Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Joe- thanks for that. It's nice to hear.

I'm not sure what you posted that you pulled, and that's okay. I appreciate the consideration, and the sticking to your word. All too frequently, we see shady on all ends in this industry. Biggest thing I like to see is honesty, though.

Like I said, if you were dealing with me, and hit me up with some advanced time and told me, "Hey man- I just got an offer to pull a load for X dollars higher," where X was some statistically significant amount, I'd probably tell you to go ahead and take that other load. I recognize that this is a business and sometimes there are opportunities that pop up that are too good to pass up. So, in Scooter's case- if that were to happen, and he were dealing with me, given the time that he'd given to recover, if he told me that? No harm, no foul. I don't get too worked up over cancellations. I was for a little while a couple years back, running wire spools out of the Chicago area in dry vans. I'd go through 2-4 cancellations a load before I'd get someone to stick. You learn to roll with it pretty quick.

Edit:

I recognize that in this, I'm probably not the norm in what you guys deal with. I'm only offering my own perspective here. Obviously, people being people, you're going to get a range of different responses to such things.

 

Our bread and butter jersey run is shut down for a few weeks. Took the last load of wine bottles down on Tuesday. Prob gonna call on a few P&G loads later. See if they're even worth moving the trucks for

 

Just got a call from one of my carriers who's supposed to be picking up for me around lunchtime. Apparently someone shipped something up to my neck of the woods from Chicago, they briefed the receiver, and were good... up until they showed up. Now they're trying to refuse the load because they don't need it. Carrier is working with their customer to try and get something squared away, and called me practically begging for me to hold it. No problem, says I- this can ship tomorrow as a worst case. But it's an interesting conundrum. Hopefully they get it sorted and dropped into a local warehouse or something, but it sounds like shenanigans are afoot.

I have to wonder if that's tied into the Shelter in place order we received that's effective tomorrow at midnight. This whole thing is getting crazy.

 

My friend sat whole day yesterday in PA, because receiver was short on staff. Even though it's a food warehouse and stays open, workers are just afraid to go to work

 

I’m not sure what I’ll be doing next week. I only had three food service deliveries this week out of ten stops. Normally it’s the other way around.
Us foods Memphis looked like they didn’t have any trucks out for delivery. They had trucks and trailers stacked in front of the doors making it hard to get in or out.
Kroger distribution is across the road and there were three city cops parked watching the staging lot. I’m guessing that they may have been a few trailers broken into.

 

Under the new stimulus package it pays better to stay home than to work. None of us will be able to get loaded within a month.

 

Thanks man. I appreciate that.

End of the day, I want to keep good relationships all the way around, and that includes the folks that do work for me. I can't do this job without good drivers, and contrarily, I can't do this job without keeping the customer happy. Those two things tend to go hand in hand.

Now, don't get it twisted. I'm still gonna try and talk you into taking mine. But I'll understand it in the end, and I won't hold it against you. I can say that, because back in 2018 as the rates were climbing, I had one lined up with a fella about two days out. He called me up, and said something along the lines of, "Hey man. I really hate to be that guy who welches on a deal, but I just got an offer for a thousand more on half the miles. I kinda can't pass that up." And sure as ####, he did- he sent me the rate confirmation and everything. I wasn't even mad. I still wound up covering and at the same rate. It's about how it's done as much as anything. I've worked with him a handful of times since then, and will work with him again. I trust him to be honest in his dealings.

Unrelated, but kind of related:

I just had to blacklist a guy with one of my customers on the first load he ever pulled for me because he blew through the receiver's parking lot construction zone and just about hit someone. Quite likely, I won't ever use that guy again. So, goes back to keeping the good drivers happy. It helps that I've started to develop a weird level of recall for who I've worked with, even if it's been a year or two since I've worked with them.