Fed Ex's Urgent Freight

[Adaire]

I talk with a rep from Urgent Freight, and what they are looking for are fleet owners (probably 15 or more units) to contract with. Right now they are not interested in contracting with small fleet owners or individual contactors. Their current game plan is to grow as rapidly as possible by working through large fleet owners, then using small fleet owners and individuals to fill the gaps.
My understanding is this market has risen from loads FedEx is missing. I don't know if that is true or not, as slow as it has been this year, but being the optomist, I hope it is true.

Any thoughts or comments are welcome.

Ed

I wish everybody the best of luck!!

 

[Bob and Hooligan]

Maybe I am missing something. If Fed EX so much freight that they are brokering loads off the internet, why are so many of us sitting? Wouldn't it make sense to offer these loads to the contractors they already have? They do it with TPS.

Soneone explain it to me....Please

 

[Adaire]

I don’t know if this will give you a satisfactory answer or not, but this might be why we are sitting so much.

There are about 2000 vehicles in the Fed Ex CC fleet - D and E units account for about 1,200 of these vehicles. What happens is these vehicles get clustered in certain areas, and the loads are in other areas. They say its hit and miss when vehicles are assigned to service centers.

((I think it's as much as poor fleet management as anything else) For example, a couple of weeks ago, I got caught in Atlanta with about 27 other B, D, and E units. I sat there for 12 hours before being offered paid deadhead to Chicago, where I received a dispatch offer within thirty minutes of getting there.)

Anyway, the size of FedEx CC is relatively small in size when you compare it to a Schneider or JB Hunt, (comparing apples to oranges) who together have over 35,000 trucks. Also, FedEx sends its vehicles to areas where expedited freight goes in, but doesn’t come out, i.e., places like Florida and Texas. Once again, you go to these places and sit before they will deadhead you to a load.

So that leads us to the point, the reason these loads are being missed is that FedEx CC does not have trucks close enough to respond to these customers. This comes down to no trucks in the area. Does this mean FedEx doesn’t have enough trucks? No. Probably just not managing the fleet effectively. It would make since to me if you drop a load in Atlanta, not to give me the option of Atlanta as an express center, if almost 30 trucks are there. Send me somewhere that needs the trucks, even if I deadhead a little.

I don’t want to sound like I’m defending FedEx, but I hope they are honest with us, because we have all made an investment with them, and it would be really easy for them to break us if they wanted to.

I wish everybody the best of luck.

 

[Bob and Hooligan]

Thanks for the info. It seems typical of the corporate thought process. "Don't use the assets you have, aquire more."

DVA was an expensive program which was supposed to manage the fleet better than their planning scetion. However, planning is who you have to get a relocation authorization.

They were having trouble covering auto loads, so they created Autoquick. Seems to me they could have saved money and made everyone happy by increasing the percentage paid to the existing fleet. Instead they hire new trucks and pay them a higher percentage for auto runs. Where is the logic there?

Make the recruiters sales people. If they can sell people on the idea that they will make money running the loads offered, they can sell ANYTHING!

 

[RichM]

To add some fuel to the fire,yesterday(thanksgiving) I was parking my truck near my son!s house in Suwanee GA and a car pulled in and the driver was the wife of the Atlanta sales agent for FedexCC.In the course of a nice conversation I mentioned how I was concerned over this UrgentFreight Load Boad.She said her husband and the other sales reps are up in arms about it also,as they are like us Exclusive sales reps for Fedex CC,paid a percentage of what their territory does and as a result of this web site will loose business to other expediting companies.She also said that the lower and middle level management at Fedex CC are 100% against this but have been overuled.Think about it,these guys work hard on building a customer base and it can all go away..

 

[Adaire]

I received my contractor newsletter today. Had a little piece about UrgentFreight. I hope they are being totally honest with us.

 

[redytrk]

Why not post that quote from contractor news letter?A lot of us wont see our mail for several weeks.As for trust...I only belive in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus!

