dsingleton
Seasoned Expediter
I am looking at getting into expediting with a Sprinter van but have no experience. Any suggestions on which company to go with? I am looking for the best paying company out there. Thanks
Which company is best?
- Thread starter dsingleton
- Start date
ebsprintin
Veteran Expediter
Did I hear my cue? I've included links in my signature line that are helpful in getting started here.
eb
eb
chefdennis
Veteran Expediter
Hmmn...if you owned a company that was successful at what it did, paid great and depended on its employees to give it the best of their ability and experience, you would hire you with nothing to give (no experience) for that great pay!?!?
Yea we all want to make all we can, but it takes time to learn this or any other business before you can that great pay....lol even with the companies that pay good you are going to not be one of the top producers until you learn 1. the business, 2. how that company does business, 3. how to use the experience you will gain while learning to best situate yourself to make the best money....it is a learning curve....its not just having a sprinter , signing on and turning the key....
If you want to learn the business, learn how to run your business, make decent money and get decent miles while you learn...call Anne at Bolt.....
Yea we all want to make all we can, but it takes time to learn this or any other business before you can that great pay....lol even with the companies that pay good you are going to not be one of the top producers until you learn 1. the business, 2. how that company does business, 3. how to use the experience you will gain while learning to best situate yourself to make the best money....it is a learning curve....its not just having a sprinter , signing on and turning the key....
If you want to learn the business, learn how to run your business, make decent money and get decent miles while you learn...call Anne at Bolt.....
While your points 1, 2, and 3 are correct, I beg to differ slightly about the time it takes to earn great pay.
Diane and I entered the business in August, 2003. We had no previous truck driving experience whatsoever but instantly and consistently produced gross revenues that rivaled or exceeded those of the top producers in our truck category.
We were able to do so because we put in the time ahead of entering the business, learned not from our mistakes but the mistakes of others, and relied not on our experience (we had none) but the experience of others.
We did this by following the advice so often given in the Open Forum; namely, read two years of old posts and learn from them. Into that we put a lot of time. The fleet owners we started with had the experience we lacked and we generally (not blindly) followed their advice. Once on the road, we met other drivers and acted like sponges soaking up every bit of information we could from them, keeping what made sense and discarding what didn't.
I cannot emphasize enough the value reading older posts with the intention of learning from them. Because we did, we knew what carrier would be the right fit for us when we started. We are with that same carrier today. We knew what questions to ask. We entered the business with a knowledge base that enabled us to quickly discern the walkers from the talkers when visiting with other drivers.
A technique we used to learn from old posts was to literally read every post made in every forum (minus the Soapbox) in the last two years. On a note pad, I wrote down every word or concept I did not understand. There were many since being brand new to trucking, I could not then explain the difference between deadhead and fifth wheel.
With more reading, the terms and concepts became clear, the needed skills were identified and I became knowledgable. I did not know how to do a pre-trip inspection but learned. I did not know how to calculacte the total cost per mile but learned. I did not know to keep a pair of work gloves handy but I learned. I did not know how to fuel a truck but learned.
That took care of the book learning part. The benefits of experience came first by relying on the experience of others and then gaining experience of our own.
A month after entering this business, Diane and I considered it the easiest, most lucrative and most fun job we have ever had. That remains true today. It was true in our early days in no small part because we were fully prepared when we entered the business. And we were fully prepared partly because we read two years of previous Open Forum posts.
Expediter wannabees who approach this business asking "Where can I make the most money?" are doomed from the start. The better question is, "What do I have to learn and do to become a top producer in the expediting business?"
greg334
Veteran Expediter
To AnSWER the question first,
IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU.
Absolutely.
BUT the first thing that one has to find out is how to run their own business.
It is easy to claim to be making money but the biggest problem is how you handle it after you made it.
Well I would agree with this IF one was going to be on their own. Learning your business is more important when you start than learning the business.
Getting proper advice from professionals, learning what is the best way to limit your liabilities and learning to take this stuff as a business, not as a paid vacation or as something other than a business.
Very important, each company has its own culture and its own way of conducting business. To fit in, which is what you are doing - fitting in - you have to have defined expectations that are almost aligned with the company giving your business an edge. Thinking that it is only the immediate money you see that you need to strive for will get you into trouble because one load may not pay good while another will. Understanding it is not the week but the month of operating is how many companies look at things.
Right on Chef!!
The only real obstacle to this is the company itself. A few, not to mention them, will not allow you pass through the front door while a number will welcome you in. These companies are hands off, meaning that they will find you the work they will tell you where to lay over and they make you think that they have it under control - when they actually don't.
