Well I did it.
- Thread starter jaminjim
- Start date
jaminjim,
Expediter wannabees using the EO Open Forum to research the industry may be interested to hear how you reachd your decision to leave expediting for something else. Career changes are not easily made. Your story may be informative to people thinking about becoming expediters and people thinking of leaving the industry. You are of course under no obligation to say anything you do not want to, but if you care to share more about your decision, a number of folks might find it helpful.
Expediter wannabees using the EO Open Forum to research the industry may be interested to hear how you reachd your decision to leave expediting for something else. Career changes are not easily made. Your story may be informative to people thinking about becoming expediters and people thinking of leaving the industry. You are of course under no obligation to say anything you do not want to, but if you care to share more about your decision, a number of folks might find it helpful.
jaminjim
Veteran Expediter
Why change a career now? Well I’m sure there are as many reasons for getting into this career as there are in getting out. Why change now, would be the question that would best be asked of our circumstance. We never planned on staying in the Owner Operator / drivers field for that long of a period of time. We were thinking we would drive for a while then to become a small fleet owner say in the neighborhood of three to five trucks. And then to back off the driving and let Karin manage the fleet while I went back to what I do best.
So the question would be why quit doing what I do best, Well after owning our custom fab shop for eighteen years, I had enough of employee problems, economy down turns, customer tales of woes’, trusted advisers being dishonest, and embezzlement. With employment near seventy five people there were just to many issues to deal with when you are the only one that can do the selling, purchasing, hiring / firing, benefits management, shop floor management, accounting and all the other things that go into owning, and operating a successful business. So in some regards it was not a successful business, but was in some other ways. But the key is that I’m a very good salesman. I have all of the needed tools to be able to sell from the house except the ability to type and spell
. The biggest tool is my knowledge of my industry, but I also have Laptop, home computer, fax and copy copying machines, laser printers. What I will like most about the endeavor will be just like in trucking I will rely on me and no one else. Yes there are other factors that come into play. But I can handle them kinda been there done that.
When I started my trucking career I needed to be near the house because of my son, yes there are a lot of drivers that have teenagers at home but I wanted to be around at least until he was eighteen, so I signed on with EGL. Unfortunately they lost the contract that they had witch would have paid $1.80 per mile. ( all one way trips, unless you could get something on your own ) that left me with the $1.20 per mile one way trip. Don’t need to tell you how that was. By the time I could leave there and sign on with P II the old account was looking pretty bleak. Hindsight would say that I should have went out on the road with P II a year and a half earlier, but decided I wanted to raise my son, more than drive over the road. and build the nest egg.
While I enjoy being an owner operator and all that it entails, it is not something that I want to do into my sixties, while I’m now fifty three, now there are kids, grand kids, friends, and many other things to do other than watch some 450 lb. Butt head take a leak at the fuel island. The wife and I were in forty-eight states and five province’s. I have seen a lot of cool things in the last three and a half years, and there is plenty that we missed seeing. But time to be able to sit back in my easy chair at the end of a long and rewarding day ( and some not so rewarding days ) instead of sitting on the edge of the bed and searching for a tv station while the other one throws together a cold cut sandwich hating to hear that beep from the QC, but knowing that you really want it to beep to start another money making trip.
I can say that when Karin and I started running together we both knew the other would go the extra mile ( pun intended ) and that we would get it done. What we did not know would happen is that we would become much closer than we had been, and that we would break our back to give the other an extra fifteen minutes of sleep. For some in this industry it separates couples lucky for us it was just the opposite. Although when we are at home there does not seem to be as many times that she will come over and sit on my lap. Could be we need more space than the truck allows for. Being within six feet of each other for three weeks at a time is enough.
So the question would be why quit doing what I do best, Well after owning our custom fab shop for eighteen years, I had enough of employee problems, economy down turns, customer tales of woes’, trusted advisers being dishonest, and embezzlement. With employment near seventy five people there were just to many issues to deal with when you are the only one that can do the selling, purchasing, hiring / firing, benefits management, shop floor management, accounting and all the other things that go into owning, and operating a successful business. So in some regards it was not a successful business, but was in some other ways. But the key is that I’m a very good salesman. I have all of the needed tools to be able to sell from the house except the ability to type and spell
. The biggest tool is my knowledge of my industry, but I also have Laptop, home computer, fax and copy copying machines, laser printers. What I will like most about the endeavor will be just like in trucking I will rely on me and no one else. Yes there are other factors that come into play. But I can handle them kinda been there done that.When I started my trucking career I needed to be near the house because of my son, yes there are a lot of drivers that have teenagers at home but I wanted to be around at least until he was eighteen, so I signed on with EGL. Unfortunately they lost the contract that they had witch would have paid $1.80 per mile. ( all one way trips, unless you could get something on your own ) that left me with the $1.20 per mile one way trip. Don’t need to tell you how that was. By the time I could leave there and sign on with P II the old account was looking pretty bleak. Hindsight would say that I should have went out on the road with P II a year and a half earlier, but decided I wanted to raise my son, more than drive over the road. and build the nest egg.
While I enjoy being an owner operator and all that it entails, it is not something that I want to do into my sixties, while I’m now fifty three, now there are kids, grand kids, friends, and many other things to do other than watch some 450 lb. Butt head take a leak at the fuel island. The wife and I were in forty-eight states and five province’s. I have seen a lot of cool things in the last three and a half years, and there is plenty that we missed seeing. But time to be able to sit back in my easy chair at the end of a long and rewarding day ( and some not so rewarding days ) instead of sitting on the edge of the bed and searching for a tv station while the other one throws together a cold cut sandwich hating to hear that beep from the QC, but knowing that you really want it to beep to start another money making trip.
I can say that when Karin and I started running together we both knew the other would go the extra mile ( pun intended ) and that we would get it done. What we did not know would happen is that we would become much closer than we had been, and that we would break our back to give the other an extra fifteen minutes of sleep. For some in this industry it separates couples lucky for us it was just the opposite. Although when we are at home there does not seem to be as many times that she will come over and sit on my lap. Could be we need more space than the truck allows for. Being within six feet of each other for three weeks at a time is enough.