Truck Topics
Landstar conducts another great seminar!
The Best Western Hotel in Woodhaven, MI was the site of the latest in Landstar Express America's (LEA) series of expediting seminars. Monday evening's get together, in partnership with Expediters Online, featured information for the prospective expediter and current expediter alike.
These events are not just for Landstar owner-operators but they are for any owner-operators or for those considering the expediting business.
The workshops are designed to provide support, information and knowledge for the owner-operators to help them operate their business successfully.
Darin Mark, LEA's Director of Recruiting, was unable to attend due to his continuing involvement with Landstar's hurricane disaster relief efforts in Florida. Filling in for Darin was LEA regional recruiter, Jeff Garra, an extremely knowledgeable expediting professional who acted as MC for the proceedings.
The event began at 5:45 PM with Jeff Garra welcoming the audience that totaled over forty men and women with an interest in the expediting business. This group was treated to no less than seven guest speakers, all of whom presented topics directly related to the owner-operator's business success.
The first speaker at the podium was Jerry MacDougall of National Logistics Management (NLM) who discussed "Automotive Hauling and You".
His fact-filled presentation told how NLM is currently listing some 1,300 expedited loads per day and that one of the trends in expediting is the shippers' demands for larger truck sizes. This demand has encouraged his company and others to look outside of expediting in a search for those larger trucks.
Jerry also touched on how the freight lanes of expediting are continuing to expand. It's well beyond the Great Lakes area with a lot of activity originating on the east coast along with Mexico and Texas.
Ms. Debbie Dent of Dent and Associates was the next speaker who gave a very informative talk about Canadian Customs procedures and FAST Updates. A good portion of her segment included a lively Question & Answer session about crossing the border and customs protocols.
Landstar's own Dave Dallas presented the following topic - "Selling Expedited and the Owner-Operators responsibility". Dave is a seasoned veteran in the emergency freight business and he discussed the relationship between the expediting owner-operator and the customer/shipper.
He stressed the importance of remembering that when the expediting driver is on the shipper/receiver's dock, he never knows who he's talking to; that guy in work clothes could just be the owner of the company!
It's essential, Dave said, for the expediting owner-operator to conduct himself professionally at all times - after all, he's the representative for his company, in essence, "selling expediting."
The topic, "The Expedited Truck Market", was handled very capably by Don Portis from Alumi-Bunk Corporation. He elaborated on today's used truck values and the strategies of your next truck purchase (new or used, Class 8 truck, etc.).
A sub-topic that generated a good deal of audience participation was "stretching" the Class 8 chassis. As Don says, there are a number of
owner-operators coming to expediting from the general trucking world and they are "upside down" in regards to their Class 8 trucks' value; they can't sell them or trade them. Instead, they are extending the frame and continuing to use their current trucks for expediting.
Sheel Advani of Alumi-Bunk was also on hand to present details about an Alumi-Bunk partner company - Transport Insurance Agency. This company specializes in trucking insurance and Sheel gave an overview of insurance requirements and the value of the owner-operator continuing to review and update his coverage.
Ray Lawrence of Espar of Michigan had important information for the audience about anti-idling technology and the ways that an owner-operator can put money back into his pocket by shutting down his motor.
Ray had some interesting facts and figures regarding cargo vans, for example. He related a story about one van driver who found that he was using nine gallons of fuel to idle his van overnight. Ray sat down with the man and demonstrated how the installation and use of an Espar heater would save the owner-operator enough money to pay for the unit in three months!
Expediters Online's Lawrence McCord claims that during his presentation of "Tech Tools for Expediters", he was constantly interrupted by wild applause and even standing ovations from his audience, but in reality, his talk was greeted with respectful, yet subdued interest.
He touched on the technology advances that are available to the working driver and answered many questions about how the driver can connect to the Internet from his truck cab with Wi-Fi. There was also quite a bit of audience interest about XM satellite radio.
At the close of the formal presentations, drawings were held for prizes donated by Landstar, Alumi-Bunk, Espar of Michigan and Expediters Online.
In addition to the typical refreshments offered to the audience, Jeff Garra donated ten pizzas to the affair, so no one walked away hungry.
Lawrence McCord says, "This expediting workshop was a great opportunity to not only help introduce people to the emergency freight business, but also to meet some of the visitors to Expediters Online."
"We've been involved with this series of Landstar Express America's workshops since the beginning and we're very grateful to be a part of these events. I think that they provide a valuable service to the prospective expediter and to the owner-operator already in the business."
He adds, "All of the speakers here tonight had real-world information to share and we hope that, in the near future, we'll see some of the people we met tonight out there in an expediting truck and enjoying a successful career."
Jeff Garra of LEA agrees: "We really appreciate the great job the speakers do at our seminars, we couldn't do this without them!"
"I believe that possibly half of the attendees at this event are looking to get into the expediting business and in the relaxed atmosphere of these workshops, they can gather facts about the business."
"These events are not intended to be a Landstar recruiting meeting, but a gathering of business professionals who can help people looking into a career in this kind of trucking."
"During our series, we've had people from other expedited carriers attend our events and we encourage those other companies to join with us to get the word out about what expedite freight is and what we can do to help small business owners."