West Coast Runs Reconsidered

[ATeam]

West Coast runs have been discussed recently in the FedEx Custom Critical forum with some contractors saying the freight has slowed in western states and that they are avoiding the area for that reason. I have responded with our truck history saying the west has been good for Diane and me and we would not hesitate to take loads to western states.

Based on present experience (we are on the West Coast now) and information gathered from other drivers, Diane and I have reconsidered our west coast strategy and are now very reluctant, if willing at all, to take freight west of the Mississippi.

It was true what I said before. Western state loads have been a great addition to our business over the years and even in recent months. However, things change and we adapt.

 

[dieseldiva]

West Coast runs have been discussed recently in the FedEx Custom Critical forum with some contractors saying the freight has slowed in western states and that they are avoiding the area for that reason. I have responded with our truck history saying the west has been good for Diane and me and we would not hesitate to take loads to western states.

Based on present experience (we are on the West Coast now) and information gathered from other drivers, Diane and I have reconsidered our west coast strategy and are now very reluctant, if willing at all, to take freight west of the Mississippi.

It was true what I said before. Western state loads have been a great addition to our business over the years and even in recent months. However, things change and we adapt.

We're here also and I have to agree, Phil. We've been here since Sunday, are finished with a necessary reset and ready to move. Unfortunately, the pickins are slim.

 

[teamjdw]

We we're thinking the same,no more cali runs,then bam we get offered and accepted one of our best runs ever! California too Alberta too Minneapolis see ya down the road.Hey Phil remember the load Ken gave up? Look where it is taking us.I wonder if he's still sitting in Ontario? Like you said don't fight the freight

 

[LDB]

Freight's down so fewer go out west. Voila, freight is no longer down based on ratio of freight to units.

 

[ATeam]

Freight's down so fewer go out west. Voila, freight is no longer down based on ratio of freight to units.

But that is not what is happening. The freight has not slowed. It has slowed only for straight trucks.

The freight is shifting onto carrier owned trailers that are pulled by flat rate tractors. They are predispatched back out before trucks with dwell time in California are offered the freight. It is not the ratio of freight to trucks that has changed. It is the ratio of ER trailers hauling B, C and D loads that has, as well as the number of new ER trailers in the game and the preferential treatment they receive in the dispatch order.

A straight truck can still get a good load out of California at a good rate (I presume) as teamjdw illustrated above, but the frequency of it happening seems to have declined.

That is why I felt compelled to announce our shift in strategy. I don't want people thinking it is safe to take a load to California because doing so used to work for us. Diane and I no longer consider it a safe bet to take a load to California or other western states. New developments require a new load acceptance strategy that we are now thinking through.

 

[LDB]

Whether it's less freight or as you say just less available to straight trucks the end result is similar, the ratio adjusts upward for those who continue to "Go west young man."

 

[ATeam]

Whether it's less freight or as you say just less available to straight trucks the end result is similar, the ratio adjusts upward for those who continue to "Go west young man."

No it doesn't. Not when the loads that take you back east are pre-dispatched two and three loads deep to flat rate trucks pulling company owned trailers. Loads that used to normally bubble up in the flow and be seen by trucks with dwell time are taken out of the system, fundamentally altering the ratio for trucks that do not receive preferential dispatch treatment.

Thre are two systems in play now. In one, flat rate trucks pulling company owned trailers are dispatched out 100% of the time or nearly so. In the other, non-flat rate trucks with contractor-owned equipment are dispatched out only if there are not enough flat-rate trucks to cover the freight.

The supply of freight has remained the same but because different kinds of trucks access it in different ways, a ratio analysis must be adjusted to account for the shift. Two different ways of getting freight, two different ratios to accurately describe how effective each way is.

This analysis must also account for the fact that additional company owned trailers will soon be injected into the game. I am told that 28 new reefer trailers are being added to the company-owned fleet this month, bringing the total to 40.

Clearly, the company sees reasons to more than tripple its number of company-owned reefer trailers, but it does not bode well for existing contractors, reefer or dry, big-rig or straight. As contractors see flat rate trucks cutting more and more into lanes they used to be able to rely on, they will adjust as Diane and I have.

Where we might have taken a load west, we will now focus more east, thereby putting ourselves in the dispatch order in states where competing trucks would not have seen us. Where we might have passed up a dry load thinking a better reefer load would come along, we will adjust to take the dry load when we are able, thereby taking that load from a dry truck that might have otherwise gotten it.

When does a non-asset based carrier become an asset-based carrier? When the carrier acquires assets. When does the company's cultural outlook shift? At about the same time.

