Best Place For A Flatbed?

Fiberglass and kittyhair mats should be able to fix that. Its not like its a stress point in the hood.

 

When you stop to think about it, the relationship between a carrier and owner operator is more like a partnership. But there does seem to be more of a dependency relationship with the owner operators on the carriers.

When we try new things we often need to feel our way through the process. It is a learning experience. I think that when you are upfront and honest that will come across to the other person. I think you will go through some trial and error to find out what works best for you and those to whom you lease on to your authority.

 

07-379Pete,
After making some comments about people and percentages I have to be honest and say that sometimes 75% is better than 95%. It is all about what the gross starts as and what fees are included. That is my way of saying that you can't look at every deal based on just those percentages. You have to look at the net. While I am very aware of that when talking miles vs. rate per mile I was forgetting that in this discussion.

I am a business man first. And from what you have described and agreed to, they are not making enough money to make what they are doing with you worth while. It sounds like it works for them but to be floating $20-$30K to you for $4-5K alone is crazy. Then you add that they have to add labor on to that. If they ever stopped and looked at the business they would see that they are losing money on the O/O's.

Sure It is a great deal for you but just on the labor of invoicing and collects alone they lose money. And that doesn't account for the risk factor. Not hammering here. Just don't kid yourself that what you listed is all they have at risk.

You are getting factoring, credit and collections, dispatching and all compliance for 5%. That is a h ell of a deal for you.

 

Well first off they aint floating 20k on me......I dont work that hard for that to happen. At best maybe 10K. And at the end of the year they will have made 10~12K off of me. There is 4 people in the office taking care of 12 trucks total, all family members these people were farmers before starting a trucking company that was only needed for there farm in the beginning and has grown from that.
They have never looked at every truck on a inadvisable basses only all of them as whole.
Sure if I was the only truck working for them they would starve.
But with the company trucks and the O/O's together there making a nice living. The company drivers make 25% of gross and gross is with the fuel surcharge added. Show me a company that will do that for there drivers.
Like I said I'm making $1.84 year-to-date per mile for every single mile I drive this truck. Find me a place that can better that and I'll give it about 5 mins of my time in thinking about leasing on there. Evey time I see a ad for SRT wanting lease trucks for .95cents a mile I laugh my ### off.
Liars, thieves and greed has run a muck in trucking for years now and it truly nice to work for some one who wont.

 

Hood isn't fiberglass like the older ones. The newer lightweight hoods are some weird plastic which is good because everyone said that had it been fiberglass it would have taken the whole fender off . The local body shop (right next door to our shop conveniently) had the 3M rep come look at it. I forget what the material is called but he had what it takes to fix it. Everyone is worried about rocks from the tire, ice hanging from it and all the abuse it will take being behind the wheel.

BESL agent around here got taken over by Precision Strip Transport. Haven't heard from anyone if that was a good thing.

 

So thats why the broken parts look kinda thin in the pics. I didnt know they(KW) had changed the make up on there hoods. Your right, running thru slushy snow would pound the hell out of it where its busted.

Thats were all them trucks came from so fast. I thought they were having a leasing blitz going on for a while. Dale in Middletown keeps asking me to lease on with them. I know they sure put some older trucks on.

 

So based on you numbers, you truck is grossing $240k and you are running 2,400/miles per week? And they are getting paid within two-weeks on their accounts? Now the gross and miles I believe but if you are not pulling that much direct business then the amount of float I find hard to believe. Unless you are pulling hoppers then most pay 30-days out.

Maybe it is your wording and not your intentions. But they are not MAKING $10-12K off of you this year. Reality is they are losing money on you and don't know it. Just the labor on invoicing and collections alone takes what you generate for them.

You have a sweet deal and you know it.

I find this very interesting in that my operation grew from a farm operation. I was driving for a farmer. He needed an extra truck for harvest and I wanted out of the year round farming. So he financed my operation. In a short time it was going well and we hired a driver and added a second truck. First load is tomorrow. I am actively looking for O/O's and would like to get to about 10 drivers by next year.

We are focusing on helping farmers put a truck to work year round. And because of this we are getting great interest from shippers that have ties to farming.

 

Wanted to add, Family Farmers are one of the few honest and fair business people out here. The farmer I worked for and that is now my business partner would have partnered with me for only having me available for harvest. My truck and trailer is financed at 6% and he is not looking for anything from the added trucks other than make a fee for what money is loaned to cover operating costs.

Personally, I would not accept that and give him a cut of the all my operations that he has helped with. That is fair.

If anyone is looking to lease onto someone and has the opportunity to work with farm operations you will be surprised at how easy and fair these people are to work with.

 

No no no.............Hell no. I aint working that #### hard LMAO
For this year til now I've only drove a little over 44000 miles. If you read back a few posts I said I'll be lucky if I bust 100,000 miles this year. I only worked 3 or 4 days in Jan maybe 2 1/2 weeks in Feb. You will be hard pressed to get me to stay out much over 2 or 3 weeks at best. My choice not theirs. I'm a lazy #### remember............ And I dont think the labor of making a bill invoice on the loads I haul is gonna break them maybe they spend 10 mins a week on that task.
They are the one that made up the lease not me and after three years I think they would said something to me or the other 4 by now. Like I said as long as I pay my Ins. they could care less if I ever haul a load.
If I think of it I will tell you to the penny what they made off me at the end if the year.

Best of luck to you and your new company.

 

Back when I first started there were a lot of drivers who came from farming.