My Rant As A Independent Carrier

It is the way of the world my friend. I'm in central Texas so my outbound has dropped dramatically over past years. But with o/o working for as little as $1.10 per mile and company drivers in the .25 range nowadays with some of these companies it is definitely affecting things. Just have 2 try and find a good direct route or a semi honest broker that has a pretty reliable shopper with weekly runs. But it varies. 1 week I might get over $2.00 on a run into a favorable area. Next week might get $1.40 into a bad area. It is tough and just depends how willing you are 2 sit and find better loads or just take something 2 get 2 different area.

 

I have direct customers, some have no problem paying my rate-some piss & moan that they are too high. All my shipments are LTL, so the ones that complain, I just tell them to call Roadway or Conway and see what happens to their freight.. lol

 

Best philosophy there is 4 us. We aren't selling a truck and rate, we are selling a personal touch and gurantee of service and personnel compared 2 some mega with a guy who can't even straight line back and arrives in flips and a wife beater with no shower for 3 days... the customers that understand that are the ones I am willing 2 bend over backwards 2 keep.

 

Dude, I got to tell you that many don't give a crap about the personal touch when it comes to the truck, they care that they get the product off their docks and out to their customer. Personal touch stuff comes into play when there is a problem that has cropped up.

You are selling capacity, nothing else. Unless they want exclusive use of that truck, it is always about capacity.

 

It's also about accessibility. Had a customer call me Thurs. while I was loading in Commerce, he was in Santa Fe Springs, asked me if I could pick up today. I said I would and be down in about 2 hrs. Saved his butt and customer got their chairs on Friday before lunch.

 

This has been going on for a long time. Nothing new other then it has affected YOU personally. This happens in all business types. Even small donut shops deal with competition reality at some point.

You had a good thing going. Thing is you're not the only one in the business, and others are hungry where perhaps you became complacent and took things for granted?

Adapt, integrate, join, or get out.

 

Maybe in the bulk commodity junk loads. But when it comes to high value product and stuff that has to be there at x time or they lose thousands, service means something. By personal touch we don't mean buying them dinner and sending them xmas cards, we mean they know they got an operator that won't damage their product and it will arrive when it needs to be there instead of when its convenient for the carrier.

 

Exactly what came to mind...but I suspect introspection is not on the to do list...

Prolly "other people's fault"...

 

This will be an unpopular opinion, but an honest one: the days of independents is in the past. There are some hanging on, but In reality they can't compete forever against corporations. Look at the independent truck stops. They have parking at 2am for a reason. It's not just trucking either. Megas can sell for less than your overhead. Period. Swift makes a profit charging 1.10 a mile. O/O can't beat that. Customers care about price 1st and 2nd. Service and speed is a distant 3rd