The injection of flat rate trucks into the fleet with preferential dispatch is the second-most significant development Diane and I have seen since we began with the company nearly eight years ago. The most significant development was TVAL freight that greatly improved our profitability. The company has always provided dry van trailers to E-unit drivers but they were dispatched the same as all other trucks. What is new is reefer trailers, flat rate tractors pulling dry van and reefer trailers, and preferential dispatch.

We are watching this development with great interest and making adjustments as appropriate to our needs and goals.

Will flat-rate and percentage-rate trucks be able to coexist and both prosper? Time will tell. Will the company consider a team like Diane and me -- who are fully credentialed to haul all types of freight, do art courier loads, have a truck with a wooden floor, have a liftgate (new company trailers do not), can get into shippers where ER-units are not able, carry far more freight securement equipment than the company trailers are required to have, and have track record of reliability (even heroics on some loads) that the company presumably desires -- important enough to keep to put us a preferential dispatch arrangement of some sort? That too may happen, we do not know. Will the company be able to operate a flat rate fleet as well as they think they can? We will find out.

As I said, we are watching these developments with great interest. We don't know how it will all play out but, clearly, the game is changing and a re-think of the FDCC opportunity is in order.

 

[mdscott]

Phil, we agree with you that we have to do some serious thinking about what our future in this business will be. The TVAL and reefer side of our business has been our bread and butter and lately the only reason for staying with FDCC. We will watch and see where this new change in company policy takes us but the future does not look the same.

 

[teamjdw]

If FedEx is going too purchase more trailers,and give those trailers freight before contractors regardless of dwell time.They should be ready for the backlash of contractors looking for greener pastures.Maybe FEDEX wants too go to company drivers only,because there surely won't be any contractor's here.

 

[ATeam]

I spoke to a fleet owner today who told me he has purchased his last straight truck. Any new trucks he buys will be tractors that will go on the FDCC flat rate program if he can find qualified teams who are willing to stay on the road long enough to make the flat rate tractors pay. If that does not work, he will put his tractors to use someplace else.

He has talked to all of his straight truck teams about driving a big rig and all refused because they do not want to live that kind of life on the road. The fleet owner and his wife are unwilling to drive the tractors for the same reason.

You can make money at lower rates if you can keep a truck moving and get lots and lots of miles. But for that to happen, the truck, the team and the freight have to be consistently reliable over a long period of time. When you are operating at low margins, it does not take much down time to put you into a money losing year.

This fleet owner has run a number of DR-units with FDCC for many years. The greatly increased cost of building and operating new straight-truck reefer units, combined with the shift of freight onto company-owned trailers led him to the decision to work his way out of the straight truck business. He has been aware of the shift longer than me. The actions he is taking now began as thoughts weeks if not months ago.

 

[ATeam]

I just want to add, that I and another driver I know who is equally concerned have been talking to various people at our carrier about this. More may be talking too but I have no knowledge of that.

My sense is that most people at the company are believing only what they are told at meetings and by other company communications about the company owned trailers and what they are hauling. That's not their fault, it's what they are being told by the company that employs them and, absent conflicting information, they have no reason to doubt it, nor should they. They should be able to have faith in what their employer says. They are told that the company trailers are intended to serve truck load customers on dedicated accounts.

But in the field, we have developed confilicting information that if known at all in the company is known only by a few. My purpose now is to share that information with as many people in the company that will listen (respectfully and through channels, of course).

The short story is they are robbing Peter to pay Paul. That works until Peter runs out of money or takes action to stop being robbed. At present, it is my belief (and hope) that when some of the departments at FDCC figure out that they are Peter, the practices that so easily began may become more difficult to sustain.

It is one thing to launch a new program when no one rises to point out its flaws. It is quite another to introduce a new idea when people are in the loop who know how it will hurt and make that pain known.

 

[jjoerger]

I thought all of the flat rate trucks were surface expedite. Are WG reefer vans something new they are adding?
As a D truck in surface expedite we have not seen any slow down. We have been very busy this month and this year.
We have done a couple of transfers from E flat rate trucks in the past few months. All were new to the company and none were WG.
They did say that they were very busy and usually pre dispatched.

 

[ATeam]

I thought all of the flat rate trucks were surface expedite. Are WG reefer vans something new they are adding?
As a D truck in surface expedite we have not seen any slow down. We have been very busy this month and this year.
We have done a couple of transfers from E flat rate trucks in the past few months. All were new to the company and none were WG.
They did say that they were very busy and usually pre dispatched.

The additional trailers being purchased are reefer trailers. Prospective tractor contractors and tractor fleet owners are being told by recruting that the teams that will pull these trailers are to be White Glove qualified and the trailers are to be stocked with White Glove equipment at the contractor's or fleet owner's expense.

Differences from traditional WG ER-units are aluminum floors in the trailers (wood used to be required), no lift gates on the new trailers, and less E-track. I do not know exactly what White Glove equipment must be provided. I believe it is less than what was traditionally required of an ER-unit.

