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A five-fatality, 13-vehicle crash (actually a series of crashes) occured on the Florida Turnpike this morning. News video shows a straight-truck expediter was involved. Current news reports do not mention that driver or drivers among the injured or killed but reports are not complete. This...

In recent months, a number of topics have prompted a number of conversations here in the Open Forum. They include how FedEx Surface Expedite Network (announced at the 2006 Louisville truck show) will affect contractors and contractor pay, FedEx Custom Critical's plans to expand its fleet size to...

Goal Oriented Expediting (Word count: 1,079, two printed pages) Having reviewed the numbers of our three-plus years in expediting, it is as clear to me as the sun in the sky that a one-truck (straight or semi), husband/wife expediting team with a good work ethic, clean record and ordinary...

Many Open Forum readers know Glen and Janice Rice and about the accident that ended their expediting careers. While the Rices continue to struggle with the injuries and aftermath of the accident, a new challenge has risen. On Tuesday, doctors will do major surgery on Glen to remove and examine...

In the past, I have taken breaks from Open Forum participation to focus on other items. It is time to do so once again. I'm going "off-forum" until March 1. The time I would have put into the Open Forum will be focused on our business and a couple personal projects instead. This month FedEx...

Jeff Jensen did a nice piece entitled, "Drivers From a Fleet Owner Perspective." It can be read at: http://www.expeditersonline.com/artman/publish/expeditedtruckers-fleetowners.html For first-time drivers looking for fleet owners, this is a good piece to read. If you are a prospective driver...

A locked thread entitled "Give Up" speaks of a situation where a driver believed his fleet owner owed him money. In an attempt to recover the money, the driver retained posession of the truck but did not drive it as originally intended. See...

True or False? In todays expediting market, it is possible for an empty-nester married couple to enter expediting with a near-zero net worth, work 15 to 20 years in the business as a driving team, and retire as millionaires.

I am giving serious thought to extending my oil change intervals to 25,000 miles from 15,000 (Volvo, VE-12 engine, straight truck). What leads me to do so is the improved oil (API CJ-4) that is now coming to market in response to the new 2007 engines that are also coming to market. See oil...

It is quite natural and quite common for people who first learn about expediting to immediatly start thinking of the kind of truck they want to drive; both for when they first start out and for later when they are in a position to spec the truck of their dreams. In the latest edition of...

When you go home for the holidays and put yourself out of service, do you put just the truck out or yourself (yourselves for teams) too? There is a difference, at least at FedEx. If you put your truck out of service but leave yourself in, you can be called in for a drug test; which might not be...

It seems there is more than the usual drumbeat of gloom filling the forums these days. Are we now in the bad times certain forum participants have been warning us about for years? If not, what are the signs? How, will someone new in the business know? I hear talk that things are not as good as...

I spotted this truck at a delivery yesterday. The owner uses it to travel from show to show selling his barbeque sauce. The storage area behind the cab is for product storage. It is wide enough for two skids and can be loaded with a fork lift. It opens full wide from both sides. He has E-Track...

This is probably old news to many but for those who do not know, three useful resources for winter trip planning are listed below. At the moment, Diane and I are sitting in Portland, OR, waiting to deliver at 08:00 local time. We are not pre-dispatched. As we wonder what we will be hauling...

Thanksgiving is obviously a time for giving thanks. At a deeper level, gratitude is a life-enhancing practice. It is a state of mind that you can turn on or off as you wish. The following exercise is good for lifting one's spirits. Try it and see. Requirements: 1. A pen or pencil 2. Paper to...

For the History of Expediting Project, I read the Panther registration statement and ammendments that are filed with the Security and Exchange Commission. For the full and most-current list of public Panther documents, go to: http://www.sec.gov/search/search.htm Enter "Panther Expedited" in...

On June 2, 2006, Panther Expedited Services Inc. announced that it was planning an initial public offering of as much as $250 million in common stock. The company filed a preliminary prospectus (FORM S-1) with the SEC which can still be read online at...

From BizJournals.com "Consolidation troubles are causing United Parcel Service Inc. to cut 1,200 jobs at its unprofitable UPS Supply Chain Solutions division. "In a conference call with analysts, company officials said UPS' Supply Chain and Freight segment, which includes UPS Supply Chain...

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