Farm2Fleet 2016

Ive heard this also. Makes ya think there must be cash flow problems. Hope bill gets it straightened out. He seems to be a good guy.

 

Thank you @d o g

The 2nd half of 2015 has been a struggle for us just like everyone else in this industry. As the leader of the company, it was my responsibility to make sure that the company was focused on the areas that we needed to focus on. Regardless what was posted, medical issues resulting from a complication from an eye surgery the first week of August impacted my focus considerably. The combination of the constant pain and the uncertainty as I was losing my sight made me a completely ineffective leader. That is on me and I have taken complete responsibility for problems that this has caused our partners.

Some of the problems we have been dealing with I can say with 100% certainty I would have addressed much sooner, with significantly less impact, had Lauren and I been more involved during this period. This alone would have made the issues around market conditions less impactful.

But there is a fine line between excuses and information. When a business is facing challenges I take the position that it is better to over communicate even though you risk having that communication coming across as an excuse. We have made our share of mistakes, even when it comes to communicating, but we try and learn from those mistakes, adapt and move forward.

Our business model presents certain challenges. We are committed to being 100% self-dispatch (non-forced dispatch) and in November as we saw our average revenue per truck drop off significantly we made a strategic decision to go after more dedicated and project freight.

But the challenge of our business model is that when you get freight then you have to cover it. So as we had larger opportunities we would reach out to our partners to see who would be interested in running this freight. More often than not we would get responses that told us not to purse these opportunities. Since we don't have brokerage we have no outlet to move the freight so we pass on it.

And like any other sales activities, you have to bid significantly more than you win. It's a numbers game. And even when awarded business, until you pull the first loads the incumbent carrier is in position of strength.

But we have won dedicated business and project freight. We have 10%+ of our fleet running dedicated freight. In the next couple weeks that number will grow again and by April that number will be in the 40% range.

As all of you can see that when you are communicating with people on a mass scale that you will never get the perfect balance for everyone. Some will see it as an excuse or way to manipulate people into certain actions. Others take it for what it has always been intended to be, an open and honest communication about the market, challenges, opportunities and failures.

While Lauren and I faced the toughest year of our life both personally and professionally we are able to hold our heads up high. We have dealt with our issues head on (with the exception of about a 2 1/2 month period as I was feeling sorry for myself). And we have been rewarded with an overwhelmingly show of grace, compassion and support from our partners. It is these people that have given me the strength to get up and work harder. They are the reason that I found the courage to continue to fight.

 

I wanted to post this in a separate post because it is safety related.

From about mid-October until about two-weeks ago when my right eye was tested at 20/50 (legal to drive) I had not driven.

 

Thanks for clearing things up. If I ever leave sni , Farm2fleet would be definitely on my list.

 

First class, stand up guy right there. Good luck to you @BigBadBill . That's the kind of person every owner operator should want to work with.

 

@BigBadBill you're not going to be invited for golf as much now. Congrats on the recovery!

 

But we have won dedicated business and project freight. We have 10%+ of our fleet running dedicated freight. In the next couple weeks that number will grow again and by April that number will be in the 40% range.

For prospective drivers - can you expand upon this ?

 

Well done - that's the way I've always liked to do things. Finance if you have to, then hammer the beast down.