I live in the Orlando area and will be going out on the road soon for FedEx Custom Critical. Since I began looking into the expedite industry a little over a year ago, I've been keeping an eye peeled for expedite trucks on the roads around Central Florida. I've seen several FedEx CC's. I've seen Tri-State a few times. I've seen PantherII's a couple of times, but usually a tractor trailer combo. I do see a lot of Landstar TT's, but it's hard to know whether or not that's part of their expedite operation; I may have seen one Landstar straight truck if I remember correctly. I have seen what I presume is the same truck several times sitting in the Longwood rest area, usually for several days at a time over a weekend, and I suspect that belongs to someone who lives locally and is taking a little time off, but I can't recall right now which carrier (not one of the sponsors on EO).
I went to the EO show in Detroit last August, and in the first hour that I was there I saw more straight expedite trucks than I had in a year of looking along the roads of Orlando. It is definitely going to be a challenge to get home under load, but for now I'm willing to eat the cost of getting into the lanes. I may have to drive to Jacksonville or even Atlanta, but since I don't plan to come home until I've been out six weeks or so (as a rule, always exceptions for special events, of course), I don't figure it will hurt me that much.
Doug in Sanford, FL
