My point was I wouldn't see you and Diane entering in 1995 with primarily manual transmissions, low quality APUs, etc.
You are correct. Cab comfort was a factor in our entry. Sleeper comfort came later when we built a truck of our own. We drove fleet-owner, 77-inch factory sleeper trucks for the first three years. But you never know. If the money was as good in 1995 as the old-salt expediters are are fond of talking about, we might have jumped in then had the opportunity come into view.
If you were doing research now I don't think your numbers would have you leave careers to enter the expediting industry.
I would not rule it out. When we did our research, we spoke to over 20 fleet owners asking them "how much do your best drivers make and what makes them your best drivers?" Armed with that information, we entered the trade and grossed over $20,000 our very first month. (It also helped that FedEx gave us White Glove flags before we hauled our first-ever load and that we were in a fleet owner's White Glove truck.)
If you were a newbie entering the trade today, asking fleet owners those same two questions, what would the fleet owners tell you? Same for recruiters. If you asked them those two questions, what would they say about the best drivers in their fleets? Once you know who the best drivers are, what would they say if you asked them the same questions? By best, I don't mean those who are best known. I mean those who make the most money.
Who are the top money makers today? How much are they making? What are they doing that the average and below-average money makers are not? Once the answers to those questions are known and confirmed with multiple sources, an expediter wannabe who is willing to do what the top performers do can decide if expediting is worth a try.
With all that said, notable changes that developed while we were in the business or shortly after we got out include:
- Fleet owner fleets have gotten larger. At FedEx, when we started, no fleet owner was allowed to run more than five trucks and they all got the same deal. Now it is common to see larger fleet-owner fleets with many carriers and some boast about the special deals they have.
- Flat rate dispatching has become more widespread.
- With innovation and technology, Sylectus went from an out-of-place looking guy presenting his idea in a non-descript booth at MATS into the powerhouse it is today.
- The number of expedite carriers has increased.
- The regulatory burden increased, most notably electronic logging and CSA. Getting a ticket for an inoperative marker light became a big deal that haunts you for three years.
- The cost of credentials went up (higher license fees, fingerprinting for HAZMAT, TWIC card fees, etc.)
- Fuel is higher now than it was when we entered but lower than it's previous highs.
- Fuel surcharge became a factor.
- Telephone booths all but disappeared.
- The Expedite Expo (the expedite industry's defining trade show) grew bigger every year and continues to do so.
- A number of expedite carriers became subsidiaries of larger companies (Roberts to FedEx, Panther to ABF, Express-1 to XPO, maybe more).
- A lot of expedited freight is being moved by less-than-elite trucks (yellow trucks), with those trucks sometimes hired by FedEx (True when we were in, maybe no longer true.)
- A whole new class of freight appeared (TVAL).
- FedEx started running company-owned reefer trailers against owner-operator reefer trucks, giving them preferential dispatch.
- The FedEx dispatch system has been changed multiple times, not always in favor of the driver.
- Shipping alternatives to expedite carriers have developed like next-day LTL.
- Labor rates for truck repair have increased, as has most other costs of operating a truck.
- Custom sleepers have gotten smaller on new expediter trucks.
- By all reports, the industry-wide expedite fleet is increasing in truck age and declining in truck condition.
- The Great Recession drove a number of custom sleeper manufacturers out of business and no new ones have emerged to take their place that I know of.
Those are the changes that come immediately to my mind. Seasoned expediters can no-doubt add to the list.
But notice this. To have an impact on one's emotions and thinking, every one of these changes requires some knowledge about how things used to be.
When Diane and I began researching the business, we saw it through new eyes. The EO Open Forum was flooded with comments about how great things used to be. A number of owner-operators who boasted about their experience said we were certain to fail because we were not real expediters (whatever that meant).
As it turned out, the times were changing (just as they always do) and those who did not change with them got left behind. Seeing the industry with fresh (some say naive) eyes, the past did not matter. We saw the industry as it existed at the time and capitalized on the opportunities that then presented themselves.
In other words, to newbies, it does not matter to us how things used to be. It matters only how things are now.
I have not researched the industry in the present day, but if I wanted to know how to make a go of it now, it would not be learned by looking at how things used to be. It would be learned by looking at how things are now and at what the top money-makers are doing today.
In general, it seems that there is less money to be made than was once the case (smaller sleepers, lower rates, older trucks, higher costs, etc.). But is it not also true that people continue to enter the trade today? And is it not also true that some of them do better than others?
For a newbie looking at this business, there may yet be much in expediting to make one's spirit soar while fattening the wallet too.
Don't let the wails of the old-salts get you down. A number of old-salts thought the world was coming to an end when FedEx gave two inexperienced drivers the White Glove flag. Many of them could not imagine non-truckers like us lasting more than a year in the business.
If you are a new person considering this opportunity today, listen to the voices of experience, of course. But understand also that with the fresh eyes you have, you may well see a path to success to which some old salts may be blind.
As time passes, the value of experience fades. The acquired knowledge of common telephone booth locations gained over the years is irrelevant today. An expediter who knows every major road in every state may be quickly passed over by a carrier who values more a newbie's desire to keep all marker lights functioning. An expediter who remembers dearly the ability to run a couple of loads and take two weeks off has nothing meaningful to say to a newbie who may conclude today that it is best to stay out and run hard for three months before taking time off.
Fresh eyes are not a liability in today's world. Indeed, they may be the very thing one needs to spot the opportunities expediting presents today.
