Why not get into this business?

[omalljd]

I know that subject will get much attention! I read many posts about how bad the industry is now and how companies are tightening margins, etc, but I think many of us that haven't been in the business for 5 or 10 years would like to know how it was.

Things I would like to know are: how did the runs pay, how long was the average layover, etc.

My feeling is that if you come into this business with a clear understanding of income projections and that business is slow you can make it. I came into this business when things are slow and I have planned for that. When things pick up I will be that much happier. I do understand that many of you have lost a lot of money and I can sympathize with that.

Thanks,

Jeff O'Malley

 

[Olko]

2 years ago everyone was talking about the good times being right around the corner, well this industry never made it around that corner. Anyone getting into it now, had better make their income projections based on what has and is happening in the present, and not some hoped for industry recovery, that may never come.

This industry has a track record over the past few years of declining revenue to the truck on average, because of lost customers, increased competition from expediters and the big trucks, outrageous deadhead, increased fuel costs, rate cuts, companies signing on to many trucks etc... If this was a stock, I sure wouldn't want to buy it at this time. Just remember, you are there to make your company money, they don't care about you, or if you make money, or if you lose your truck and/or house, all they care about is putting as much of the financial burden on you, as they can.

Are you ready to risk it all?

 

[RumblePuppy]

Time for all the NAYSAYERS to get out of this business!! Run for the hills and hide till someone else says it's OK to come out. More freight for ME. I don't know where you have been, but the last few years have been very good to me! This year is slow but the cycle will repeat again and again in any persons lifetime!
I didn't realize that this forum was DOOM and GLOOM CENTRAL


BOB

 

[sunset]

i agree that things are alot slower this year than the previous 2 that i've been with panther. it just goes in 3 or 4 week spurts now. when last year this time of the year we were running the wheels off our truck. i have even considered getting out of the biz to go somewhere else but everyone says that my revenue is higher than their teams make. it just gets frustrating sitting around waiting for the pot at the end of the rainbow to show up again.:'(

 

[Big Scooter]

Good question, Jeff. We've only been in this business for almost three years and I'd like to know what it was like before we started. We came aboard during the last year of Roberts Express. We were averaging $1.15 a mile and were told we should only expect to get about 10% Discount Run Offers. We had a one or two day layover rate. While there are more Discounted rate offers these days, we find that the layover rate is about the same, east of the Mississippi, and that deadhead miles are probably about the same now as in 1999. I think that the Deadhead Factor will be a constant depending on which company you drive for, what region of the U.S. you are in, and your experience in learning to decide which offers to accept and which to refuse.
I hope others will respond with their experiences. Keep it rollin.

 

[copdsux]

i don't want anger anyone, but there are a few comments that i would like to share: anyone who has been around expediting for any lenght
of time, knows that there are good times, as well as bad. what has
continuously puzzeled me is the o/o that seem to spend most of their time hanging around truck stops complaining about not making any money.

did they consider that the load(s) that they have turned down that day, or even during the past few hours,would have covered not only
their fixed costs for the day, but might have even made them enough
"profit" to relocate to a perceived better location, or to contribute
toward the costs of the next days operation.

Now, about dead-head: the way i see it, even the company doesn't pay
a penny, the IRS is subsidizing my move at the rate of .345 cents per
mile; at least for me, this covers the expense of my dead head miles
AND i got a paying load.

anyhow, sitting still and bitching all of the time won't make you a
penny. accepting everything thrown your way will, in the end, make
you money. it is kind of like the stock market: its not what the
"market" did today that matters, but what was the return over the
long-haul, say 3-5 years.

thanks for reading this, and please reply if you think i've lost it
and need to be committed!

 

[Olko]

Here is a simple answer to the original question. When we started in this business aprox 3 years ago, at what to me was the beginning of the slowdown in expediting, we were driving for an Owner. This owner had 7 trucks and had been in the business for aprox 13 years. He was looking to get out of it because the revenue to his trucks had dropped from a monthly avg. of around $15,000 each, to around $10,000 each when we were with him.

There are so many negatives that I see in the present and future for expediting, that I can't in good conscience recommend starting in this business at this time. If you are already in it, go for it, and make the most of it you can. As one poster mentioned, there maybe a cycle just like in the stock market, but there is no guarantee that it will come, and what if that person just starting out, with no experience, no reputation with his dispatchers that will help him get runs, and the big truck payment can't make it thru the "slow times"! To the other poster that wanted the naysayers to get out, why do you think that will mean more runs for you, to me it means the companies will step up their recruiting efforts to fill those positions, and they will go on making money along with outfits like Alumi-Junk, and MBCC, and Associates will stay busy repoing those trucks.

 

[Weave]

I "ditto" Olko's response. Why get in it to loose? I especially like Olko's mentioning of the "cycle". This cycle can, in general, be based on how the American automotive industry is doing. Although I don't expedite much auto freight myself, I feel it filter down. It is a representation of the economy in general. Nobody in their right mind is going to go out and buy a $70-80k expediter truck right now, and that includes myself. And I have been at this for a bit!
-Weave-

 

[louixo]

freightchaser has the the right attitude....i totally agree....take the loads...pay for the deadhead as best you can...drive those miles..it will turn around or ecxpediting will mutate again into some other kind of trucking...even in the best of times you sit occasionally...if you want to make a better living...you have to be available and on the road.