Your thoughts on a lease program

I think you have other things to focus on than becoming a pay clerk for a lease company.

Call me monday later in the day if you care to. I'll leave it at that.

 

Actually the business model is evolving. We've got 7/24 dispatch now and they actively work to get loads. And these are good paying loads if one takes care in where they choose to venture. I think this is a great thing for owners who might have a more difficult time of it self dispatching but still have the willingness to learn. It still comes down to, you get out of it what you put into it and nothing comes easy. Anyhow, the way things seem to be going it's only a matter of time before direct comes more into play here. But it's crazy to dismiss out of hand the "newer" way of doing business anymore, "partnering up" with other carriers. We recently partnered up with a huge expedite carrier that has me real excited about the future. I don't know if I'm even at liberty to say who it is as they have not been accepting any "partner carriers" for a few years now and are very picky about who works for them keeping very close tabs on service records. My concerns are that many people reading this and following my posts think this is easy, it's not, and one has to be very picky about who they lease on.

 

Not everyone cares to be in the expedite business. It's not the only model out there and not everyone lives in those areas.

 

Why make snarky comments like that? I never said they did and never made any claims it was. The majority of these new avenues of freight, and loads from dispatch, are not expedited freight and that is the direction it seems F2F is moving towards in a big way. Expedite is there if one wants to exploit it. We do have great connections there but keep in mind auto freight is only a "segment" of expedite. There are many other expedited segments all over the country it's not limited to any certain area. Some are better than others but anyone living near an international airport has the chance to exploit time sensitive freight if they beat some bushes.

 

Because you care to expound the wonder of expedite every time the subject comes up with what people want to do. Consider it snarky if you want, I don't care. It's not for everyone, just like reefer is not for everyone.

Since I got the reefer and moved to the new company, my gross revenue has gone up 70-80 CPM in traditionally the WORST months of the year. We haven't even gotten into the good seasons yet. And I haven't even gotten into hauling produce yet.

Feb my average for the month including my last week with F2F was $2.32 gross, $1.96 TO the truck. Already this month, I am over $2.20 per mile ALL miles for March. And that's just this past week. Still pulling loads off the load board just like always. And even staying closer to home now.


One thing I truly love of this new company over F2F. The synergy between drivers is incredible. We each talk with the other several times a day. We are calling the other with Broker information all the time and sharing rates AND locations. Each trying to piece together a puzzle with the other to make things work for 4 trucks that will maximize the profit for the company AND the individual trucks. That synergy wasn't there with F2F. Drivers didn't seem to want to work with each other and reach out and share what was happening.

We share what is happening with our equipment even to make sure that we are all aware of our readiness.

I even went so far as to share broker emails AND a Google map to show all my brokers where trucks were in the country for F2F. No one cared to really embrace it. Sobeit. The fact remains, it was a synergistic attempt to improve not only the company, but the individual drivers situations.

People join with others to work together. In one form or another. I would love to hear that people are sharing their locations with others or someone in the office picked up that little project. I had a lot of phone calls from brokers when I use it.

 

Most drivers at F2F want nothing to do with expedite. That's fine but on occasion some of them do run it. Mike and I were working some expedite in one area for several weeks and Erin came up there and worked it too. Bobby works it from time to time. I think Jess and John do as well. I think most people here are content to do their own thing. But if you really want to talk to someone there's a phone list with everyone's cell on it. I heard from you a few days before you leased on and then never again. If you had any questions about rates or lanes I'd have been glad to share that with you. I do send out some contacts from time to time with available freight. As do others. I don't necessarily give out ALL of the contacts I've made, those were hard earned, but if someone needs some help I will try to help as best I can. And why in the world would I let you see where I'm trucking when you said you were going to get your own authority very soon? Why would anyone do that? It's like once in a while you make it a point to make some smart alleck comment at me about something I post when I wasn't even talking to you specifically. The real kicker was that last email you sent me before you quit, what was that all about? If you don't have anything nice to say kindly don;t say anything at all. Apologies for derailing the thread...

 

i started out leasing from the mega-carriers, and i made a pretty good living (no elogs, we are allowed freedom to run) and i made money

the problem is, as is typical, GREED by the owners (not profit, but greed)

if you are leasing a truck to a driver, then dont make him work 5days just to pay the lease payment, dont make him have to NEVER go home to make the lease payment

put yourself in his shoes, with the conditions he has to deal with, and work it as a program from the bottom up

make as much money as you want, but strive to be fair, treat that driver as you would want to be treated, if your focus is solely profit, then you will fall into the same category as the rest of them

but if its to make a decent profit with an understanding that your driver is a human with family and expenses, it should not be that hard