Thread: Last two weeks
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11-06-2008, 10:44 PM #1Senior Member
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Last two weeks
How much is the lack of auto sales effecting the business? 45% lower sales over last year in the auto industry. I am lost for words when my drivers call and ask about whats going on. I am getting a bit worried about getting decent loads in these poor economic times. It's bad enough that the trucks are not moving, but even worse I could have drivers walk away for higher paying jobs at home.
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11-07-2008, 08:39 AM #2Senior Member
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Re: Last two weeks
Might want to try getting your own authority. That way you can find freight from various different companies and brokers. It will be a little more work for you but your trucks will be moving and your drivers will be happy.
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11-07-2008, 09:18 AM #3
Re: Last two weeks
Eric..thats why we call it thinning the herd...sorry but you might lose a couple head....but it also maybe time to park 1 or 2 vans during this time....they'll prolly not make enough to even pay for repairs anyhow....just having a driver in the seat doesn't always pay....park them and make more from the tax write-offs...it's business
Jack Berrys van still for sale!! Great price NOW! $20,000....see link to contact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-B...45834202148748
Drive less...Make more...$$$
It's not how much you run,
It's how much you run for... $$$
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11-07-2008, 09:36 AM #4
Re: Last two weeks
make sure they can go to canada, had 4 offers to go there yesterday, but i only live 120 miles from the border...so there one way trips
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11-07-2008, 09:38 AM #5
Re: Last two weeks
120 miles DH isn't such a bad investment..I mean for 20 bucks to make 400?
Jack Berrys van still for sale!! Great price NOW! $20,000....see link to contact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-B...45834202148748
Drive less...Make more...$$$
It's not how much you run,
It's how much you run for... $$$
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11-07-2008, 09:53 AM #6
Re: Last two weeks
I don't understand why they're one-way trips.

Most people don't realize that
large pieces of coral
which have been painted brown and attached
to the skull by common wood screws,
can make a child look like a deer.
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11-07-2008, 09:57 AM #7
Re: Last two weeks
because some carriers don'y or won't try to get loads back out....and some like with your carrier just automatically get out and not wait....thier mistake....cuzz we know better....

did you get my pm about chicoppee Ma...$6.27/qtJack Berrys van still for sale!! Great price NOW! $20,000....see link to contact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-B...45834202148748
Drive less...Make more...$$$
It's not how much you run,
It's how much you run for... $$$
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11-07-2008, 10:05 AM #8
Re: Last two weeks
You can tell your drivers what they probably already know. The financial crisis and economic slowdown (recession) is reducing the amount of freight that is available to haul. You can't haul what they don't offer. If the freight isn't there, it isn't there. You would not be giving good news to your drivers but you would be telling them the truth. They may very well be better off finding higher paying jobs at home.
It is not just in the automotive sector that freight has slowed. It is in most if not all sectors. I know of fleet owners that are leaving the business today, not because they had to or because they failed, but because they see what is coming and have the option of avoiding it. They have had a good run in the business but have concluded that this is a good time to call it a career. I admire their choice. Why push a rock uphill if you don't have to?
Diane and I are choosing to stay but are looking ahead to slower freight and longer waits between loads. These are the slow times that people warned us about when we were researching the industry. We took those warnings to heart and are prepared.
If you are not prepared, I don't know what to say that will make things better. The recession is squeezing a number of people out of the business and presenting new challenges to those who stay.
Speculators take risks with their money, but only to a point. If the markets move against them, the smart ones cut their losses and stand aside. Parking your trucks for a year in a slow-freight market may cost you less money than running them. Selling them at a loss and standing aside may be the better decision still.
Doing something different, like getting your own authority, may be a good choice. But I expect there will be a bunch of folks doing that, which will make things less lucrative and more competitive for everyone in the business.
In the long run, getting your own-authority may turn out to be a worse choice than parking your trucks or getting out. Running successfully under your own authority requires a different focus and skill set than running under a carrier's authority. While it is an option, getting your own authority may only prolong the inevitable and increase your losses along the way.
Getting your own authority because you are intellectually and emotionally drawn to that kind of business, and you have customers you can develop and a plan for success can be a very good thing. But getting your own authority because you are being squeezed out someplace else is different. It seems to me that the own-authority play is best made when you are on the offense, not the defense, and when you know what to do with the ball.Last edited by ATeam; 11-07-2008 at 10:23 AM.
