Kevin Rutherford..

Yeah, you can add "lazy" on top of what I said but, if it was as easy as driving an automobile, that wouldn't happen.

 

I'm not surprised that KR and his ilk believe the driving part is miniscule and it's the business end that makes the money. And if you want to run your business that way, you may be able to eek out a profit off of fuel mileage, deadhead management, and paying drivers as little as possible.

If you talk to O/O's with their own shop they will tell you how you have to do your own repairs, and point at the tens of thousands they have saved over the years in doing their own repairs and quality control on the maint. of their vehicles.

Myself, I feel that the years I put in as a company driver gives me a huge advantage not only in avoiding problematic loads, and identifying good ones (I often know who the shipper is just by location and lane before I even call a broker, sometimes even expected rate), I also have somewhat of a rolodex or contact list of people in the industry that would probably make KR drool. KR and other "business heads" tend to pat themselves on the back, but they don't see what they don't see. And that is opportunities floating right past their eyeballs and finger tips every day because they don't have the experience to recognize it.

You want to take a balanced approach IMO, know your strengths, try to look for the strengths in others and see how they do things, copy that which works for you, etc... Or else create some meager success and then sell 1,000,000 instructional dvd's to others or get a radio show I guess. If that works for you.

But for those of you serious about the trucking business, don't waste your money on dvd's, there's more valuable info on this forum than any KR dvd, you just have to have a little discernment. I know a guy who is that guy who probably makes as much money from his shop as he does from his truck, I also know a guy who owns two trucks and always has one being repaired by someone else because he feels he makes more money in his office or on the phone and would rather pay someone else to repair his equipment. Newsflash, they are both very successful O/O's ! And when I say very successful I mean they can make more money in a year with themselves as the only driver than KR can make with 10 drivers. There's more than one way to skin a kitten. The reason KR thinks there is one way to be successful in trucking is because he only knows one way, he just doesn't know what he doesn't know.

 

Very informative response. I have noticed when I used to listen to him that fuel mileage was his biggest topic. I understand that and as you say you have to know what works for you and there is always other ways to make a profit.

 

apparently you have no idea that what you posted is a good example of having business sense, you know what saves money and what doesn't save money.

paying to have something done that you can do yourself makes good business sense, you have in fact proven KR's point.

what you fail to understand is what seems a no brainer to you, others have no clue.

what you posted are examples who folks who have a good business sense and are successful, I bet you also could give a longer list who those who don't have business sense and aren't successful.

and there is a good info on this forum, but there is also so much bad info it aint even funny. after reading again, I am still amzed you gave an excellent post of exactly what business sense is, and basically exactly what KR is really saying, and don't seem to know it.

the fact is danny, you can have all the experience in the world, and if ya don't have a lick of business sense you wont be successful.

don't take me wrong, I agree with what ya posted, but its really what kr is saying.


just give him someone with business acumen and he can make him successful, with no business sense he tanks . there is a reason you here so many guys at the truckstop say, I used to be an owner /op.

 

there are other ways, but the easiest way is to cut your biggest variable expense which is fuel.

 

That's because fuel mileage is the biggest expense and, by doing very little you can save a lot of money.

 

Dang Skateboardman,,,I did't read your post's before I posted mine...my bad..lol You are spot on though

 

it needed to be said again, lol got to hammer that point home.

I listened to his show on the way home last night, he gave the guys good basic advice, but they didn't have a clue

 

I love it when an old hand has an open mind and takes some of that good advice. I love to hear their voice when they start making some money after 20+ years of being an O/O...

 

You're a little confuzzled... there are PLENTY of ways to generate revenue. There' only ONE way to make profit: earn more revenue than you spend to generate it. As skateboardman and Sheepdog pointed out... fuel is the big expense. Everything else is pretty much peanuts on the operations side compared to that one.

And that's pretty much Rutherford's message... you have to know your numbers in order to really make trucking work.