Kevin Rutherford? Good info or not?

He may have started independent, but he hasn't been on his own for a LONG time. Sounds like he didn't have what it took to be fully independent, otherwise those trucks would say Kevin Rutherford Trucking on the door instead of FedEx. He's all about maximizing profits, right? So if he could be more profitable going independent, why hasn't he been running his own trucking company for the last 20 years instead of being leased to FedEx?

BTW, what ever happened to the full rebuild of that T-600, and what about putting a truck on with Landstar? He was really going to strut his stuff with those two projects. Those were the 2 things that I was most interested in how they were going to turn out, and he just dropped them, never to be mentioned again. If they didn't pan out the way he thought they would, why didn't he just own it and admit it wasn't one of his better ideas?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...he's trying to perpetuate the myth that he is never wrong.

 

you said he's all about profit.

we all know what a pain it is to run your own authority. a lot of us would rather contract out. money is better, and faster.

there are quite a few companies in utah contracted with fed ex. they are always hiring though. so i don't know the inside story.

as far as landstar goes. i haven't been hearing or reading a lot of good things with them lately. so, maybe that explains his profit story. landstar don't fit his plan.

some of us don't quite agree with the man some times. but let's be realistic.

he's probably making more money then any of us will ever see.

how many of you are paying to use his profit gauges? for example.

 

I heard him saying the other day that he is doing a seminar for the large brokerages,Landstar, CHRW, and not sure who else , I think he said at their request to tell them how to work with O/O's more effectively, not sure if this is good or bad.

 

Why does one necessarily have to meet the standard of "fully independent" to have a well run and profitable business? That sounds more like ego than the best business model. There are thousands of business' that have contracted with other larger business' and came away hugely successful. A person having his equipment contracted to another business is not that big of a deal. And can be almost or more profitable than being on your own as an independent. Sometimes it just doesn't make sense to reinvent the wheel. Donald Trump is an Independent is some areas, but also contracts with other business' in other areas. Depends on the situation. And he is raking it in. This "you just aint a real trucker unless you are independent" stuff is getting old and sounds more like the "my dad can beat up your dad" kid stuff. It begs the question as to why, per capita, more "independent" operators lost their trucking operation in this last recession than contract operators?

I can't account for all the KR has said over his lifetime. That is outside my pay grade. On some things, I just don't agree with KR. I think that Warren Buffett is a loon also, but I don't throw out everything he says since he has made more money than most anyone else and is in the top 5 richest people in the world.

There is no doubt that many have increased their profit margin doing some of the stuff that KR has mentioned. Some of the stuff does not fit all operations. You have to think things thru a little. But some, for some reason I can't figure out, have a almost psychotic hatred of the man and will not allow what is being said to filter thru that. As opposed to some believing KR is a saint come to rescue mankind, they feel he is the Devil incarnate.

Look, some business models are such that using other business' to do the "leg work" makes more sense than hiring employees and doing it yourself. A truck owner can, if he uses his brain, make a truck operate more profitable than any fleet can do it. A fleet does not have the flexibility to try new things like an smaller operation does. Why not farm out the details to someone else and concentrate on running the bigger operation? Lets see....... Ford does it, Chrysler does it, GM does it, GE does it, Apple computer does it, etc. Ever hear of Lear Seating? They are not "independent". They contract with the auto manufacturers in a similar business model as a truck owner contracts with a carrier. Details are different, sure, but the model is similar. The big auto maker specifies the details and oversees the final result, but the contract manufacturer does all the dirty work. Show me how that is much different of a business model than a contract owner op. The only real problem of too much control by the carrier is more a matter of government regulatory mandates than the carrier actually wanting to exert so much control on a operator.

Ya know, your local community college does offer entry level business courses. Might want to look into one of them sometime.

 

You are right. I was thinking return on investment when I read that because this is an impossible number for a Fedex mileage lease with employee driving. Only way you can even think of making this work is if you accounted for no equipment cost and just had employee costs, fuel costs, maintenance costs and various fixed costs.

Or, and this is very possible, he has a special deal on the rate he is getting paid from FedEx. But then if that was the case stating these numbers is not really a good example to put out for people, is it.

 

So here is my question. For contractors on a mileage lease, they keys ways to be more profitable are to decrease expenses and/or run more miles.

Carriers are going to make record profits this year because rates have increased and all indications are they will stay that way for several years.

So why wouldn't someone giving advice to these business owners be jumping up and down about moving to a good percentage lease?

 

I had to laugh when he told that driver it was safe to let it rev up to 3000 RPM's on a down grade.

 

What in anything I've said here leads you to believe that I would benefit from "entry level" business courses?

I'll let you in on a little secret...the truck I drive myself nets me 25% after I pay myself 25% of the gross revenue in driver's wages. In short, I'm personally keeping 50% of the revenue my truck makes...and I don't have to get 7 miles to the gallon to do it. Add on top of that the 4 other trucks our company owns, the 8 other trucks we have leased to us, and the 5 trucks we regularly broker to. Wanna know the best part? It all got started 9 years ago this May with ONE truck bought with borrowed money.

So, specifically what courses do you think I should sign up for???

 

Anybody remember when KR was trying to pawn off his fed ex account and trucks on ebay? For a million dollars! Lol

 

If your intentions are to be a 1 truck show and not pursue growing your operation, leasing to a carrier is the smarter move. 1 truck independent operations seldom can offer the volume that can command higher rates from direct customers. Conversely, if you have ambitions to grow beyond 2 to 3 trucks, you should (if you have the business ability) be running as a carrier for yourself. You would be wrong to assume I put being independent on a pedestal and look down on those who don't follow that path. I'll agree with you that leasing to a carrier is the more prudent move for the vast majority of o/o's out there today.

My comments aimed at KR were in regards to a previous poster wishing to hear more discussion from him regarding shippers, brokers, rates, regulatory issues, etc. Those topics are obviously more in the realm of the independent o/o, and I was simply pointing out that KR hasn't been independent for along time, and could possibly be why he doesn't expand on those topics as he has limited experience in those areas.

I don't have a hatred for him. I wouldn't even say I dislike him. I do get turned off by his arrogance at times. The little guy's got an ego, and he doesn't make an effort to keep it in check. His endorsement of a product means squat to me, as he showed his hand when he backed the Turbo 3000D, and when he jumped on the Evans coolant bandwagon before proper testing/research could be done on it's effects.

I trust his financial advice, and agree wholeheartedly with almost all of his ideas on improving fuel mileage. (Except for when he once told a caller to put a Pittsburgh Power Box on a B model Cat lol!) He's got sound business sense, too.

I guess you could say my biggest complaint about him is when he really gets a project going that we all could learn something from, including the problems associated with it (think the full rebuild of the T600 I mentioned earlier). If it doesn't go as well as he envisioned it to, he just abandons it, and neglects to inform his audience as to why. What derailed the project? Did it go over budget? Did the truck turn out to be a poor candidate for rebuild? What was the reason? He obviously learned something from that venture whether it was good or bad...why didn't he feel the need to share his experience with his audience? He's good at sharing every detail when a project is a success - why not when it's a failure?