 

[Zorro]

My humble opinion on UrgentFreight.com – What a great way for FECC to monitor the pricing within the expedited market! The bigwigs in Akron are loving it! All the carrier’s come in, bid on loads, then all of their pricing data is then stored within a computer in Akron for FECC to monitor their competition. Since competitors (TriState, Panther, Emery Expedite, Conway Now, Landstar Express America, etc…) have started popping up in the past 5-8 years, Roberts/FECC has heard the market cry that their prices were too high. This UrgentFreight.com eliminates the headscratching that used to go on in Akron over “just how much higher are our prices?” They now have a black and white comparison. However, I don’t think that FECC has the humility in them to reduce rates to look more attractive. And that is ashamed, because the market this site seems to be targeting is the small, infrequent shipper of expedited freight – one who may be more price sensitive than the large, deep-pocketed corporations. (I’d be willing to bet that on the website’s bid page, there is something like a “What to consider when choosing an expedited carrier” that is to act as an unstated draw to FECC and all the bell's and whistles they offer.) If I were at any of the aforementioned competitors, I’d steer clear of this site and try to find a website that may not have an ulterior motive.

 

[Trucker]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Dec-02-00 AT 11:54AM (EDT)[/font][p]I have been with Fed Ex CC for 3 plus years, believe me when I tell you, they are not honest..These people lie more than any others I've been associated with.. I like the job, but I'm getting so tired of the lies, and being treated like a stupid child. I am looking at other companies, now.

 

[treeman]

Is it possible that this board gives FedEx first crack at some freight it might not otherwise see? Or that it covers loads that FedEx drivers don't want? What happens to a load that they can't get anyone to take? If they can get someone else to take it,they will still get a cut of an otherwise lost revenue. or if they act as a broker, they will get a smaller percent of the load but with little or no liability. If this is a case of them securing a load and then bidding it out themselves, that is very bad. they are putting thier reputation on the line with an unknown driver,and truck. I think it is in thier best interest to keep thier owner operators working as much as they can. If they cost more, then FedEx is getting a percent of a greater gross pay.

 

[Weave]

Why does FedEx have these little units like Urgent Freight and Autoquick? Sort of seems like they are competing with themselves. I ran for them for 3 months yearly this year and the ONLY way I made money there (running solo-D unit) was hauling Hazmat, which I am heavily experienced with. They wanted to put my '95 truck on to Autoquick, and I said no. I have (knock on wood!) NEVER broken down under load as an expediter. There was no reason for this, seemed to me like they wanted me to rush out and buy a new truck so they could make me starve. I did not appreciate their inexperienced recent high-school graduate "dispatchers" treating me childlike either. I run into too many folks who have made major investments in Roberts/FedEx who have been there many years, and are really getting unfairly hurt now. I know well that expedite is not linehaul like Schneider, Hunt etc. It is a seasonal thing. And when the season gets cold and slow, the biggies like FedEx wind up having about four trucks sitting on every streetcorner. And now, they have their little cheapo auto divisions to pay you (The contractor) nothing and make you sit around bigtime too.
This is why expedite companies hire exclusively O/O contractors and have no "company" drivers. When things go well, both company and O/O do well. When things slow down though, the O/O absorbs the brunt of losses. I'm not trying to start a long drawn out debate here, but this is what my 2 years of doing expedite have taught me. Maybe I can get into third party brokers (Metro, Nat. logistics, etc, essentially the teenagers sitting in front of computers) making money off sales tactics rather than having ANY knowledge of trucking. "Just hurry up, we don't care who you kill or if you kill yourself or the freight" God, I hope not!!
--Weave--

 

[bret]

Your exactally right regarding why they only hire O/O's. They just take their percentage off the top every time, and your left with the risk. Personlly,I have "zero" respect for FedEx given their selfish tactics. It's all big time corporate dealings by a bunch of yuppie business people that have never done a hard days work in their lives.
Personally, I'd rather lay in a sewer for the holidays, than work for FedEx.