What do you think?

panther_art · Dec 21, 2009

I do not know if Bolt got the load because they under bid Panther, what they told me the load was paying them was a lot more then I was getting. But I do know this in the seven years I been out here doing this in a van I have seen a lot of company switching. Owners getting mad a Panther and going to Tri-State or the old Conway Now or owners getting mad at those companies and going with Panther or Fedex. I remember when Landstar was the talk everyone wanted to go with Landstar. And within the last few years Express-1 was the big thing.
In those seven years I would maybe see one Bolt van every two months, and now they are starting too come out like flies because Bolt is getting loads, but what is going to happen to all you new Bolt people when Bolt has 300 vans on and only 200 loads a day and it will happen. Bolt will be just like the rest of the companies get to big and everything will start to go down hill.
All I am saying to those of you that think you are all doing so great out there, that mountain could fall at any time, so be ready.

OntarioVanMan · Dec 21, 2009

Fastrod..
you gotta remember you are not giving away about 25-35% to a carrier to find you loads...SO...your rate would of course be that much higher then us that PAY a carrier to find us our loads...

blizzard2014 · Dec 21, 2009

piper1 said:
I have to speak up on this, and my pom poms are safely stowed away too.

And, no offense, but 5 loads does not give you an accurate view of what is going on in the FedEx world.

I still do some dispatching and I see the loads that your company brokers out every day. They are all really good paying loads from many different areas.

I do understand your company cutting their rates for NLM or ActiveAero loads. But not on the loads that they get directly from their customers.

piper1 · Dec 21, 2009

Yes, they broker out a lot every day, so does everyone, what I'm saying is the loads FedEx farms out, there is a reason they are doing it, and it's to save money. As an outside carrier you see what the load pays, but you don't see what the load will cost FedEx to run on one of their own trucks. When the internal costs are too high, out it goes, or it may be bid on the board first, and if someone bites (low-balls) then we never see it.

Your Salt Lake load (I use it because you provided the numbers) you got 1000 to go 750 miles, OK, today that would pay a van guy 712.50 (FSC included), PLUS there would be deadhead involved to be paid to the van guy (to p/u or to get him out), that could easily add $100. so FedEx has now paid out $812...but they also are running the load on their insurance...sure it's a blanket policy but it has to be expensed to the run so maybe the cost is now $875. BUT I can almost guarantee you, that the internal cost was either over what they paid you OR there was no truck available...otherwise it would be a pretty dumb business decision to pay more to farm it out. I have freinds who are independant and do work for FedEx, they tell me about stuff that gets farmed out and usually, if I think about it a bit, I can see the logic.

As for FedEx farming out loads that are their own customers, sure it happens but if anything those are the ones they would like to keep in house. If we are so cheaply paid as vans (and I don't think we are cheap) and it is a FedEx customer (theoretically they pay the highest rates as there is no middle man) then it would surely make the most profitable sense to do that load in a FedEx branded truck, and that's what the customer is expecting as well.

I am speaking up about this because I get really tired of all the conspiracy theories about how FedEx is supposedly screwing with us. FedEx is a publicly traded corporation designed to make money and pay shareholders, as a contractor I am an independant business that is providing a service to FedEx under their rules and present service to a customer with the FedEx brand. If FedEx farms a load out they are doing so to improve their profit, which if I was a shareholder I would expect them to do. FedEx never made any warm and fuzzy promises to me that I was anything but a business doing business under contract, if you carrier tells you any different and you believe it your lying to yourself, as OVM once said, know your place in the food chain. FedEx lowered the rate they pay to vans because they could, thanks to other carriers who started paying far less and the distorting of the market and blurring the line between true expedite and regular freight.

Sorry for derailing the thread.

davekc · Dec 21, 2009

I'm not sure Piper that I agree with your last statement.
This link was posted once already.
If Fedex is a price slasher in one market, is it a stretch in another division?
Maybe, maybe not.
We did quite a bit of brokered stuff for them last year, and they seemed about the same as others.
But........not sure I would blame other carriers for a drop in their van rates either. I think several market conditions create what we see now.
Analyst Sees LTL Truck Rates Deteriorating | Journal of Commerce

piper1 · Dec 21, 2009

I agree with you Dave that there is a lot going on to push rates down, I don't think FedExCC led the charge to lower van rates, I am quite sure that it did not take them long to decide to join in the downward trend, it sucks for us but they are a business. I would agree that some other divisions, Freight and Ground for sure have been very aggressive, seizing on the opportunity to wound YRC and others that have high internal costs by getting cheap...someday someone will do it to them to just like other expedite carriers have taken business from CC.

Maybe its the Christmas music blaring at 1000 watts in the Pilot here that is making me a wee bit grumpy, if I hear the dogs doing jingle bells one more time my ears are going to bleed.

So before every last good Christmas feeling is drowned out of me...Merry Christmas everyone!

highway star · Dec 21, 2009

piper1 said:
if I hear the dogs doing jingle bells one more time my ears are going to bleed

We're rockin' round the clock and spinnin' stacks 'o wax for ya here at WEOL. Here's one goin' out to that crazy Canuck Piper1, Porky Pig and "B B B B Blue Christmas".

sockhat · Dec 21, 2009

ART , are you telling the whole story ? i hear you signed on to panther for a straight
$ .70 a mile. Bolt did not hall that load for less than $.70. you said you arrived at 8:00 and talked to gaurd ,so he knew you were there first. don't think that had anything to do with who got load. Dana decided that. unfortunate situation for all involved-but i agree PANTHER should pay you more than a dead head load,for the screw up.

panther_art · Dec 21, 2009

sockhat said:
ART , are you telling the whole story ? i hear you signed on to panther for a straight
$ .70 a mile. Bolt did not hall that load for less than $.70. you said you arrived at 8:00 and talked to gaurd ,so he knew you were there first. don't think that had anything to do with who got load. Dana decided that. unfortunate situation for all involved-but i agree PANTHER should pay you more than a dead head load,for the screw up.

All I said was that the Bolt van got more for the load then what I was going to get, which would have been .70 + .14 fsc.

I know that it was Dana decision as to who ran that load, I do think if Panther would have started to find out what was going on when I first called them there would not have been so much time wasted there waiting for an answer.

I was not upset with the other drivers or Bolt I was more upset at the time spend waiting when Panther should have know that load was brokered out to another carrier or I think they should have know.

Falligator · Dec 22, 2009

Well....at least you're still not sitting in Laredo like I am panther art...that definitely sucks about that other driver getting that load, but I wouldn't mind getting home for christmas....I took a short run for panther yesterday going from San Antonio back down to Laredo, TX and the dispatcher of course says he'll look for another load for me.....got a run from Laredo to Pueblo, Co...which I swiftly turned down due to no chains and it's not going the direction i'm trying to go....anyways...i'm still here....nice to meet ya the other day panther_art. I'm still reduced to using the flying j's internet....