot]

>Or, a Medical Equipment Company that manufactures things to
>check bungholes (colons).

I think you have your confused with your colon.

 

[RLENT]

Charene,

I'm not team (at least for awhile yet), I'm not with FXCC, and I've only been doing this for a couple of months but I've often gotten loads late on a Friday for delivery on Saturday .... in fact about 50% of the time it seems to happen. The first load I ever ran picked up at 11 PM Friday for delivery @ 7 AM Saturday.

This past weekend I had two loads that picked and delivered straight-thru on Saturday and one that picked up and delivered straight-thru on Sunday.

The Sunday one was kinda weird - because the "protected" time on it was actually an hour earlier than what our "guaranteed" time was .... first time I have ever had that happen.

Anyways I made it with 15 minutes to spare ...... and when I got there the place was closed up for the weekend ...... a guy had to drive in and meet me there to unload me.

I know the weekend before this was busy for us too although I didn't get dispatched myself that weekend - I stopped by the office on Saturday afternoon to drop off paperwork (I live close by) and the owner was in the office dispatching the (fill in the blank)th load of the day.

 

[jackdixon_2000]

The problem, with Fedex, for singles on long weekend loads is that, often long loads are called in as straight thru and dispatched to a team before delivery confirmation is made. There are many 1000 mile runs going to teams on Friday for Monday delivery due to this circumstance.
I, personally took a load out of Las Vegas to Burlington,Ia 3 weeks ago over the weekend. Then 2 weekends ago did a Chicago to West Virginia over the weekend then last Friday night was offered a local Boston to Boston for Monday p/u and Delv paying over $700.
Right now I am in Indy and gonna try and get into Chicago Thurs night and see if I can snag a long load back west on Friday over the 3 day weekend?
Might rack up a bundle of refusals but otta be interesting, otherwise Saturday will start my long trek back home

 

[ds1450]

I can only speak for Panther Vans. I have not been dispatched on a Saturday or Sunday since Feb. Take that back, 1 load out of Laredo on a Saturday (NICE) I usually hang around the load area's of OH, IN IL and I stay out for 3 weeks at a time. weekend freight has seemed to have dried up (for me at least)but we keep putting on vans because Panther says they can't cover weekend loads. Hmmm.

 

[TeamCaffee]

DaveKC you are a little different then the normal Panther owner as you actively look for freight for your trucks outside of Panther.

I will clarify what I was trying to say. We often have loads as Jack says we pick up on Friday and deliver on Monday. We are also often pre dispatched on Sunday to pickup on Monday. We are definitely not comfortable enough to stick a load of laundry in the washer unless we are under a load, or pre dispatched on a load, or out of service.

 

[davekc]

DaveKC you are a little different then the normal Panther owner as you actively look for freight for your trucks outside of Panther.
I will clarify what I was trying to say. We often have loads as Jack says we pick up on Friday and deliver on Monday. We are also often pre dispatched on Sunday to pickup on Monday. We are definitely not comfortable enough to stick a load of laundry in the washer unless we are under a load, or pre dispatched on a load, or out of service
===================================================
Very true Linda. I often forget we do things just alittle different.
If you are picking up Friday and delivering Monday for example, that isn't anything different than what we are doing. Part of my earlier comment was kinda of a question as to whether the "freight network" produced more or less weekend loads compared to other periods of time. The earlier comment was that they weren't moving on the weekend. That could be just a location issue.









Davekc
owner
22 years
PantherII
EO moderator

 

[nightcreacher]

i loaded a sat load in nogales az,so not all sat sunday loads have gone by the wayside,just 3 weeks ago,fed ex bankrupt,just fell on floor laughing

 

[ATeam]

Regarding the effect of FedEx's "LTL" or the "freight network" mentioned here by others, click this link for more information.

http://www.expeditersonline.com/artman/publish/article_005543.html

From the executives quoted in the article and from personal experience at loading docks and actual freight in our truck, I know for a fact that FedEx Expedited Freight Services and Surface Expedite Network have benefited our business. We are hauling more freight because of these programs, not less. The revenue numbers are good too.

