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And this relates to expediting how?

You might want to reconsider your claim. It is simply false that TripPak "paperwork always gets lost." Diane and I have run well over 500 loads and used TripPak to send in the paperwork on every one. Not once has a TripPak envelope been lost. We can count on one hand the times a log book sheet...

Diane and I are among them, but not for lack of trying to "buy American" as some call it. At one point in our lives, Diane drove a Toyota and I drove a Honda. Feeling an urge to do the patriotic thing and needing to replace the Toyota, we bought a Ford. In the first year, the Ford broke down...

I don't want to minimize or soft peddle the negative effects of a GM bankrupcy. A recent CNN article describes them well. Even if the numbers source is dismissed as bias and the numbers are reduced by half, a GM bankrupcy would have a negative economic impact. But the problem is, bailout or...

If it's clean, it's my favorite.

18 axles! With three passes through a New York toll booth that rig could eliminate that state's deficit.

GM's failure would be a sad story to be sure. The 1 in 10 statistic that has been batted around is a bit of a stretch. As I read it, 1 in 10 jobs are tied to the automotive industry, not to GM. It is ironic for GM to be tossing the number out. A lot of those 1 in 10 jobs are in brand new plants...

Would it be a nightmare or just reaping what they sewed? If GM fails, there will not be a shortage of cars. It will take some time but the economically viable components of the company will find new life somewhere else. The non-viable components will disappear. A major bailout will not change...

Nope. Still with FedEx Custom Critical. My comment about competent dispatchers available 24 hours a day was not a complaint. It was a suggested desirable feature. While there is the occasional hiccup, we feel we have competent dispatchers 24 hours a day. It is rare that a dispatch issue rises...

Yes. And you can also express your jealousy for not having them.

I actually feel a sense of relief reading your post. It has nothing to do with Panther. It has to do with knowing that Diane and I are not the only ones experiencing slow freight. It is easier to sit when you know others are sitting too. While we of course would prefer to be busy over slow...

Thinking about this a bit further and returning to the original topic, it occurred to me that we are talking about the differences new eyes can see. Leo is new to the FedEx Custom Critical system. Diane and I have grown accustomed to it. It is analogous to us using a rotary phone while Leo is...

It seems that the newer the truck, the less work you can do on it yourself. Sensor errors, program glitches and proprietary computer systems force dealer visits just to keep the truck running. In the old days, if the brake light came on, you would do the logical thing and look at the brakes...

I would add one thing to TeamCaffee's excellent post. Your carrier should make competent dispatchers available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Maybe for you. Not for us. Many times we are predispatched on the next run before we complete the current run. And as I said, truck counts do not change such that delivering a few hours early would make a difference for us. And, the customers we serve often do not want an early delivery. Getting...

I am none of the above. Many of our loads run straight through and we drive straight through. Many others may pick up say at 3:00 p.m. and are short enough to get us to the delivery at 3:00 a.m. the next day or two days later. With those, there is nothing to do but wait since the consignee...

Then disagree we will. You are injecting "confirmed" into this. I have not used the word and it makes no difference. When Diane and I are on a load we are focused 100% on meeting the customer's needs. Whether the load is confirmed or not, we abide by the delivery times. Almost always, the...

Many have said here in the Open Forum that a recession shakes out the weak players and the strong pick up the slack. I came across this article today that puts some numbers to the theory. While it appears things will get worse before they get better, it was encouraging to read, "A record...

That's correct. It is also correct that some ways of communicating are better than others when it comes to managing driver liability and not making yourself a pest. Delivering early is seldom possible for us so it is not an issue. The freight we haul is most often time-specific. For the same...

Diane just mentioned another aspect of this. Just this week, she was standing in line with a half-dozen other drivers at a consignee's shipping/receiving office window. The others were there to deliver too. The phone rang. On the other end was a driver requesting directions to the delivery. The...