Help me PLEASE!! Turning around a trucking business

You've gotten plenty of good advice so I won't beat a dead horse. Kind of late to this thread as I have been out on a truck this week on a trail of repair misery. Anyway... that's for another thread. I figured I'd chime in the reefer-related stuff since I've been hands-on this week. Too many early starts and late nights, and I'm just short of standing on a street corner shouting at people. So this will have to do LOL.

The fuel tickets should be itemizing truck vs reefer fuel. It's routine. If you're not using accounting software, you can measure use in a spreadsheet. Reefer operators know to tell the fuel desk they are doing a pump restart for the reefer tank. That said, the truck burns the same fuel amount no matter what. The reefer will vary. I'm sitting in New Orleans right now and the reefer is out there guzzling fuel keeping the van at zero. Take it up north where it's still cold at night and they won't use much at all, especially on stop/start or cycle sentry mode. Maybe if you define what you mean by fuel use all over the place. One thing could be climate or load related, another thing could mean they're selling fuel.

2am is normal for reefer cargo. Most cold docks have odd hours, usually at times normal people sleep. In fact, I will be sitting at a receiver at 04:00 tomorrow. Your drivers need to do better trip planning, and should also drink a few cups of Suck It Up, Sister. That timetable comes with the territory. Personally, I don't like camping out at a shipper. Consequently, I have to plan a little better to enjoy a shower, some delicious and nutritious truckstop food, and wake up a little earlier to make my appointment. Some guys like to sleep in and will go direct and wait. Still others camp out because they know they're going to get lost or stuck backing up a 5 mile dead end if they try to drive into an unfamiliar area at 0-dark-thirty in the fog. Well ok.. it wasn't a dead end. It was a dirt road in an area that only people guided by GPS would use. So that's what the guy at the truckstop counter said, anyway. You get the point. Different strokes and all that, but at the end of the day, the driver is the captain and needs to make the call if the schedule will work or not, and be able to splain it.

At the same time, you are responsible too enable their success by booking loads the drivers can schedule. If you book a reload right after a delivery that took 10 hours to reach, you have put the driver in a corner with an impossible schedule. An otherwise good guy who doest want or like to push back at your scheduling may miss appointments or have "break-downs" to buy time. Get your best driver to show you how to set up scheduling and create a HOS-legal route plan. And also spot when someone is BSing you. Then, you're in a far better position to demand that they meet you halfway.

I hope that little bit helps, and good luck to you!

 

Fire the slackers, come down hard on the people turning that direction, and reward your good drivers with small bonuses when you can. Don't do it right away, get in the black first.

Get more flatbeds. There are ALOT of flatbed loads in that area that pay decent. I know this because we ship into WI out of two different locations all the time. Appleton and Wausau being two of our biggest.

 

Even in these tough times, there is money to be made if you put your mind to it.

 

LOL........That's a good one!

 

Hi Tiffy, Try putting together some rules for your drivers to follow. Write them down, let them read and sign off on them. Need to have what you expect of them in writing. Just telling someone what you expect goes in one ear and out the other. Sounds like your husband has worked very hard and deserves alot of respect. If any one of your drivers can't follow your policies, fire them. There are plenty of military guys and gals coming out of the service looking for work. Give them a try, probably have a lot more discipline. God Bless, and I hope everything goes well for you and your husband!!

 

first thing i would do is write up a list of rules and call a manditory drivers meeting and let then know flat out the party is over here are the new rules.
govorner your trucks to 62 miles an hour (im from indiana our roads are 65 mph for the most part)that should give you around 7 mpg anyone going way over will have to cover out of there own pay(i know i know cant predict mpg but if you can get 7 and there only gettin 4 or 5 theres a problem.and if they do better then the for example 7mpg like 8 or 9 will get a bonus.
add a.p.u's to your trucks as you can afford (will eliminate idle time )
add that drivers will be charged for late deliveries(as it makes the drivers and company look bad).start preplanning you drivers that dont take a standard routeand if they stray from that route charge them for the cost for running out of route(detours aside)anduse the good ole 3 strikes and you out deal if they refuse the rules tell em goodbye
i know this sounds like it would be bad for drivers and i know most of you will attack me for this post BUT drivers that follow the rules would'nt be affaected only the bad apples and it could actually help them becouse as revinues increase so could drivers pay

 

Tiffy, how did you make out after?

 

Well. Not reading the whole thread as I see that it is now 9 pages long lol. If you have your own customers I would get rid of the worthless drivers and their trucks. Hire on owner operators with their own authority and collect the money. If your just running spot market freight off of a load board for 7 trucks. You will be stressed to the max. Because even when I do get something good I think what if I had to pay a driver and all the BS that comes with having employees. That knocks your profit margin down in a hurry.

 

Can't wait to find out the answer to that question.

I've been following this thread from the beginning. The images that it brings to my mind have created lots of smiles.
I do feel sorry for the poor guy who worked so long and hard for his money and good credit but he's not the first and won't be the last.
Maybe he stepped in and hired an experienced manager to fix this mess. Hopefully that person won't be a crook and finish him off, if he's not bankrupt already.
I bet next time he gets the urge for a flashy plaything he'll settle for a shiny new pickup truck or some antique tractors.