I see all of the posts where people are sitting for days and weeks, or that freight is really slow. At the same time, I see EVERY single carrier on this site desperately looking for more trucks, and drivers. Most are even offering sign on bonuses. I also see some drivers that are running their donkey off and making serious money. So what is really the truth??
The truth is somewhere in between. Carriers look for "capacity" to fill gaps and attract customers while the contractors ("capacity") look for revenue based on an easy entry into this business. It is somewhat of a messed up way of making a living for those who give up part of their freedom to be controlled by the carrier in an On Demand situation.
I read in a recent article about the driver shortage but there really isn't one. There are enough drivers out there to move most of the freight if the companies would get smart. Instead we hear the excuses about how hard it is to find people who want to work and now it is added on that CSA will clean out the driver pool and we will be in a desperate situation - all BS.
I do understand that being successful is a very very personal thing as it is with every business. I wonder if some of the issues that I'm reading is drivers who have a less than "Optimum Attitude" when dealing with dispatchers, and customers. I'm not so new as to think that there aren't so crappy dispatchers, but.................Just trying to judge the real state of the industry, as I continue my "education".
Well here is the thing, success is the easy part, it really is. Some who claim to be successful expediters look at the money thing and achieve that level to self-proclaim success but as you said it is a personal thing. See the blame is put on the driver who doesn't have the right attitude but that's a small portion of the equation. The bigger part of it is how to keep that driver producing revenue and how that effort fits into the bigger picture of success. MOST of the people on this site and in this business are not, REPEAT not independent but rather dependent contractors. They derive their work from the company who picks and chooses what level of capacity they will use to fulfill a customer's needs. Many of those companies derive their freight by bidding on the freight which in my opinion have surpassed the saturation level to actually be a determent to the customer.
Those who are independent (even a few of us who work as semi-independent contractors) are the ones who don't look at the pennies but look at how we achieve consistent work out of a customer. The difference is great in both form and function; for the dependent contractor, they can screw up with a customer and still get work out of the company. But for the independent contractor, they screw up with a customer, they lose money and in many cases reputation which prevents their ability to produce revenue.
