Crunching The Numbers, Am I Missing Something?? (newb)

When we were power only we took the option of quick pay. I think convoy was 2.5 % that they kept for paying quick pay. But we had payment within 3 days of finishing out the load. Convoy is a company that will work with you having brand new authority. JB HUNT on the other hand does not charge any percentage and they have the money into our checking account in 2 days but JB hunt wants you to have 6 months of new authority before they will let you pull their trailers. Since getting our flatbed we did sign up with a factoring company because we were going to California but we chose the loads we want to factor. They take 3.5. % and we’ve maybe used them 6 times. Now that we have been doing flatbed for a short while we have established customers who send us load information every week and generally we will pick up a load for them and of lately they have been having loads come right back to our area and this company pays within 3 days. So those factoring companies and dispatch companies are a waste of money, because you can do all that yourself.

 

You got right to the bones there. I don’t like to be harsh but this is something I find really frustrating. Basically, if Load Broker or Factor are part of your vocabulary find something else to do, because this isn’t the industry for you. It’s that simple. Would you go to work in a factory and hand 30-50% of your paycheque to someone that had nothing to do with you making it? I think I know the answer. So why would investing a quarter of a million dollars in something and hand 30-50% of your revenue to someone who’s only operating cost is a cell phone and a laptop seem like a good idea? You get left with 4/5ths of #### all to pay all the bills out of, and the freight pimps and shylocks are all margin, on the way out to buy themselves a new Mercedes with your money.

 

The only reason we signed up with PDM factoring was because we were going to California with loads but having to reload out in calif we heard of a lot of bull crap loads and we wanted to be paid. Like I said I think we did a total of 6 loads with PDM and in October this year our year is up and we won’t sign up again, and we’ve quit going to Cali so no need to have the factoring. The great thing about trucking is you develop relationships with people you haul for and then they will call on you again and agin. We use to have to look on the load boards all day everyday but now that we’ve been doing it for the past 2 years we have customers that call on us to do their loads and of lately have barely needed the dat board at all. We’ve been blessed our customers have also gave us an increase to haul the loads due to the high prices of fuel so we haven’t had to renegotiate our pay. If you are on time and you are available those customers will be repeat and make your job even easier.

 

That’s the right way to work it. Pick your core customer or customers and service the hell out of them. You guys did, and the phone started to ring. Imagine that. Keep that up and one of those calls will have you out looking for more trucks. That’s how it’s always worked for small carriers. The relationships you build are what protects you from the big guys. Those are what makes freight land on your trucks that someone else would have hauled for less. Sit on a load until you get your truck under it. Or have someone go out and sell something into an oddball area for no more reason than you needed to put a truck there. Sounds like you’ve figured out how to put yourselves on the right trail, and that’s all good.