Regarding weekend runs (the original topic of this thread), here are our percentage-of-loads-by-day numbers, for the time period January 1 to May 31, for the last four years. These are for pickups only.

Note that even with the same carrier, truck results vary. I can only speak for our results, shown below. Also note that we drove D, DR and CR units in the times shown.

Example: From January 1, 2004 to May 31, 2004, 18.8% of our loads were picked up on a Monday.

2004
Mon: 18.8%
Tue: 14.5%
Wed: 18.8%
Thu: 17.4%
Fri: 18.8%
Sat: 5.8%
Sun: 1.4%

2005
Mon: 27.5%
Tue: 18.2%
Wed: 12.9%
Thu: 12.9%
Fri: 20.0%
Sat: 10.0%
Sun: 0%

2006
Mon: 14.3%
Tue: 21.4%
Wed: 19.0%
Thu: 16.7%
Fri: 21.4%
Sat: 4.7%
Sun: 0%

2007
Mon: 15.4%
Tue: 21.1%
Wed: 15.4%
Thu: 15.4%
Fri: 26.9%
Sat: 3.8%
Sun: 1.9%

We put our current truck (CR-unit) in service June 15, 2006, close to a year ago. 48 weekends have occured since then. We have been under load in 25 of those weekends or 52.1%. By under load in a weekend, I mean picked up on Friday, Saturday or Sunday; and delivered on Saturday, Sunday or Monday.

Ten of those loads or 20.8% picked up on a Friday and delivered on Monday. Average loaded miles for those ten runs is: 2,128. Individual runs are: 1,867, 1,386, 584, 2,731, 2,245, 1,807, 2,911, 2,830, 2,904, 2,018.

Rules of thumb FOR OUR TRUCK ONLY that we can form from these numbers:

1. We will be working weekends half the time.

2. We can pretty-much figure on about one long weekend run per month.

3. If we want to take a day off, Sunday is the best day to do so. If we want to take two days off, Saturday and Sunday are best.

HOWEVER, in a very important way, these numbers are meaningless. You can't count on a darn thing in expediting. Past performance does not predict future results.

 

[ATeam]

One additional thought about FedEx Custom Critical weekend freight disappearing to a sister company. What sister company would that be? FedEx Surface Expedite Network uses resources from both FedEx Custom Critical and FedEx Freight, but FedEx Freight trucks do not run on weekends. I don't think FedEx Express Freight trucks move on weekends either. If a FedEx customer wants to move freight over a weekend, using FedEx resources, what option does he or she have but FedEx Custom Critial?

 

[jackdixon_2000]

In case anyone is interested, here is the results of my attempt to be a "cherry picker" and get a load back west or long weekend run out of Chicago on Friday. I d/h out of Ohio and arrived in Gary,In. Thurs night. I had my 10 hrs off at 9am and the first offer came at 932am 538 mi to Belpre,Oh (2) 936am 404 mi Grayling,Mi (3) 954am 195mi Peoria,Il (4) 1022am 457mi St Paul,Mn. (5) 1026am 243mi Loves Park,Il (6) 1049am (Same Loves Park asking me to reconsider, really hot) (7) 1107am 130 mi Rockford,Il (8) 1116am 136 mi Butler,In (9) 1122 am 337mi Louisville,Ky (10) 1127am 401 mi Washington,In (11) 1132 am 240 mi (148 dh 92 loaded) Mishawaka,In (12) 1150 am 272 mi Burlington,Ia.
I gave up, at least it was goin west and $500 covered most of my aproximate $600 fuel cost home.
After delivery in Burlington Friday night I drove 200 miles more across Iowa. Left Iowa Saturday morning and arrived in Laramie,Wy at 1145pm Saturday night and did and express center check in onto the Denver board. Didn't even get in the sleeper before I was offered a Monday morning 567 mi run from the Denver area to Salt Lake City area.
That $1125 definetly takes the bite out of a long deadhead.