Cargo Van Expediter Featured on OverdriveOnline

BigCat

Expert Expediter
There is a straight truck expediter being featured in december's issue as well. Not sure who as they wouldn't release it on Facebook.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
Last year, he says, “I turned $65,000” gross on “about 100,000 miles, with $18,000 worth in fuel.”

Where do I sign up?
 

hondaking38

Veteran Expediter
nice looking rig !!! and i do like nissans, would consider it if it comes in the extended version, will have to look it up
 

xiggi

Veteran Expediter
Owner/Operator
The cab design might not them allow it to be as long as a sprinter. That long nose takes a lot of space.

Sent from my Fisher Price ABC123 via EO Forums
 

pearlpro

Expert Expediter
Regular readers and commenters may well recognize the name “Don Lanier” from my own past reporting, chiefly the big Top Challenges feature back in August, and from his frequent commentary on various and sundry of the items we report on here at the OverdriveOnline.com. I got the opportunity to meet the former Home Depot company flatbedder and current expediter (pictured) via a chance phone call a couple weeks back now.

I’m at work on a feature covering the expediting segment of trucking. Knowing Lanier had a straight Freightliner leased with J.D. Logistics up in Michigan, I called Lanier to see whether he may be able to lend any perspective on the business only to find out he was sitting waiting to get load just 30 minutes or so from Nashville up in Springfield, Tenn.

He also was no longer with J.D. but had moved with the last few weeks to become a driver for a small fleet leased to Nashville-based DMW Expedite with hopes of buying his own truck in the New Year.

He was positive about both his new carrier as well as expediting in general. For those of you already part of that small but lucrative industry segment, does this sound familiar?: “It’s really varied, but it keeps things interesting,” he says of one of the chief attractions of the business. “Far more interesting than loading up with carrots and driving from here to Ohio, Ohio to wherever else. I did that with the Home Depot for almost four years. After you’ve seen that much lumber you start turning into a piece of lumber yourself.”

He ran flatbed for a long time out of the St. Louis Home Depot warehouse, then for another year “I ran curtainside,” he says, delivering plastic shelving products down into the Texas area. “That’s where I got my first taste” of what expedited loads were like, he says. “You had multiple drops. You’d go to Tyler and Odessa and San Antonio and Galveston – you’d open up the curtainside and say, ‘Here’s your product, one pallet, and hey, goodbye.’”

Few long waits for unloading, just quick drops and off you go.

“In expediting, you’re in and you’re out,” he says of his current operation’s similarities to that year of curtainside hauling. “I might sit there and wait 5-10 minutes” before load or unload, given the often critical nature of the freight.

But there are trade-offs. “Then your off to sit and wait in parking lots,” he says. “I know more about Wal-Mart’s parking lots than” most Wal-Mart management, he guesses.

Fortunately for him, as he prefers to space and relative peace and quiet of such places, compared to crowded truck stops, he can actually get into them with the straight truck, his current ride a 2007 Freightliner M2 106 that averages around 10-plus mpg per gallon, hauling typically less than 7,000 pounds of freight. It’s another attractive aspect of expediting for the individual or husband-wife team most content by themselves and with time to spend however they like. Lanier spends a great deal of his time reading books, or he might drive to a nearby movie theater.

In any case, this only really scratches the surface of the various plus-sides of the business. Have you ever thought about moving into the segment? What would be the most attractive aspect of it? Weigh in, whether you’re in it now or not, via this link to a poll on the subject.
 

OHWC2012

Active Expediter
What a DEAL!

I sure hope that was net 65k and not gross. Otherwise this guy might as well do something else.

65k-18k for fuel = 47k

47k - 10k a year in van cost (400k miles) = 37k

37k - 2k (very minimal maint.) = 35k

35k - 1.2 k (min. ins.) = 33.8 k

33.8k x .15 = just over 5k for self employment taxes = 28.8k

net per mile = .288 cents per mile at minimal costs or 553 per week or 2200 per month.

At that rate with all the assumed risk other than cargo insurance he might as well go do something else for a living.
 

GandJ

Active Expediter
I sure hope that was net 65k and not gross. Otherwise this guy might as well do something else.

At that rate with all the assumed risk other than cargo insurance he might as well go do something else for a living.

You could look at it that way. BUT, what do you suggest the 74 year old do to make that money? Seems like he likes what he does.

I love the part where he lost 1/2 of his produce business and he made a pivot and kept right on going. Love it!
 

paullud

Veteran Expediter
I sure hope that was net 65k and not gross. Otherwise this guy might as well do something else.

65k-18k for fuel = 47k

47k - 10k a year in van cost (400k miles) = 37k

37k - 2k (very minimal maint.) = 35k

35k - 1.2 k (min. ins.) = 33.8 k

33.8k x .15 = just over 5k for self employment taxes = 28.8k

net per mile = .288 cents per mile at minimal costs or 553 per week or 2200 per month.

At that rate with all the assumed risk other than cargo insurance he might as well go do something else for a living.

The figures sound about right for an average.

Sent from my ADR6400L using EO Forums
 

chefdennis

Veteran Expediter
OHWC wrote:

I sure hope that was net 65k and not gross. Otherwise this guy might as well do something else.


Article said that $65,000 was Gross....Ahhh...not me....
 

pearlpro

Expert Expediter
Im pretty sure he does it PART TIME...that might make a difference, I doubt hes livin in the van, or on the road 3 weeks at a time, lives at home, works in and around Nashvegas...not a bad livin for a 74 year old fella really, I doubt his expenses are what your figuring for a full time vanner, etc...he prolly paid cash for his van....and doesnt have any debt, its what keeps him going, Livin, Movin....I cant say for sure Ive never met him, But thats the impression I have.
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
A typical day: Up at 6 a.m. for a 9:30 a.m.pickup, then "seven hours round-trip out and back,” he says, usually with very little wait time at the receiver.

“It’s beautiful, sun shining,” he said from the road early this month on his way home, where he sleeps every night.

300-400 mile radius of Nashville.

So, it's about an 11-14 hour day, 100,000 miles. Sleeps in his own bed, but I'm not sure I'd classify that as part time.
 

Rocketman

Veteran Expediter
I wouldn't trade jobs with him, but you have to realize that the pay is about equal to that of a 40hr/week job paying in the $14-$15/hr range before taxes. Taking the taxes out of his earnings misrepresents the picture some imo.
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
It is guys like this that help in one way to keep our rates low....while he is 74 and doing what he loves, I have NO admiration for this guy when it comes to the overall business, doing 100,000 miles which is NOT part time..

He is probably collecting Social Sec. to supplement that LOW income....

another 1,000 guys like this we might as well pack our bags...
 

OntarioVanMan

Retired Expediter
Owner/Operator
The figures sound about right for an average.

Sent from my ADR6400L using EO Forums

No that is not average.....maybe that is why you gave it up and went back to TT because you could not make it?...you failed as a CV driver.
 
Top