3 Months with Tri-State in a Cargo Van

Do you really think there is a huge difference between a van and a box?

 

Yes, there is.

And running a flatbed isn't expedite, it is hotshot.

 

All this time I thought it was called LTL. Silly me.

Well, in that case, I guess my 53' step must be hotshot. I'm happy I got that all figured out

 

Not saying one is wrong or right, what difference does it make? Just always assumed big truck loads were expedited and duallies with goosenecks, hauling what's really an expedited load, were referred to as "hotshot"? Broker I work with at times needs class 8 flats and steps to expedite dies in emergency situations, always calls the loads "expedite".

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It's all the same unless the truck is waiting at the shipper for the load and then takes it directly to the customer without stopping. Then it's hotshot.

It doesn't matter if it's in a sprinter or a trailer, but the trailer is capable of holding more freight. The is no way I would live out of a cargo van

 

I think it has to do with the company that the loads are coming from. Many shippers will not let a flat behind a pickup truck haul their stuff, but a straight truck or even a cargo van is OK.

The compaines that focus on expedite freight seem to be the ones who have the straights, cargo vans and tractor/trailers in their fleet. Like LEAM, FedEx CC, Panther, Express-1, C&M Load-1 and so on.

BUT how many hotshot companies are there out there who have the same services and sales force as those other companies?

 

I've hauled some loads that should have been put on a flat bed.

 

So have I but get that shipper to say "OK I can see a pickup with a flatbed taking it" seems to go against their idea of what they are buying. I had a load that I took into canada that the shipper insisted that it goes into a box, it took five hours to load, eight to unload (it was snowing) and I used every strap I had - all 20 of them. I could have refused the load but it paid too well to pass up.

 

Yea, greed has a way of getting me too!

 

Well when it was all said and done, it wasn't about greed but the five other loads that I got from that customer. I think that the term is business decision not greed by the way.