 

[iceroadtrucker]

Its like this If its a run and Its money and I can keep the Truck in the Black Ill run the freight.

I do some realy weird loads like to houses where a company orders a wood floors and I haul the wood for them. Weird loads that dont require use of the REEFER>

Sometimes pay 2.40 all mile that realy good.
Then there are reefer loads That pay 1.75 all miles as one may have a big dead head but when its all added together and for the week you average 1.95 all milles that's realy not so bad.

There are those that would say Im not doing that load.
but if your a f E N Enginner and can keep your foot outa the throttle and can get 7.5 MPG with a 475 Cat Twin Turbo KW well then your not doing to bad.

There are those that are greedy and all they will run is 2.00 a mile and thats all fine. If your an OOP and you can afford to sit then thats great. But if your a driver and get paid just Run Nope you cant afford to sit.

Cash flow pays. Take the good with the bad and it all averages out in the end. Your make money and so do the drivers.

In a perfect world we all get over 2 bucks a mile.
But its not perfect.

Soon the Companies are going to have to shell out more per mile as the Cost of Fuel will soon Hit 5 dollars a gallon again.

CA the Price of fuel is outrageous. Nevada not much better the Fuel in AZ is BAD and NM not much better.

Dont get yourself bit by the Texas Rattle Snake either

Truck likes the Wyoming and UT Fuels for some reason.

Ohio fuel is the Pits.
Runs to the West coast I try like the Dickens to get in an get out and not be so Darn Choosey Or your gona End up Sitting.

Im not out here on Vacation Im out here to work.
If Im gona sit Ill go home to Iowa!!!!
Also driving a truck that dont have Generator nor a Fridgerator nor a Microwave or TV. Sleeping when its hot in Flying Js or TA movie rooms Im not doing that Crap no more.
So to keep cool and Happy and able to sleep the wheels Roll and Im Transporting Freight.

 

[bcordell70]

Well this is the third load we have brought out to the west coast, all three times we have either had to wait and crawl back east or DH out. Right now we are DH'ing to Dallas, TX (not like this will be much better). Last time we DEL in Northern Cali and Fed paid us the .75 per mile to head toward IL. We arent a DR unit but we are WG, figured we would do the slot scene but didnt even get one of those.

We wont be heading back west anytime soon unless they pre-dispatch us with a load out.

 

[ATeam]

I called our contractor coordinator yesterday, explained that we are stranded on the West Coast, and asked her to give us preferential treatment in the dispatch order to help get us back east where freight can be found. I asked her to go into the system, find us a sweet load, and put us on it so we could get rolling again.

I was not serious, of course, because I know that is not how the system works. And she quickly explained that she absolutely would not and could not do such a thing. Even if she had the power to dispatch a truck, if she did so in the manner I requested, she would lose her job, she explained.

I was not surprised by her answer because I know that dispatchers have been fired in the past for giving preferential treatment to certain trucks by dispatching them outside of the normal dispatch order.

The integrity and objectivity of the dispatch system was one of the main reasons we came to FedEx Custom Critical in the first place (the emphasis on safety was another). When we researched the industry, we read countless reports from embittered drivers who felt passed over or otherwise cheated by dispatchers who favored other trucks over theirs.

Here in the Open Forum, we read similar accounts from drivers leased to other expediting carriers. The desire to operate under a dispatch system that was fair and objective led us to FedEx Custom Critical and more than once kept us from leaving the company when others might have seemed more attractive.

Knowing that dispatchers had been fired for treating trucks unfairly gave us tremendous confidence that we would be fairly treated when it came to offering a load to multiple trucks that all may want it.

It was disheartening to learn from BR-unit drivers that those trucks got a dedicated dispatcher when they were added to the fleet. We continued on because we saw no financial effect in our truck. We chose to believe (perhaps kidding ourselves) that there was enough freight to go around and that as long as we were making the money we need to make, it was OK for FDCC to do its BR thing.

Now we are learning that freight we used to haul is going on company-owned trailers that are frequently pre-dispatched by one or more dispatchers who are specifically dedicated to that task. While we sit in an express center and build dwell time, loads that we would normally see and have a shot at are being plucked out of the system and pre-dispatched to flat rate trucks that run quickly in and out. We are seeing ourselves stranded out west because of it. And we are seeing the company buying more trailers, more than tripling its current reefer trailer count.

Seeing the company engage in the very same preferential dispatch behavior for which dispatchers used to be fired suggests that a core shift has occurred in the company's values and contractors are viewed differently than before.

As with the BR-units, if there is enough freight to go around, and we can make the money we need to make, we could probably find a way to live with the company's new approach. We can only haul one load at a time, after all, and we don't want to run every day of the week every week of the month.

