Vent Over! Thanks Y'all!

I think you should be looking at where your existing drivers can sign on for a 90/10 deal and trying to sign them to a 6% dispatch fee to a company of your own creation. It certainly sounds to me like the company you work for is just a rented shingle for a bunch of O/O's to operate under.

 

It's not about greed. Greed is fine. I'm greedy as all get out... But I earn my take. I've brokered 30 loads this week and it's 1pm on Wednesday. I really resent the people who operate by pushing their responsibilities onto everyone else. In this business the work needs to get done, so if you behave in this way someone will probably do it to at least a minimum standard to avoid the fallout landing on them... But they have every right to push you off the boat at the first port to replace you with someone able bodied. This should happen three times as fast when you're the captain.

Not sure how that metaphor got so nautical but it works.

 

OH NOICE.

I was Recalling this EXACT problem.

I actually had that problem twice long ago. What I did was decide what I thought was good for me. (And God... but that's private.. not part of the conversation here...) and moved on to another company. One Job was a Greek Owner of a few gas stations in my area and as broke as I was that was the last type of boss, owner or superior person I would ever want to run for. (Bangs head how could i be so stupid.)

And the customers? They knew. This little boy out manning the pumps and dealing with big time gas station issues while Mr Greek sits in his far back room shuffling cards or whatever. (Show me the money, money money) gets real difficult when a confused customer breaks off one of his pump handles (Which starts at 500 dollars)

I moved on. I simply quit working there. I just wanted to deal with the people who legitimately have issues (Handicapped etc) getting gas, make change for 20's or whatever and run credit cards. Mindless easy work. (Relative) but this Owner had me stressing about stuff that Owners stress about way above my paygrade. I think I talked about him once or twice before in my posts.

If your drivers are telling you to run those you have authority over and they tell you to get out while you can you can bet dollars to dimes they are thinking about getting out after you do. The poor owner does not have any idea what is going to be a situation because things are not going well with this broker stuff. (Im not a broker, but I know enough that it would be such a crime to play at brokering inside a trucking company without the proper insurance, permits, bonds or whatever else required of them.) YOU have enough on your plate at 24-7 on call. And evidently being successful too if your drivers are grossing close to 6K (That's really good) 500 some dollars on 1099 is pretty low.

I would caution you that it might be seen as a form of structuring by IRS as a work around against having to pay much more tax on much more freighting flowing through the company. You actually need to be paid more where you are now. I have never begrudged a good Ops Boss or appropriately positioned Officer (Which is what you are within the company staff tree) a decent salary. Say 2000 a week gross flat. You would not be stressing about the house, bills, wife, kids etc.

I feel two emotions towards this Owner. First pity. He seems to be a boy playing at trucking only interested in money. If it anything that's bad in this world it would be people who are dead inside only to wake up and show humanity and life when you present them a arousing amount of cold cash. As soon that's gone back to being dull, dead and unable to or unwilling to do anything with anyone to see how a company runs day to day is NOT a good thing. The second is a sense of Pity and horror mixed because if you the OP Operations Manager decides to quit and get away from this Titanic That owner is going to find himself in a bind. (Not to mention drivers potentially going out the door with you or around you.

Maybe he will idly browse his way around the net and stumble onto this thread. That will wake him up. And there will be a storm.

Stand up to the Owner, tell him not just no but hell no. If he is so interested in brokerage then have People come in who are professionals and build a brokerage house across town and have them do their brokerage thing. One company here in Little Rock has dispatchers on one property and a brokerage house on another property 4 blocks down. Guess what. As a driver I had that broker on my case day in and day out. (That's one reason I got out after less than two weeks. Im a very good driver, but #### I am not driving miss Daisy... SHEESH. Here have the key Mr Broker, you do it.

Follow me?

Maybe you BUY the whole outfit and be a owner. Plus find people to make things great and moving with your new company. the previous owner can take his few million dollars or whatever and retreat to his sanctuary and play xbox the rest of his natural life for all I care.

I used to be a huge gamer but I have been buried in necessary life challenges or outright problems that must be solved that I have had very little time to escape into gaming. The culture has changed and in some ways has gotten really rotten among the people who game. So when you say the word gamer for someone, then I think of certain behaviors, chat and nasty stuff that comes across these days and it's filthy. That is the other reason I don't game. My last one involved working on a Battleship with 8 other humans and their ships in battle. I applied the firepower to what I thought was necessary threats first. But the abuse and back stabbing I was getting from my own teammates (They are not teammates anymore but enemies because who needs enemies or opponents when your own teams rip you a new one...) I would not say i did not sink a couple and eat the penalties imposed when provoked too much. It should never be this way.