THE BIGGEST issue with these companies is a weird thing called the Employee Mentality. Because many who claim to be successful run with these companies, they can't think outside of the box and say it is an easy transition to something like being more independent. IT is that HelicopterCarrier (yes one word) mentality that the company has that limits your potential as much as limiting your experience.
The experience you gain may not be the stuff you are told about but simple things, many of us don't think about the mundane or the obvious business practices we use because we are used to using other experiences to run in this business.
It is like how many actually know how to calculate a Break Even Point?
They take the spreadsheet from OOIDA and use that and that gives you a ball park but not exactly what gives someone who needs more detailed info what they are looking for.
yEpPeRs again Great Point.
See here is the dilemma that many face when they come here. They are told to search, they are told to read and they do read but they listen to people who claim this or that about their success then think they need to achieve that in life. By trying without preparing to achieve a position, they often fail. Those who are boasting fail to mention how they actually got there and what real experience they have had to propel them upward. Some seem to claim that they worked hard at getting where they are but in truth they couldn't go anywhere because they started at the top and never climbed the ladder.
The best advice isn't necessarily the person who is saying they are a top performer because that very term is rather subjective and skews the truth in many ways, it kind of offsets the advice by not actually allowing the entire complex picture to appear. The words Top Performer mean a lot of different things to the companies. A few view it as being a team player, never questioning their actions or the offers while others look at contractors who act professional, present a consistent performance or who are the safest.
The advice I looked for at first was the advice from people who failed or who were and are struggling to find out where they went wrong. I looked at their mistakes, and beleive me there are a lot of them, and used that information to my advantage.
IT ALL DEPENDS ON YOU.
Absolutely.
BUT the first thing that one has to find out is how to run their own business.
It is easy to claim to be making money but the biggest problem is how you handle it after you made it.
Well I would agree with this IF one was going to be on their own. Learning your business is more important when you start than learning the business.
Getting proper advice from professionals, learning what is the best way to limit your liabilities and learning to take this stuff as a business, not as a paid vacation or as something other than a business.
Very important, each company has its own culture and its own way of conducting business. To fit in, which is what you are doing - fitting in - you have to have defined expectations that are almost aligned with the company giving your business an edge. Thinking that it is only the immediate money you see that you need to strive for will get you into trouble because one load may not pay good while another will. Understanding it is not the week but the month of operating is how many companies look at things.
Right on Chef!!
The only real obstacle to this is the company itself. A few, not to mention them, will not allow you pass through the front door while a number will welcome you in. These companies are hands off, meaning that they will find you the work they will tell you where to lay over and they make you think that they have it under control - when they actually don't.
THE BIGGEST issue with these companies is a weird thing called the Employee Mentality. Because many who claim to be successful run with these companies, they can't think outside of the box and say it is an easy transition to something like being more independent. IT is that HelicopterCarrier (yes one word) mentality that the company has that limits your potential as much as limiting your experience.
The experience you gain may not be the stuff you are told about but simple things, many of us don't think about the mundane or the obvious business practices we use because we are used to using other experiences to run in this business.
It is like how many actually know how to calculate a Break Even Point?
They take the spreadsheet from OOIDA and use that and that gives you a ball park but not exactly what gives someone who needs more detailed info what they are looking for.
yEpPeRs again Great Point.
See here is the dilemma that many face when they come here. They are told to search, they are told to read and they do read but they listen to people who claim this or that about their success then think they need to achieve that in life. By trying without preparing to achieve a position, they often fail. Those who are boasting fail to mention how they actually got there and what real experience they have had to propel them upward. Some seem to claim that they worked hard at getting where they are but in truth they couldn't go anywhere because they started at the top and never climbed the ladder.
The best advice isn't necessarily the person who is saying they are a top performer because that very term is rather subjective and skews the truth in many ways, it kind of offsets the advice by not actually allowing the entire complex picture to appear. The words Top Performer mean a lot of different things to the companies. A few view it as being a team player, never questioning their actions or the offers while others look at contractors who act professional, present a consistent performance or who are the safest.
The advice I looked for at first was the advice from people who failed or who were and are struggling to find out where they went wrong. I looked at their mistakes, and beleive me there are a lot of them, and used that information to my advantage.
Here's another strategy: start teaming or driving for whomever will have you. You'll make mistakes. If you learn, then start evaluating relative pay. If you don't learn, it don't matter.