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Shirnk wrap cost per mile would need to be factored into the profit and loss statement.

A friend (not an expediter) recently bought a used box truck that he intends to vinyl wrap to use as a mobile billboard to promote his retail business. While this has nothing to do with FedEx, I know that a lot of FedEx Custom Critical drivers have gained some experience with vinyl wrap. I am...

There are many things to like about EO, but if I had to pick only one, it would be the sense of community it provides; the sense that you are not alone out here and that we have friends and colleagues on the road with us. It's more than the expediters we meet and visit with at truck stops...

I sometimes think about the trucking career I would have had if I had entered the industry as a young man and was willing to leave all hopes of a normal family life behind to live and work on the road. It seems to me that the big money is found on big-rig oversize, heavy-haul loads. That's not...

Another aspect of "the perfect run" for us has to do with being obviously and urgently needed, and appreciated. It's the kind of run where the pick-up is immediate, maybe on a Saturday or Sunday at a business that is normally closed on the weekends. Someone came in special to put that truly hot...

Since the dispatcher did not do so, maybe you, as a safety-conscious contractor who cares about his company and fellow drivers, should call safety and report that they have a dispatcher who seems to be pushing a driver beyond safe limits.

There was reference in another thread to the "perfect load." That got me to wondering, what is the perfect load? Thinking about it, the closest thing to a perfect load Diane and I have had was the one where we got dispatched one morning to pick up freight but did not move because the load...

Truck details?

We once ran under such a contract. The fleet owner left himself wide open to a driver using the truck as an RV and providing nothing in return. To terminate, the fleet owner would have to provide 30 days advance notice, giving the driver an additonal 30 days to party with the truck. Many...

Even if it is true what your dispatcher said, there is no guarantee that it would work out the same way if that Detroit to TN load was offered again. You could just as easily get marooned in TN or Laredo. When it comes to load acceptance, you can only make decisions in the present with the...

Yes and no. The load was put on our truck because we were willing to go to Canada and were a team that could drive it straight through. It went deep into Canada and a team was needed to get it there quickly. The solo driver in the yellow truck expedited it to us, we completed the rest of the...

I doubt that. DOT is very large. There are not enough of those trucks out there to earn the kind of money that would make a DOT-wide payoff feasable. Every once in a while, a news story surfaces about a DOT official, usually a low or mid-level official, who took bribes to look the other way...

That well may come to pass but keep in mind that these trucks are not registered as commecial vehicles. Most have no DOT numbers on them. A cop writing the wreck may not even know or care that the truck is being used for commercial purposes. The don't look much different than some private guy...

When with FedEx Custom Critical, Diane and I once did a cross-dock load with one of those vans. The van itself had been hired by FedEx to bring the freight from a southern state to us in a northern state. We took it from there to bring it into Canada. The cross docking happened at a FedEx...

I can see that combination of certifications would be valuable for someone who was doing warehouse and yard-dog work, or maybe driving one of those building supply delivery trucks with the fork lift that is carried to the unload site. In expediting, there is little call for expediters to...

It's not for sale yet but our truck (details here) will be sold sometime in the next few months. Unsure of the exact date at this time. I'll post an ad in the EO Free Classifieds when we are letting it go.

I know nothing about the cargo van segment of the expediting industry, but if I was a cargo van driver or owner-operator, I would place more weight in the above advice than advice given by ten other people. The reason is that as a carrier owner, Mr. Elliott has a bird's-eye view of the...

OK, OVM, you got me curious. What adjustments and fine tuning exactly did cargo van operators make? How are their operations different today than they were a decade ago? Are they making more money today than they did before?

Don't worry about burdening readers with the details. Many expediters use this space to vent. It is good therapy and cheaper than paying a shrink. It is also instructive, especially to new people who may be thinking of getting into the business.

Waiting for the bottom-feeder to go broke and wash out of the business is not a solution because as soon as one does, another will appear. Shippers know this and many of them count on it. They know that if they put freight out on their dock and are willing to wait, someone will come along to...