But when we see the freight that paid our way being shifted onto company owned trailers by a preferential dispatch system, it seems to us that the rules have changed in a fundamental way, such that it is not the same game any more.

There is a lot to dislike about running with this company. The complaints have been voiced many times here in the Open Forum and anywhere else that drivers gather. Diane and I have rolled with the punches and adapted as we have been able because the saving grace has been the money.

We have looked at other expedite carriers on an ongoing basis and have yet to find one that pays better than FedEx Custom Critical. But if preferential dispatch is becoming the new norm at FDCC and our pay is declining as a result, few reasons to stay with FDCC remain.

We are not going to jump just yet. We are alerting the powers that be to our concerns and will give them time to assess the effects of the changes they have made and to decide if they want to continue to partner with us for mutual financial success as they have in the past.

We are not certain that they saw the negative effects coming when they made the company trailer and preferential dispatch decisions they did.

We are hoping that they will continue to value the contribution straight trucks make to the fleet enough to stop eating their young.

If the company is on an intentional and planned course to increase profits by cannibalizing non-company owned equipment, that will become clear soon enough. In that case, we will find another carrier to which to offer our services.

Making such a move will mean a pay cut to us, but if the cannibalization continues, not moving will mean a pay cut too.

When the pay becomes essentially equal among carriers, the negatives we must endure as FDCC contractors (speed limiters, pressure to go to Canada, EOBR's adopted years before legally required, personal conveyance limits, Qualcomm price increases, being forced to throw away a perfectly good data recorder and rent one from the company instead, etc.) become not something to put up with but strong incentives to leave.

The grass may not be greener on the other side of the fence, but we cannot help but notice that they don't have speed limiters over there and if we want do drive from Walmart to a movie theater over the weekend, we don't have to sacrifice a reset to do so.

 

[jjoerger]

The additional trailers being purchased are reefer trailers. Prospective tractor contractors and tractor fleet owners are being told by recruting that the teams that will pull these trailers are to be White Glove qualified and the trailers are to be stocked with White Glove equipment at the contractor's or fleet owner's expense.

Differences from traditional WG ER-units are aluminum floors in the trailers (wood used to be required), no lift gates on the new trailers, and less E-track. I do not know exactly what White Glove equipment must be provided. I believe it is less than what was traditionally required of an ER-unit.

So, are you saying that there are going to be or already are WG reefer flat rate trucks? Or are these new trailers just going to be company supplied to the contractors as they do now with the surface expedite dry vans?
I can't see anyone doing WG work for the same rate as the flat rate drivers are getting now. Wouldn't they have to pay them a higher rate then what you are willing to run a CR at?

 

[layoutshooter]

Bean counters ALWAYS end up winning. When they do the brand almost always degrades. When that happens another company picks the pocket of the first one. We will stay where we are, AVOID MOST West Coast runs, and IF we have too, we will jump to the company that cleans FDCC's clock. It always happens.

 

[ATeam]

So, are you saying that there are going to be or already are WG reefer flat rate trucks? Or are these new trailers just going to be company supplied to the contractors as they do now with the surface expedite dry vans?
I can't see anyone doing WG work for the same rate as the flat rate drivers are getting now. Wouldn't they have to pay them a higher rate then what you are willing to run a CR at?

I am not clear on how exactly it will work with flat-rate trucks and WG team qualifications. I only know what the recruiter told me, which is that the teams are expected to be WG qualified. As far as I know, the trailers will be supplied to the tractor owners or their drivers who will pull them at a flat rate.

Since these trailers have no lift gates, they will not be doing the full range of White Glove work. TVAL loads that go dock to dock are considered White Glove. So are loads that require a range of driver credentials, lift gates, certain freight handling equipment and a day of labor to complete.

I would not expect to see many flat rate trucks put on the White Glove loads that involve a lot of extra White Glove work. Since flat rate teams are on a flat rate contract, I would not expect our carrier to ask a flat-rate team to do extra work.

 

[ATeam]

Having only a 14 mile run to complete today, I had time to talk with several people. One called me from the company. The others included fleet owners, drivers and an interested person who does not work for FedEx but had information to share.

I appreciate the willingness that FedEx Custom Critical employees have demonstrated to listen to and respond to my concerns. I do not call the office often but have gobbled up a fair amount of company time in the last couple days. The people I talked to have other things to do but were gracious in giving some of their time to me.

I am by no means the first person to call in about this. People at all levels in the office have heard from numerous drivers and fleet owners, and they have listened. They know what we are saying and why we are worried.

That's the good news. The bad news is that while these people are hearing the message, they are proceeding as planned. Flat rate tractors are being recruited, additional company trailers are being purchased, preferential dispatch will continue and it falls to those of us who are not part of that program to figure out what is next.