Anyway. I hope that one way or another this entire issue within the trucking company gets settled quick before the whole house burns down and everyone is out of a job. What a waste. If the owner is not that interested then why is he even there? Go home and let people take care of it and send him a check weekly. (That is what Boards of Directors are for)

It's not fair that you and your entire people on down to the newest driver should be considering big changes in the cold wind of unemployment because some whimsy from your Owner. It's not 1550's Europe and Feudal Lords in the Manor here. This is not a owner who is interested in taking care of his company and more importantly his People.

Something will have to be settled preferably before it gets too bad. And one method might involve you moving to a better company in a similar position but without the crazy stressors being imposed against you.

 

Well if he confronted YOU today.. the cat is out of the bag now especially when a driver or worker low down in the company are talking quitting because YOU are getting ready to get out yourself.

Usually when drivers and hourly workers on the bottom of totem pole start talking and all want out now because the titanic is flooding... the Owner will feel threatened and correctly found you as the problem.

I knew this will happen just a matter of when.

Be very careful with this do not be hasty. Your future, your life depends on this to be resolved correctly.

Any time you feel stressed to where you cannot think, go to a safe place like your home and decompress and sleep on it. This isnt a driving problem where that trailer is coming around on ice and you have to do something in 10 seconds or kaboom. This is worse than that. Slow moving train wreck that will go on and on and on hours, days, weeks.

So the cat's out of the bag now.

here is what I hope for before anything. This silly broker talk to stop and go bye bye. A company wide conference with everyone to come in and listen to what everyone has to say. (A meeting of meetings...) destroy rumors and use hard facts so everyone is on the same sheet of music. Maybe at that point things MUST improve.

If it does not? Well that's that, I hope you find a more satisfying job more suited to your particular experience, authority and skill set.

If it's one thing I will bet the farm on is this. Your drivers. When they hear something, think about it and made a decision to jump ship... you will do well to be jumping with them. OR... have a meeting with everyone and hold the line and make this silly circus over the broker thing etc and whatever else is a problem stops today. Tomorrow will be a new day for everyone.

Maybe then the owner will get his head out of the video game and start working on the company top to bottom. If he does not? Get out.

Oh as a parting shot.

Being accused of doing nothing when your nights are consumed by phone calls. HA.. that's the small straw that breaks the back of a hurting camel. Enough is enough then. Work on changing jobs.

Just before you begin your new job rearrange your company phone contacts to default directly to the owners phone from any employee with a problem. If he THINKS you are doing nothing then rearrange the entire phone system so that anyone calls him at all hours with boo boos, money requests, late loads, OSD problems, appointment problems and 10 feet worth of other potential issues that is normal to trucking day in and day out.

Im pretty sure your owner will have to make a decision. Play the part and be a Owner and put down the video game. with you gone. Or find something else to do in life besides his precious brokerage.

It also tells me that the Brokerage in the owner's mind is everything.

If that is the case then the whole company is not a trucking company anymore. Everyone should use this time to make a orderly change to new jobs with possibly better situation than this one.

Either you are a Operations manager in charge of dispatch, shop and your drivers etc or you are a broker. Which is it? Im pretty sure you are not interested in learning how to be a broker. So this should be pretty simple.

The owner is going to have to find another person or many people to replace the ones he lost. Or close the whole thing up and go into the Brokerage part of the Industry and open up a new company. The phone charges alone will consume him.

 

Your boss's name isn't Mitch, is it?

 

Try to stay in trucking. The reality is that you are in a bad situation right now, but that doesn't mean the whole industry is nothing but bad situations. It's actually a massive industry with a huge shortage of capable people. It would be really unfortunate if you let this ####### run you off from a career you seem to find rewarding.

EDIT: And let's be very clear... You're making terrible money right now. I'd start calling every trucking company within commuting range of your house and asking if they are hiring. If none of them are hiring this is a fantastic work from home gig so I'd start calling trucking companies in other places.

Like everything in this business the only thing stopping you from getting the job you deserve is picking up the phone a few dozen times.