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Diane and I have worked through the emotions relative to our carrier's move toward company-owned equipment and preferential dispatch, and have settled on a course of action. Interested readers can read the details in today's post in my daily blog. You will see that we are making certain...

Just a follow up to what I wrote yesterday in this thread. The technique I described worked like a charm. The facts have not changed. Our circumstances have not changed (we are still stuck on the West Coast). But by focusing on our goals and taking note of our emotions, we were able to quickly...

No need for that. People for whom Bible references or Bible study are important already carry Bibles in their trucks. Online, there are hundreds if not thousands of Christian sites where Bible study can be done and a sense of Christian fellowship can be gained as people interact there...

The most difficult job an expediter has in his or her day-to-day work is maintaining a positive attitude and clear head when faced with the frequent negative circumstances the work entails. The negative circumstances include things like an unanticipated truck breakdown, loads that are canceled...

Having only a 14 mile run to complete today, I had time to talk with several people. One called me from the company. The others included fleet owners, drivers and an interested person who does not work for FedEx but had information to share. I appreciate the willingness that FedEx Custom...

I am not clear on how exactly it will work with flat-rate trucks and WG team qualifications. I only know what the recruiter told me, which is that the teams are expected to be WG qualified. As far as I know, the trailers will be supplied to the tractor owners or their drivers who will pull them...

I called our contractor coordinator yesterday, explained that we are stranded on the West Coast, and asked her to give us preferential treatment in the dispatch order to help get us back east where freight can be found. I asked her to go into the system, find us a sweet load, and put us on it so...

The additional trailers being purchased are reefer trailers. Prospective tractor contractors and tractor fleet owners are being told by recruting that the teams that will pull these trailers are to be White Glove qualified and the trailers are to be stocked with White Glove equipment at the...

I just want to add, that I and another driver I know who is equally concerned have been talking to various people at our carrier about this. More may be talking too but I have no knowledge of that. My sense is that most people at the company are believing only what they are told at meetings...

I spoke to a fleet owner today who told me he has purchased his last straight truck. Any new trucks he buys will be tractors that will go on the FDCC flat rate program if he can find qualified teams who are willing to stay on the road long enough to make the flat rate tractors pay. If that does...

Those two practices, while real at the time, were abandoned long ago.

No it doesn't. Not when the loads that take you back east are pre-dispatched two and three loads deep to flat rate trucks pulling company owned trailers. Loads that used to normally bubble up in the flow and be seen by trucks with dwell time are taken out of the system, fundamentally altering...

If it has become a two way street, that is a recent development, and I am not convinced that it is a two way street. It does not make sense to me that, as intensely focused on CSA compliance as it is, FDCC would also bring in a driver who has a violation that disqualifies him with Panther...

Thank you for your response. For newbies and others who are interested in a comparison, my response is below. I am a little confused by your statement that "I alone determine how successful I am...." I have seen and talked to Landstar drivers who were sitting longer than they were happy with...

But that is not what is happening. The freight has not slowed. It has slowed only for straight trucks. The freight is shifting onto carrier owned trailers that are pulled by flat rate tractors. They are predispatched back out before trucks with dwell time in California are offered the freight...

May I ask, why do you love Landstar? What about it exactly do you love?

Re: We want your input on a radio show on truckers. I disagree. Diane and I are regular NPR listeners as I am sure many other EO readers are too. We listen to many radio stations to get our news, information and talk show entertainment as we drive including FOX, MSNBC, BBC, CNN, CBC...

West Coast runs have been discussed recently in the FedEx Custom Critical forum with some contractors saying the freight has slowed in western states and that they are avoiding the area for that reason. I have responded with our truck history saying the west has been good for Diane and me and we...

I would much prefer a hair test to urine. The sample is easier and less degrading to provide. Clinics can handle it easier. The test makes it more difficult if not impossible to provide a bogus sample since someone at the clinic would collect it instead of sending you into a private room to...

Diane and I recently visited over breakfast with four other expediters and the subject of fleet owners came up. The six of us knew of several fleet owners but also knew most of them to be either shrinking their fleets or getting out of the business altogether. We knew of no fleet owners who had...