Please Explain This To Me

sdaniel · Sep 26, 2013

BookingYou19 said: ↑

I get what your saying, it isnt a dock on the carrier for good service. The customer wants it by a certain date, we have to call and work around a schedule to get an appointment for the carrier to get there a day early and a lot of times customers dont want the product early. So it is a lot of work to get the carrier a new appointment, Why would I want to go do all that work for free?

I'm saying, why do we have to pay you layover for an extra day if it is the same amount of miles? You cant use the miles and the time argument at the same time, it is one or the other.
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So some holds you at gun point for a day , that ok ?

BookingYou19 · Sep 26, 2013

That sounds like a brutal experience. But i ask you, doesnt everyone on planet earth who drives to work runs that risk? I was driving to work going 60 MPH West and the other side of the HIghway is running East. A woman texting hit the guard rail and sent a 4x4 through my windshield over my left (yes left) shoulder across my chest. Could have gone right through the back of my head. Everyone who drives runs those risks. I wasnt saying every haul is a road trip, I was using the same weak sarcasm as the guy before me to prove a point. Driving that much would be tough and I would go nuts not being able to bounce around. But i drive over 2.5 hrs round trip every day for work, in MN! try driving every single day in traffic in the snow! So, the driving is dangerous excuse just falls short with me I guess.

gokiddogo · Sep 26, 2013

BookingYou19 said: ↑

OK dont take it too far. No one is going to call for cheaper fuel. But if you dont think you should give up money for ti coming n grossly underweight, dont expect money when it comes in over weight. Why would someone be willing to deal with you if you arent willing to deal with them?
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....
If the shipper has asked for you to find a truck to load say 44,000 of produce .. I have to assume you give him a rate accordingly ... If he asks for a truck to load 22,000 of produce ... I assume you give him a rate accordingly ... You and I then agree on the information we are given by the shipper. When I show up and he loads 44 but promised 22, it does not lie with you, it is the shippers problem, and it should not be you that has to cater to him. This is where you call him and say "what is the deal, the truck has every right to be asking for more coin here, seeing as I promised him what you told me he is expecting to get loaded, and now you (shipper) are changing the game." It is just impossible for it to work in the reverse. When he promises 44 and loads 22, he still pays the price as if he loaded 44. That does not entitle you to a larger cut of the pie. All it does is slightly lowers the carrier's expense to move the load.

BookingYou19 · Sep 26, 2013

RedForeman said: ↑

Doing these tit-for-tat rebuttals isn't my usual style, but this thread got my interest.

I didn't say I wasn't making money. Just making a point about how cash flow intensive and how easy moving loads is versus selling them. There's a lot of things I could be doing to get paid that are less stressful in some ways, more so in others. Right now I could drop an email to my old I/T colleagues and be on a six figure project management job in under a month. Crazy, right? Don't think I haven't been tempted a time or three. The catch is that, in exchange for that apparently easy money, I go back to doing a job that I truly dislike day to day. For reasons I dislike even more than the crap I put up with running a trucking business.

Driver is just part of the job, typically the easiest. The point wasn't just having to take care of personal business in a sub-human manner. More about having to suffer that daily while running a business. It's very easy for you to draw a comparison to camping. Try actually doing it for days on end, then get back to us.

Never said you didn't. In this regard, we are about even.

There it is. Thanks for answering my question. On this I'm kind of on the fence. I would expect claims to documented well enough to go to the party that is responsible. That's why I take pictures and supply my customer with the details they need to push a claim back on a shipper or consignee, and not onto my invoice as a discount. On the other hand, if I cause a claim, I own it and pay for it.

So why are you paying for all that? Are you just generous? Or are you having trouble doing the follow up? I can imagine some of that is taking the lower cost option. For example just paying for a $50 case of product versus spending the time making a dozen phone calls and filing reports that would consume a lot more than $50 of your time.

On the other hand, if you're paying detention and layovers that you don't get from your customers, is that a cost you endure to buy the business? In other words, is this something you recoup via a higher rate or volume (embedded cost) versus having it out there as a line item that is collected and passed through?

I guess what I'm trying to get at is: are these costs avoidable or planned? I would never expect someone to be stupid enough to just pay it out, no more than I would expect myself to just run a load for free.

You're mistaken. We have those costs too. And then some.

Yes, keeping the wheels turning is another of my jobs. What you will never grasp is that it is so unlike your example of commuting to work or taking a road trip. I'll concede that on good days it can come close to that. When it happens I try not to dwell on the good time and jinx it.

The paragraph about chair breakdowns was only making the point that there are some not-so-easy and very cashflow intensive things about operating a truck that someone who's never experienced them first hand would ever have a clue about. If all you've done is register and insure your private auto and drive it to and from an office, that's all you have to go on. I get that.

Before getting into trucking, I had some experience around commercial equipment as well as a mechanical background. I only thought I had a clue. It's on a whole 'nuther level than a personal car, or even construction equipment. Until you have to go through the daily setbacks involved, law enforcement hassles, and stand at the cashier window paying a bill that turned out thousands more than you imagined it could be, you have no idea.

