Employee Owned Expediting Company

[teacel]

As the wheeles of the van, or truck turn, so do the wheeles in our heads}> .Looking back into the archives I read many threads that have alot of discontent in them:'( (there are good ones too) Along with the post last week:+ , (who's in that truck...and why?) I started to brain storm an expediting company that was owned and operated by the drivers }> .I came up with many ways this could be done.I wanted to put this out there to all of you to see how you feel about it:+ =yes, or x( =no. Depending on the feedback I will post a poll. After that! well the skys the limit!!!

The driver takes the load to the customer
The driver owns the truck
The driver has most if not all of the expense
AND the company gets most of the money

Who painted that picture????????

 

[Wild Bill]

Sounds good. But I am a pessimist. (Actually, I'm a optimist with life experience)

1.Financial You would need more resources that most of us cannot afford right now. (e.g.... an office, an administrator, salesmen..etc) It would take forever to get a toehold in the marketplace and create name recognition. We would end up running TPS loads just to keep the company and the o/o's afloat. Then we would come full circle.

Right now most are doing their best to make their truck payments. Venture capital for a "Peoples Express" would be near impossiable.

2.SafetyThanks to big brother. These days it takes more than just a truck to be a trucking company. You need someone who can audit logs, keep up with mandatory drug tests, permits and compliance. There are some companies that do that and they charge a fortune.

3.Administration Not would we need one person to act as a dispatcher, one to act as a safety person. But also a person to be book keeper/accounts payable/accounts receiveable clerk. Corporate books need to be kept and quarterly taxes need to be filed. (Not to mention road and state taxes) They would have to be able to do billing, and pay the company bills. (Including o/o settlements).

I'm not saying it is a bad idea. If visonaries listened to naysayers and pundits we would still be in the stone age. I just think that given the current economy and the current international situation it is the wrong time.

 

[RumblePuppy]

Wild Bill, you must have been a company owner sometime in the past!
I agree 100+% with your assessment of the problems and responsibilities of a company start-up.

I had a small fleet not too many years ago and found out first hand all about the administrative woes!!
I came to the conclusion that, among other things, I always wanted to be at least one step away from the DOT and other GOVT agencies!!
Many O/O trucking co operations have come and gone in the last 30 years that paid the operators anywhere up to 85% of revenues, but the amounts left to run the operations weren't enough to keep them in business. Anyone can read about the failure rate every day!
I don't fault any company for keeping enough of the revenue to cover all the costs of doing business, as it is up to us as independent sub-contractors to decide if the carrier we work with is splitting the revenue in a fair manner and we are recieving enough to stay in business ourselves!!
Anyone who thinks that they can operate the entire business of a trucking company from the drivers seat of his/her vehicle should definitely try it and discover first hand the total number of "support personnel" he/she has to be divided into!!
I found out that I like all that high quality office support! Because our group is 24/7/365, it means I don't have to worry about anything till right before I need it, and then it's only a phone call, or QUAL-COMM keystroke, away!! ( I've mentioned some of the benefits of a large company affiliation before )

AGAIN, We all need some good luck to go along with our SKILLS !!!

 

[ACE]

Good Idea Teacel.
I agree that it would not be easy as suggested by the first response.
I have some thoughts on how this could be over come.
1]With the many different people that have had other careers in the business world we could surely find people who may be intrested in becoming active in this type of enterprise. These individuals would be compensated by shares of stock in the corporation. Other individuals would buy stock. This would get the capital needed to start the business and move forward. We would not need large offices or fixed assets. Most of the work could be done off site and mailed to a central location so that it would be available for Big Brother.
2]We could look at different ways of getting business. Independent Sales People. The stock holders would have many contacts that could be investigated for possible leads. Work with local small to middle size freight companies & local courier Co.that may be intrested in expanding the service to customers by offering our service.
3]Yes times are slow now,but this may be the time to explore such an idea,because when things are moving along and busy. Many decesion makers are unwilling to take the time to listen to new companies or switch from familiar patterns.
4]We would have a great wealth of Knowledge from the new stock holders from this we could find out what our competiors do well and poorly. We copy and improve what they do well, and learn from what they do poorly.

 

[RichM]

I do believe it!s doable.all of us could put together a very large customer data base.There is a a great deal of experience in both expediting and business knowledge on this site. When Lawerence first started this site I along with a good friend thought that eventually Expediters On Line would create it!s own company.We all know of bad management and wasted revenue that goes on at the various companys home offices.I would be willing to explore the possibility of a start up operation run by PROFFESIONALS such as us.. Lets all think about it..