Phil Madsen
Expediter Since 2003. Team driver with wife Diane.
Eight years with FedEx Custom Critical (White Glove).
Now with Landstar Express America.
Contributing Writer, Expedite NOW magazine.
The truck is our home, the nation our back yard.
Personal Web Site - Truck Specs - Twitter - Daily Blog
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11-07-2008, 10:09 AM #9
Re: Last two weeks
Gee Phil...you can get long in the tooth at times.....but your also quite right!
Jack Berrys van still for sale!! Great price NOW! $20,000....see link to contact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-B...45834202148748
Drive less...Make more...$$$
It's not how much you run,
It's how much you run for... $$$
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11-07-2008, 11:10 AM #10Senior Member
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- Greensburg, Indiana, USA.
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- 2,816
Re: Last two weeks
It might also be, that if a couple weeks are that large an issue for you or, your drivers, then this may well be the time to "pull the plug". Or, take a looong hard look at where you may be better off doing things you/they don't wanna.
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11-07-2008, 01:17 PM #11
Re: Last two weeks
Also...tell them to thank all the Toyota and Honda drivers for buying foreign vehicles.
See it does make a difference if you buy a Ford, Chrysler or GM product.Lawrence,
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11-07-2008, 03:19 PM #12Senior Member
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- Nov 1999
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- Greensburg, Indiana, USA.
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Re: Last two weeks
I'll agree Lawrence. It's way too bad it has come to the point that we thank folks for using equipment from manufacturers you mentioned. However, myself, like the folks that bought from them, I actually enjoyed delivering their needed items, and avoided the UAW broken companys like the plague the last few years. Just how ya look at it.
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11-07-2008, 03:41 PM #13
Re: Last two weeks
Actually expedite loads are a killer of the auto industry...somewhere some how someone messed up...It adds directly to the cost of that car/truck.
Right now with the slow down, suppliers are able to keep up for the most part barring any unexpected breakdown of machinery...
Goes to show by the expedite freight of Ford and GM just how bad thier supply chain was and unorganized.
Thats why counting on auto expedite is a very bad habit....I mean look at Timken....almost 12 loads a day average outta Bucyrus plant alone and now what 2? Since they reworked thier computer system...no company can survive that for long.
Any carrier too focused on the auto business is going to suffer..and especially YOU the owner/driver.
If your carrier does 50% or more your in real dodo..thats half the fleet sitting around...Jack Berrys van still for sale!! Great price NOW! $20,000....see link to contact
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-B...45834202148748
Drive less...Make more...$$$
It's not how much you run,
It's how much you run for... $$$
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11-07-2008, 04:23 PM #14
Re: Last two weeks
ken,
the last ofc gig i had was in transportation.
we were supposed to be saving money with the new computerized trans program but the constant expedites outside the system changed nothing. after 6 months the big boss was telling our supervisors we were the problem.
i was told by the onsite product planners in fargo and grand island it was less expensive to bring in items expedite direct to the factory rather than pay a frt chg, in fee , storage fee, out fee and transport across town, from the storage space.
jack berry & gracie berry
2008 ford e-350 hcv
ooida member 889111
"the cure for rejection is-being able to see yourself as God sees you. It means announcing, "I am what God says I am, I have what God says I have, therefore, I can do what God says I can do". So even if you didn;t get off to a good start, you can still have a great finish"-Bob Gass
http://www.expeditersonline.com/foru...r-threads.html
http://www.expeditersonline.com/foru...n-threads.html
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11-07-2008, 04:30 PM #15
Re: Last two weeks
A: I deliver freight to Honda and Toyota, more than to the (former) Big 3.
B: Honda and Toyota are providing good jobs for our working folks - they don't pay ludicrous salaries, but they are pretty good jobs, in an economy with a serious - no, make that a crippling, shortage of them.
C: If the American mfrs can't compete, (which seems likely, given their inability to change their wrongheaded practices and procedures), then they deserve to fail. That's how capitalism works, no?
As true as the bumpersticker "Without trucks, America stops" is, it's just as true for decent jobs - we cannot survive as a healthy society without jobs that provide an opportunity to get ahead, instead of behind. I wish the American mfrs were providing them, but they are not, are they?
DELIVERING THE FUTURE, WHATEVER IT TAKES.
OOIDA 743749
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