I never said your job was easy. One of the reasons I disliked project management is something you get to do daily: be responsible for work done by other people that have little or no stake in your success. I also dislike the sales side of things. I can tolerate the little bit I do, but wouldn't have good mental health having to step it up to 50 or 100 times my current level. Some people thrive on that. It gives me chest pains even thinking about it.

My points were that the job of brokering is less cash intensive on a day-to-day basis (not overall, as I already stated) and required less sacrifice of personal amenities or dignity. When I have a problem, I try not to put you (my customer) in a bind and respect the job you do. I only ask that you do the same when you come to me with changes.

All that said, the best brokers I deal with were either in trucking at one time, or are currently also carriers running their own trucks. With them, there is no doubt they understand what it takes to deliver the load and always meet me halfway.

What I'd challenge you to do would be to take a week on the road with your best owner operator carrier, if you can stand each other for that long. Get a taste for running your business over a cell phone and limited mobile wifi, in an office that is a little bigger than a refrigerator box and is moving at random times. I think you may learn a few things that would empower your own business by a large margin. Or maybe end up chopped into pieces and stuffed into random garbage cans in five states LOL.
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I'd be in the garbage cans for sure, or intensive care.

spyder7723 · Sep 26, 2013

bullhaulerswife said: ↑

Let me tell you about a little "Road Trip" with my husband one time. We were coming out of KC one night and getting on I70 as a one ton dually dodge pickup with his lights out sped past us with only rims on the front of the pickup running on the ground. (he'd already been stop sticked at least once) He was throwing asphalt everywhere and actually several pieces came up and hit the windshield of our truck, and one broke off the bug deflector. Just seconds after that, several LEO's came speeding around us to catch the perp, by this time, I'm shaking, hubby has slowed and gotten word out to drivers in front of us to watch for this psycho with no lights and no front tires. This proceeded for several miles, every off ramp had LEO's covering it. We were well behind the chase, when we got to the Odessa exit for the rest area that is specifically for truckers, this idiot had apparently taken that exit, gone between the trucks to the back of the lot and tried to cross the grass there to get to another access road. By the time we'd caught up with the action, there were probably 30 some LEO's surrounding all the trucks that were taking their 10 there. Nice wakeup call, huh? Wonder how many of those guys hearts were in their throats after being woken up like that?

Yeah, now that's a "Road Trip". LOL Did I mention that we still had several hours driving to do to get to our destination? All I wanted to do was stop and collect my thoughts, but hubby kept going, as I'm shaking like a leaf from the whole ordeal.

What would have happened if he'd rolled that thing in front of us? He basically was using us as a shield to keep out of the LEO's eye shot.

You have no idea what these guys see everyday from their windshields, and how many of these "close calls" happen in just a weeks time for them, and they keep their cool, react to protect the public, themselves, the equipment and also the load and still manage to keep going as if nothing really happened.

Honestly, I couldn't do it.
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and that can happen to any average Joe on his way to our from the office. or some co worker can go postal and show up at the office with a loaded ak47. life has risks. furthermore, not every driver reacts as calmly as your husband to these things, the majority of truck drivers are far from cool calm professionals.

BookingYou19 · Sep 26, 2013

RedForeman said: ↑

PS: Kudos for staying active on the forum and following up on your thread as you have. Whether we admit it or not, the insight is valuable. Don't take it too personal and vanish as many others before you have.
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LOL I like getting into how the other half thinks. Helps me stay cool in situations where I would have blown up before. It is good to get the info i have gathered not only on this thread. Yeah sometimes we go at it, but thats part of the debate.

gokiddogo · Sep 26, 2013

The driving to and from work argument holds no water whatsoever. Truck drivers also commute to their trucks/yard/whatever.

bullhaulerswife · Sep 26, 2013

I understand that, but he made it sound like driving a truck is one big vacation, and honestly, there are more of these kinds of instances than I care to think about. In the two years I went with my husband on the truck, I cannot think of a single week that SOMETHING didn't happen to make my heart end up pounding.

The responsibilities and thought process to work through these types of things are totally different than a daily commuter or a road tripper.

BookingYou19 · Sep 26, 2013

sdaniel said: ↑

So some holds you at gun point for a day , that ok ?
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What are you talking about? Make sense before you post please.

RedForeman · Sep 26, 2013

BookingYou19 said: ↑

That sounds like a brutal experience. But i ask you, doesnt everyone on planet earth who drives to work runs that risk?
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Yes. We get to see it more often than once in a while since we cover about 5 times the miles that an average commuter does. Takes it from something that is a scary, random event to something you hope doesn't happen on this trip.

Also, never underestimate the talent of your fellow Minnesotans. At least it snows often enough that the ones that don't know what to do in it are already dead. Come down south during our next ice storm and witness the bald tire and water for antifreeze miracles that abound.

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