Are random strings of numbers more believable than rounded off numbers?

CRE England plus Dollar General. Ah man that gives me the shakes. Makes me think of my first beer goggle lay. Don't do it.

 

Yes, oddly specific numbers are more convincing to most people than an even number.
One of the tricks I've been noticing since I started listening to the trucking channel on Sirius/XM are company ads where they quote numbers, excluding up to half of their drivers. "The top 50% of our drivers average over $X per week/month/year." If you ignore half of your drivers you will skew the "average" considerably.

 

If Dollar General account drivers were averaging numbers like that you would have a hard time getting hired for that account. Instead, brand new rookies are thrown into the lion's den of dollar type stores and then are quickly replaced by next month's brand new rookies. Dollar type stores are always some of the highest turnover accounts any company tries to fill.

 

When I was job hunting recently they just told what their top driver made. I asked what the average driver made. I aint looking to kill myself to beat the top driver. But I am always gonna be above average. So thats my number. And I am on track to be well above average in my first year here. But not even close to beating the top guy or two. Just like I figured.

 

Ironically, it's quite the opposite. These mega carriers are so inefficient at managing things that these dedicated and local positions are so grossly overpaid it's not even funny. Especially in the local positions at drop yards where drivers I know take home over $1,500 a week just to deliver loads OTR guys dropped off, or pick up loads for OTR drivers to take out of the yard. They aren't even on some dedicated accounts, local pick up and delivery, or anything involving real work that other local jobs entail. They waste a ton of miles just driving around checking if pre-loads are ready yet, moving empties around, etc. while making more than the OTR drivers hauling actual freight. The same thing with these dedicated runs. Lots of short miles so nobody wants to leave OTR or regional to do them so they start adding on all these bonuses for drops, live loads, etc. just like the local drivers get. Now they're also taking home close to $2,000 a week. Meanwhile the suckers still on OTR or regional running the SAME loads as the dedicated accounts (because planning and operations is literally that bad) are busting ### for 3,000 miles a week to not even take home $1,000.

At least that's how it was at Roehl. These large carriers are just a massive ball of #### being rolled down a hill getting larger and larger. They have no real business model, no plan, just increase volume, secure freight contracts, etc.

 

Secure enough freight to starve out competition, hope you have enough cash flow to survive the inevitable depression, profit on the other side.