How is life different as an Expediter?

[fired up trucker]

Originally Posted by takteam

We are a 53 foot van and started out expediting, but we wanted to try the more planned trip process with Landstar. We loved the expediting! It was exciting to get load alerts and scramble off into the night...often without showers. You have to be well rested and eat when you are able, so you are ready for the unexpected. We always had to be within 15 minutes for deliveries and communication is so important. We had one error when we had bad batteries in Quebec, and they replaced our batteries with bad inappropriate batteries...at a Volvo Dealer! It is challenging getting loads in directions you may wish to go...like to events or home runs. We were 600 miles away from home when our daughter had her baby and received no help to get home. We had to deadhead! They would not allow us to back haul.

This is a joke isn't it?

[MUSTANGGT]

Originally Posted by RickG

Accepted availability is 75% . Many run 3 weeks out then take a week off .

I would really like having that option. I am forced to work full time to maintain my benefits, but could do ok on less income.

[takteam]

We worked harder as expeditors than we do for Landstar. There are times you sit, but the running makes up for it!!!

[tjpohio777]

I made over 130k last year expediting, driving a Sprinter van, that of course is before gas tolls maintenece, and payments, so I cleared after taxes 58k!!! So I dont know what calling Expediting for lazy homeless people is all about.....

[theladypenguin]

I like to work & stay busy expediting is for everybody but the driver. If the wheels ain't turning there is no money for the driver. I am out here to make a living & I have been an OTR Truck Driver for years. I got into this so called expediting ( I hate that word) & this will cost you everything you ever worked for & will take away everything you ever had or wanted out of life away from you. Believe that. It will also take away the most precious thing your family & your privacy. Yep & nobody cares how long you stay out here without time at home or without your privacy either. They secretly laugh behind your back for being so stupid. Never the less I am out here though. Well it won't be too awfully long & this too will dry up. It's dangerous to put your life at risk out on the road with yourself behind the wheel let alone having some else drive you down the road.

Sir I don't believe you. I owned a big rig & I never paid for QC, cargo ins tolls or any of the other things these expediting companies charge an owner for that amount to around $180.00 per week. These expediting companies ARE NOT COMPANIES > They are BROKERS.


My only expense was fuel, maintenance on my truck, my bob tail insurance $35.00 per month that nobody had control over but me. So if I quit I could still drive my truck & my truck plate that I bought from the state of Ohio I owned it too, it was mine, so if I didn't want to be leased on to the company I was working for I could drive my truck I didn't need any one's permission to do anything. Also I drew my own lines on my own loose leaf log paper, imagine that. It was a privilege for the company I was with to have my truck & myself leased on to them, they treated me that way too. IT WAS NEVER THEIR RIGHT TO HAVE ME LEASED TO THEM. They never treated me like it was either.


I never scheduled home time with any company when I was a company driver or an owner operator that I wasn't there every time on time all the time. Just like I did with their loads. They treated me the same way I did them. Imagine that.

You all so called expediters can't say the same thing for your expediting career. After trying this out I know that this expediting is hair brained & for people that are hair brained. WOULD YOU ALL LIKE SOME CHEESE TO GO WITH YOUR WHINE?

[JahB]

As an Expediter, with all that time sitting around, and that big living quarters on some of those trucks, it could be a good plan to turn one's "hobbies" into a sideline job and enhance the income opportunity! Maybe some have and still do..."hobbies" are funny that way......

[theladypenguin]

My only hobby is making money pal. Who could afford a hobby without money. Well my Daddy taught me that nobody has a degree in common sense. People either have it or they don't.

[gandrew]

This is for ladypenguin: with my B.A. in hand, I worked my career for 25 years and retired from that office crap in 2004. Got my CDL, convinced my wife to get hers and we began expediting, travelling the roads of America and getting paid well to do so. We sold our home in 2006 to be free of the burden of house payment and taxes and risk of break ins. We are grossing well over 100k a year, and before the market collapse we were putting a lot of money in the bank, more than when we "worked". It's a survival game now, and we will make it because our outside debt load is okay. For us, expediting is less a job than it is a lifestyle. I am nomadic by nature and am blessed to have my wife by my side while we wander. Social Security payments begin in October 2009 for me and by 2011 we will be out of debt entirely, except for our ten acres of waterfront woodland in TN. Your criticism of expediting does contain some truths. The companies we lease on with are increasingly just brokers and we, as individual truckers, are of little value. There are just over 200 of us and we are paid less % of the linehaul than the big rigs. Our safety statistics as a group are almost perfect, so the company blended us into the whole company to improve their overall stats. Yes, we see a lot of the crap coming down, just don't know a better way to get paid to travel than this way. That's the great thing about trucking: there seems to be a spot that's just about right for every one of us. If it does not fit us well, then we are free to move to another company and Keep On Trucking!!!

[JimDriv3r]

Originally Posted by theladypenguin

You got what you deserved this is a lazy homeless persons work it's far from a job

That was waaaay from left field and rude.


Also, working as an expedited driver seems more stressful than being a company driver. For those of you that work expedited, is it worth it? I can deal with stress, but if I ever worked expedited I am not sure how long I will last.

[joeyneedlz]

Originally Posted by gandrew

This is for ladypenguin: with my B.A. in hand, I worked my career for 25 years and retired from that office crap in 2004. Got my CDL, convinced my wife to get hers and we began expediting, travelling the roads of America and getting paid well to do so. We sold our home in 2006 to be free of the burden of house payment and taxes and risk of break ins. We are grossing well over 100k a year, and before the market collapse we were putting a lot of money in the bank, more than when we "worked". It's a survival game now, and we will make it because our outside debt load is okay. For us, expediting is less a job than it is a lifestyle. I am nomadic by nature and am blessed to have my wife by my side while we wander. Social Security payments begin in October 2009 for me and by 2011 we will be out of debt entirely, except for our ten acres of waterfront woodland in TN. Your criticism of expediting does contain some truths. The companies we lease on with are increasingly just brokers and we, as individual truckers, are of little value. There are just over 200 of us and we are paid less % of the linehaul than the big rigs. Our safety statistics as a group are almost perfect, so the company blended us into the whole company to improve their overall stats. Yes, we see a lot of the crap coming down, just don't know a better way to get paid to travel than this way. That's the great thing about trucking: there seems to be a spot that's just about right for every one of us. If it does not fit us well, then we are free to move to another company and Keep On Trucking!!!

Grossing 100 grand is not that good. Anybody with a pulse could do that.