Thinkin about changing careers

I think it's 6 months safe driving as a Schneider company driver, coming from outside the company maybe a year? I'm guessing really. they have an inexperienced tier and an experienced tier based on age and background, case by case basis. there is a week long training program for new ICs, driving and coupling tests and training are included in that, along with trip planning and how to work the load board. it's a pretty thorough onboarding process.

 

The only other one I can thing of, other than Schneider Choice, is Greatwide.
I've know a couple dozen drivers that went with Greatwide and were successful. I don't know why their program is listed on the website as lease-purchase, because it's not. You buy the truck and then lease on to Greatwide.
All the financing is in the drivers name and if he quits the truck goes with the driver.
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Lease Purchase Program | United States | Greatwide Truckload

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You're exactly right. You need to find the businesses where the "shipping manager" is the same guy as the "production manager", the "purchasing manager" and the "payroll manager". He'll be easy to recognize: he's the guy running around with his hair on fire.

That guy (or gal, to be sure) has a list of opportunities in his shirt pocket he can't get to for a variety of reasons. He can't start on a couple of those projects because he has no good way to get the product to where it needs to go.

When I did a lot of the logistics for a small company like that, I can only remember ONE sales call, by FFE reps, and they had no interest in even hearing what we needed, just wanted to take established business. I about tarred and feathered them before booting them out the door. But a small trucking outfit willing to listen? Let's go have a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, and lets see what we can make happen.

Never just look for business someone is already doing -- all you can do as an unknown is to underbid the guy that's already providing that service, and he's probably too cheap already. Look for ways to, literally, create new business. Make the pie bigger. Help a company start shipping to a territory they couldn't reach before. Piece three or four of those small outfits together, and you'll generate double line haul rates. Business that'll be yours for years and years, because you aren't just a "trucking company", you're the people that partnered in getting it going.

 

I think posts #7 and #17 above offer the best advice.

Heck -- at this point, you don't even know for sure if you like trucking or not.

Why not find out first.....on the cheap, and leave the business/money/maintenance hassles to someone else -- especially given how tough the market is right now?

The Air Force does not take cadets right out of basic training and ( the next day) put them in F-15s and F-16s. These new trainees work their way up to that -- over time.

You'll have more that enough to learn -- just starting out as a company driver.

Why make things much tougher on yourself than you really have to?

-- L

 

What if I told you that all large size brokerage firms have teams of cold callers calling on shippers and receivers 8-10 hours a day every day. Every one of them promising to do a better job cheaper than the other guys. If you think that you can go into a mom and pop and make it go for it. Just don’t be naive and think that you’re not replaceable. I’ve been in the offices of these shippers and they will tell you the same thing. They are being call by brokers as much as we are being called by dispatch services.

 

I would believe it if you told me that! I got 41 calls within the last 24 hours from those 2 by twice double brokers… I will admit they ANNOY me something fierce. That being said, a mom and pop isn’t generally running the nearly nonexistent margins that the megas do, so even if you are a bit more expensive, but your service is good, and you never leave them in the lurch, they will pay willingly. It goes without saying, however, the work will likely be more susceptible to rush seasons and slow times than a mega carrier grabbing loads off a picked over load board everyday

 

You’re not wrong, I get calls from TQL several times a year — but there is literally ZERO chance they can serve our needs.

That’s where we’re talking past each other. My experience in the fresh and frozen fish business is similar to the story of a poster here talking about his wine transport business. Highly, HIGHLY profitable lanes that simply are not “replaceable” by some schmuck at TQL’s spiel about service and price. I’ve had one of those dimwits argue with me they could “do better” on my live fish loads….

There’s lots of freight out there that’s cookie cutter, show up with a truck, who is the cheapest. We use that approach on our inbound freight. Out of the last 10 of those loads, I had to pull TWO out of a snow bank with an excavator, one couldn’t find the farm ( literally the only place in seven miles of state highway ), one showed up not being able to load the posted weight and one ripped the gate off the post with the trailer because he misjudged his offset. In other words, even stuff that should be stupid simple is too hard for a bunch of these trucking outfits, and small shippers and receivers don’t have the means or motivation to put up the guardrails to be able to deal with the bottom half of the industry.

Do you think I’d give guy a shot if he’d come talk about what we need, for a bit more money? What’s it worth not having to spend a couple of hours welding my gate back together after a delivery?