Cliff's Announcement and Company Transition

USA Truck is caught in a pincer. I was speaking again this morning to an accountant about the pickle USA Truck is in. USA Truck does not have the capitol to fund a rate war with the other carriers. You simply can't do this when you are losing more money then you are taking in. If they attempt to lower rates the other carriers will quickly match it. The primary problem at this point is the other carriers, if they smell blood in the water things might get very bad for USA Truck. I hope somehow the company management can get the company through this rocky patch of road. I think the primary reason this company is in such trouble is the economy and the management's missteps in handling things, had it not bottomed out in 2008 things might have been better. I wonder how much longer till the word Bankruptcy is discussed by the board?

 

The sad thing is I have freight all day that we'd pay very fair rates on and I don't know who to speak to. I've got stuff that USA Truck could drop and hook on and drop their own trailers but I don't even know that our two companies work together.

 

you should call them

 

Come on Thomas......on line experts......you've been reading this stuff along time too!

The agent has a good point but doesn't deal in cheap freight. The other "experts"....you know, fancy words and conversing with other business experts.......really???? Good for a chuckle

 

Hey, If you have freight and feel USA Truck would be a good match I would go to their website and look for a number or email address for operations.

 

USA would screw it up and they would lose the business. They lost several accounts when I was there. They could screw up a ####e sandwich.

 

Maybe it has nothing to do with being a so called "Financial expert" and more along the lines of people out there who care about their jobs and the direction the company is headed. Anyone can read an earnings report.

A half way educated driver can read between the lines and fill in a lot of blanks.

David Hartline was supposed to come on board this time last year to help turn the company around. Well, my guess is it didn't work out. According to the company directory, he is no longer listed as the Ex. V.P. and COO., though, if he's still there, the directory no longer lists him. My guess is the "Spider Lane" model went into the tank, and is the reason for his (Beckhams) change of heart concerning irregular routes and long haul along with increasing price points for short haul.

Some of the problem stems from several fronts-one of which is driver retention. Many of their trucks, which could be out on the road, earning revenues, sit unassigned. We all know this isn't the only company like this.

Next, is when it comes to Fleet Managers and home time. I could drive 5-6 weeks at a time no problem, and after 2 days at home, on the morning of the 3rd, my phone would be blowing up, with my FM asking when would I be ready that day to go back operational......


Another problem which drives operators of their inventory elsewhere is a major gap in the lines of communication. The "Qualcomm" is the primary tool used for driver communications to the home terminal, but, it was my experience, 30-40% of the time, the left hand had no idea what the right hand was doing. Had the FM's and dispatchers followed up by reading what communique's had been sent once they left for the day, the evening dispatchers doing the same, and again, whenever the FM's returned, either the next morning or on a Monday following a weekend, a lot of disconnects could have been averted. Bad or untimely communication results in lost revenue when a logistics mainstream of funding is lost because of it, not to mention how darn frustrating it can be. Drivers with bad attitudes are equally to blame in some instances. You've got to have those people who care about what it is they're doing and how well they do it.


If you had something urgent, that needed to be addressed ASAP and too complicated to use the QC to try and convey, trying to get a live voice on the phone after hours, is next to impossible for a driver.


Example: You, the driver, are running out of hours for your duty day. You need answers now to alleviate the problem NOW. If you wound up getting stuck trying to resolve something like this over the QC, it would take an average of 10-15 minutes between each message sent to get a response, eating up valuable time with responses such as "I don't understand, could you clarify what the exact nature of your problem is?" when you explained it within the first message and it got lost in all the other driver messages they're dealing with.


There's lots of good people at USA, whether in terminals, drivers out on the road, or the support group aka "Breakdown" most of whom, who bust their butts doing what they do.


But when SOME of the FM's treat their drivers as expendable beings who must blindly do everything their told (Such as "Drive straight through to your destination, you don't have time to scale your load") it speaks volumes that they would ask you to risk something, putting your record and lively hood on the line for. Don't know how widespread it is or was in the company, that was just my experience.


Do I want to see them fail? Absolutely not. If only the COO, V.P.s and the man himself would have sensing sessions with their drivers from time to time, they would already have an accurate snapshot of what needs to be done to turn this company around.

The fact that Mr. Beckham could use some time out on the road to realize some of these problems would be nice, but, is that going to happen? Probably not. The automated messages he records to his drivers are nice, but they're only a one way form of communication. Ever heard of feedback? Sure would be a definite plus offsetting the fact he's never been a driver.


In the 2nd QTR earnings report released by USA, it cites poor operational execution and unmanned tractors as 2 of the 3 concerns as to a revenue loss.


I'm no accountant, CPA or business executive who knows the ideal business model, but I do know this from a long time ago-you take care of your drivers, your drivers will take care of you. Pretty elementary when you want someone to take pride in their work and expect them to be loyal, proactive, punctual when it comes to longevity, stability and turnover reduction.

If the status quo continue to do the same things with Business as usual, I suspect, as many others, USA will not last.

I certainly hope that is not the case and things turn around.

 

If you take the time to read Cliff Beckham's BIO in the USA Truck website you see he brought no operating experience with him to the CEO position there. This is way to important a job to be OJT in it.

 

wow......insightful. Have you ever or do you currently) pull a USA wagon? I did.....left when my time was up to take care of my daughter. I've been postings this site 2 years about USA. It's hard to know what goes on behind closed doors, although from an outside perspective you may be right, not just one or two are calling the shots. Likewise the fms are not all at fault. The place is loaded with clowns.......it's a culture problem both malignant and systemic. Clowns driving, irresponsible people, clowns in the office....no concept of how manage themselves not to mention 40 drivers, of which 9 outta 10 can't go from here to there without crashing, complaing or having the pride in themselves or their company to show up on time. The customers see it and go elsewhere.....the drivers don't care because the majority won't be driving next week anyway. The ones that get fired rail against the company, like its the companies fault they are a screw up and then they come to these websites and become experts on the financial health and operational capability of a corporation when in fact they can't even drive the truck.

I worked there for a year....I had no issue. I still drive today.....I have no issue. The company is the employees. Maybe they should get out of the trainee business.

The online experts still crack me up.

 

That would be the smartest thing they could ever do