Beware of M&H Logistics

Well theres not as many unhappy clients as you may think. Maybe 1 or 2 % if you get down to it. I don't think thats bad considering we've helped hundreds, maybe thousands in this business. I'd love to get in to more detail but I'm a little to busy right now. I'll try to come back to this later. Ask yourself this, why does any trucking company out there have a huge turnover rate? There's many reasons but I think you know the main one. Which is, it's a hard job and most people just don't have what it takes to stick with it.

 

Arrogant, well Foxcover maybe I come off that way because it is my name being stepped on here?

What exactly is cheap freight? A 50 cent per mile partial isn't always cheap freight. I'm talking about filling a small piece of deck space not giving up 20 feet for 50 cpm. It may take 3 feet of deck space and weigh 50 to 250 lbs. You still think thats cheap freight if your packing it in around larger better paying pieces already on your trailer?

If you want to know my rate, and what exactly I do for it you'll have to contact me by phone, or email. I'd lay it out here but I don't want the admin to think I'm soliciting on here. Didn't we already talk on the phome once?

If theres time I'll come back tomorrow.

 

Ask yourself this: How are there trucking companies with less than 20% turnover (with the average being 97% in 2013)?

Because some companies respect the drivers and treat them as they would like to be treated all while giving them as many miles as they can safely run and offering a 10/4 schedule, decent pay and full benefits.

Not all companies kill their drivers with turnover, the trick is finding your fit with a good one... and they don't advertise for openings.

 

No worries Flatbedcarrier, I would be a little defensive if it was me too.
I believe we spoke on this forum before.
I don't need to know your rate or business, that's not what my post was about. I was referring to your post that you thought was good money. It's not just the PM but how many miles there are involved etc.

 

I totally agree. Lets say we started with two partials each paying $1.00 per mile going from Los Angeles to Seattle. The $0.50 cpm little extra you put on would need to drop in Seattle, or somewhere a long the way to make it worth while. You haul it beyond Seattle and you'd be reducing the rate on the other two partials.

 

Well that's my point exactly, for example from the Bay Area it's 800 miles to Seattle, even at $2.50 per mile that's only $2k and you have three pickups and three deliveries to contend with and that's if your lucky enough to have the stars align. Otherwise you go even cheaper or loose time playing the waiting game. Then how much time do you spend building a load just to get back.
If you have carriers that are willing to run around and then sit repeat and repeat then the LTL spot market is easy to work in. I just don't see it as profitable all costs, time and layovers considered.
However it is a great way to build up a customer base and market share as a broker.

 

Flatbedcarrier or M&H Logistics is a dispatch service for independent owner operators working under their own authority, it is the owners choice to stay or go. No leases or anything of the sort last I knew.

You have nailed it. The guys at M&H are good guys to talk to over the phone & believe in what they do. There are things they know about various stops that will tell you they have been there before.
Nothing on this forum will change any of that.

But what you mentioned is the exact frustration we all ran into back in 2007. Maybe all that has changed now? But all the multiple picks/drops killed the realistic rate per mile. I remember having to load a basket for a drilling rig via forklift at a shipper, then loading some loose steel that had to be tarped. The thing is the basket was loaded late enough in the day that it was 200 miles from the house round trip, to do another 100 mile trip day two loading the loose steel & on day three having to find another forklift to move the load around to get the weight off the drive axle. Then leave IL to southern CA in a dually. I do not remember what it paid for that run & doesn't matter now. When you are new, you think all this is normal, but you begin to realize the boys that are making money are not doing it this way.

The point is the little trucks trying to load those sort of things & running out & over the mountains at an average of 32,000 lb gross weight was just a losing proposition. The equipment was part of the issue as in my mind they only belong in the oil fields running true hot shot freight. Hindsight is dead on 20/20. The other issue was all the miles that rolled across the odometer between the pick ups. It is not M&H's fault the freight is spread out. BUT it is the system that works for them & therefore must work for the o/o.

I made it 3 months before figuring up all the expenses on an excel spread sheet that equalled selling all that stuff. Now before anyone else points it out, I did not have the recommended equipment. The rec then was for a 45' lowboy with an 8' over the neck deck, think Hefty was the brand then. I bought a 40' low pro deck over with 8' over the neck deck. That said, even the guys that went with the recommended trailer at the time, we were all in about the same dollar amount for gross.

Would I do it again? Obviously not.
Would I recommend this system to a new o/o? No & completely based on what is posted here.
Did I learn alot? Yes, had ZERO trucking experience prior to that. Had ran large equipment & we had a flatbed truck for some local stuff at my previous job. But I knew the freight & had a forklift at the shop to move things. One of the many luxuries you lose as an o/o.
Did I send possible customers that needed something transported that were out west back to them? Yes, but there were less than 6 or so & probably never amounted to anything.

I know their payment terms have changed. But back then it was 10% of gross & they did wait with you for payment. Understand why that probably has changed, but will give them credit that starting out & not having piles of cash that was obviously being burned elsewhere, they waited for their money just the same as you did without hassle.

Someone else mentioned banning them. They have their point of view & it needs to be posted. There were no opposing points of view when I signed on, so let the words stand & let each o/o make up their own mind. We are now on page 18...

 

Very well said LBZ!
I started a Hot-Shot side to our already established trucking business last year here in the Bay Area and that's pretty much how I treat it, as Hot-Shot. I do not try to run it like a semi loading it down and trying to clock as many miles as possible. That's not what these little trucks were built for.
I have an assortment of trailers I bought for this side of our business and believe it or not a 20' single wheel flat deck with ramps has been the most used by far. Easy to get around, extremely cheap to purchase and run but you can't run them like a semi and expect to make money.
Eg, we pick up quite a bit at the airports. $400 per crate, some are 4x4 some are 2x1 etc, some days we only get one crate, some days we will get 10. Those are good days! $4000 for half a days work and maybe 20 miles total driving, that's $200 PM if you were to add it up as Flatbedcarrier does.
I think when he posted about a good week being a Hot-Shot trying to work like a semi grossing $4750 for 2200 miles being OTR most of the week I instantly thought, if I had to do that with my equipment it would be time to close shop and go flip burgers at BK, at least that way I'd have positive income vs the slow painful death of my business.

However in his defense I feel he should be commended as a businessman, this is not an easy industry to survive in as a business regardless if your are a carrier or dispatcher / broker.
Even if his O/O's were making really good money or doing low / local mileage per day while grossing $1000 per day, some if not all will still come and go. As human beings most of us always want to challenge and better ourselves, the money we made, the #### we put up with or how hard we worked last year may not be as acceptable to us next year! This is normal and probably the most important thing to take away from this is what LBZ said, we all had to start somewhere, at the time it worked and he learned enough to move on or make it better!
Flatbedcarrier was obviously an instrumental cog on the wheel and deserves credit for that.
I hope he chimes back in with us soon.

 

Pick up a book by dale Carnegie called "how to win friends and influence people"

 

I know what he does. I run under a similar setup currently in TX, but I run Intrastate only, sub-26,000 to avoid half the compliance costs associated with full DOT/TXDOT. The dispatch I run under turns over probably about 30% per annum, most guys have been here for years. I don't think there is enough money in it to continue and will be leaving for a company position in the next couple months (once my military career ends in retirement and I can go OTR full-time without issue), but at least our outfit provides all trailers and maintains the trailers. That's one less expense out of my pocket.