expediting: passion or necessity

gospelriders · Jan 26, 2012

it is good to see what E.O. means to people and it has been a help to us in our decision.just wanted to know why you all do the trucking /expediting?
for me i have the wanderlust that started when i was a kid.
48 states visited ( lived in eleven) by the age of 13!
1967 spent an entire summer with stepdad in an old peterbuilt running around midwest and south.do local straight now, but it's just not the same. i have been blessed with a wife who has caught the "fever" also.
so do you do this out of passion?
out of necessity?
what if any other career have you done?
always are curious as to why people do what they do. thanks

chetjester · Jan 26, 2012

Passion. Can't get it out of my blood. Expediting (with a few changes to OTR Reefer during the time) for almost 8 years.

Fluent in Visual FoxPro programming. Fluent in Visual Basic programming. Former APICS CFPIM and CIRM. Spoke at many international conferences and published in APICS Magazine in 1993. Oracle Certified DBA. Expert in Fourth Shift ERP software.

So, I have many many other options. But, I'm 62 and like to drive and see America. I also like to read as I sit while waiting for my next load.

And, it pays better than retirement.

Moot · Jan 26, 2012

chetjester said:
Former APICS CFPIM and CIRM. Spoke at many international conferences and published in APICS Magazine in 1993.

Chet, I actually know what all that gibberish means. My wife was in APICS for about 15 years. She was a CPIM but never a Fellow. Definitely never a fellow.

purgoose10 · Jan 26, 2012

gospelriders said:
it is good to see what E.O. means to people and it has been a help to us in our decision.just wanted to know why you all do the trucking /expediting?
for me i have the wanderlust that started when i was a kid.
48 states visited ( lived in eleven) by the age of 13!
1967 spent an entire summer with stepdad in an old peterbuilt running around midwest and south.do local straight now, but it's just not the same. i have been blessed with a wife who has caught the "fever" also.
so do you do this out of passion?
out of necessity?
what if any other career have you done?
always are curious as to why people do what they do. thanks

Not a day goes by when talking to my 4 drivers that I think of hitting the road again. After 42 yrs the asphalt just turns your blood black. Then I start thinking of I-294 @ 4pm on a Friday going away from home and not towards it. Then my thoughts start getting alittle foggy. One driver of mine runs the Northwest every few weeks on a contract and returns and it has to be done with speed and care, so I double up with him in his van and go. He likes it because I pay all his expenses when we go.

chetjester · Jan 26, 2012

That's pretty awesome, Moot. As involved as I as in APICS, I never met many people other than other APICS people who knew what it was. But, it was my life from 1982 until 2004.

layoutshooter · Jan 26, 2012

Expediting is a business for us. It is how we support ourselves. Nothing more.

scottm4211 · Jan 26, 2012

layoutshooter said:
Expediting is a business for us. It is how we support ourselves. Nothing more.

I agree with the guy with the shotgun.

gospelriders · Jan 28, 2012

thanks for the responses. we have been business owners in the past(14 yrs. with 2 health food stores and a training studio)and i was also a carpenter for 12 yrs. we understand the ups and downs of economies,so we are not coming into this naive.

cash reserves, no mortgage, and no car payments and we like living by faith. 10% unemployed still means 90% are still working.

chefdennis · Jan 28, 2012

I have retired a few times...each time starting another venture..At this time between my wife and i we own 4 businesses...But i get to play...Drove trucks for my dad too many yrs agi, but i figure thats where i bite me, and while it took a long me and making and losing and making money again, 5 yrs ago i found my way back...

Yes it is a business and i run it assuch, but, I certainly can say I Love what I do.....So while it is a business, its become a passion..

On a added note, in the 5 yrs i have been doing this, my wife had never rode more then 2-3 miles in either of the vans we own.

She had an idea of what we do and to a smaller extent, how we do it and maybe even a little bit of a little understanding of why. Unexpectedly, last week she went on the road with me..over 3000 miles in the Cargo Max...no hotel rooms, showers at the "J" and a "Pilot"...eating in the truck as i drove and reading her Kindle at 3 am while we did a Straight thru run from Memphis to Chicago....then sleeping in a Wal-mart. Then a load from Chicago back home in a snow strom....Yea she was able to go to New Orleans and eat Cajun food in Baton Rouge...She had a good time.

But just today, as she was telling me about her telling her friends about our trip, she said that she told them that she has a greater appreciation for what we do..an better understanding of our life out here..and that she has a new respect for all of it and us...She also said she could do it again, for a week, but never as we do....It was a nice thing to hear...she undersatnds their is more to it then , just making money....

ErieBigDawg · Jan 28, 2012

Biz owner for almost 32 years and LEO for 25, doing this until my wife can retire, which might be sooner then we expected! I tried the retirement thing and it's not for me yet.

Monty · Jan 29, 2012

I had many other life experiences I could draw upon also ... but I chose trucking. That was in 1969, and I still have the wheels turning.

Sidenote: I began trucking as a local moving van driver, loading in the morning and delivering in the afternoon in the Washington, D.C area, then off to meat hauling in 1970 from Omaha to the east coast. Then settled down to freight with the CRST and Schneider. Then Roberts Express and on to Hot Shot Express. Lately with Landstar Express America.

While trucking is what I want to do, expediting is also a thrill. But at 67, it's getting a bit more tedious with the long haul, overnighters.

So I kinda cherry pick the shorter stuff, and throw in a long haul now and then for the excitment, and a bit more revenue.

I am eligible to just park the thing, but I continue to drive, because I love it. However, long about August this year I plan on giving it all up. (Anyone wanna buy a Sprinter?)

vanman10 · Jan 29, 2012

Career 1.0
I was in computer information systems management and consulting. I have a business degree, am a Microsoft MCSE and a Cisco CCNA among other things. After divorce and later the company I worked for closing its local office, and just being burnout on the computer and office life, I decided it was a great time to try something else and travel on land more than in the air as I use to do. I got my class A CDL, was a company driver for a while, then later on my brother-inlaw suggested I try expediting and I liked the idea of being an O/O.

Career 2.0
I have been expediting for almost 2 years now in a van and really enjoy what I do. The learning curve on what equipment to purchase and how to organized my manhouse has been a constant work in progress but chefdennis, notanewbie, ontariovanman, and many others on EO made things a lot easier and more fun. Many Thanks!

Today I am contemplating going to the next level with my equipment and purchasing a CargoMaxx unit and bringing on another driver for my "starter" van that has treated me so well, however, I am getting remarried in September and need to do a little soul searching first to make sure I want to put in the time on the road to pay for the new investment and bring in enough income to keep me happy.

Stay tuned. Thanks EO

gospelriders · Jan 29, 2012

i sure have to give you "vanners" credit for being able to stay out for so long.if i was doing this alone then i probably would be going the same route.with the wife and i ,straight is better since it will be our "home" for weeks at a time. no retirement plans for 10 to 12 yrs. yet, even then would like to do the work-camper thing out of a motorhome.

truckn-lace · Feb 3, 2012

Hi expediting is the best thing that has ever happened to us. It has its up's and down's for sure but if you want to be out here and see the USA this is the way to do it. I have so many pictures I have took and will in the future be displaying some of my works. I have been asked for some of my pictures and I plan to display some of them in the near furture at our OLd Threshers in our town and who knows. where that may lead. You see life thru the windshield but taking some of those so special moments and capture them on your camera is the best. Enjoy life that is the best sharing it with your partner is the greatest.