How long will you wait,till deadhead home

kellmellus

Seasoned Expediter
I have a rule if they cannot get me out with in 1 1/2-2 days i dead head home.example=drop off tuesday morning at 7:00am and wait till 7:00 pm wednesday and if i do not get a load by then i dead head home.

how does everyone else pick there times to deciede when to deadhead home.sitting drives me crazy thats why i do not wait forever.
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
For us it's not so much the dwell time, it's how far are we from home. If we get within 200 miles or so from home and we haven't been home in a while then we'll go. If we're not within that range then there would have to be a special reason for us to deadhead home.
 

Broompilot

Veteran Expediter
Your not going to like my answer. Your not suited for this industry.

You have cost yourself thousands in lost revenue. The best days of the week are Thursday and Friday. One must stay out three weeks PERIOD to really make a living.

So let me ask, how much do you make on just Monday and Tuesday? I averaged around $3,000.00 a week FYI, not including any deductions of course.

Boy I thought I had no patience. You make me look good.
 

kellmellus

Seasoned Expediter
I find that i get runs easier when i am home ,also on the way back driving through citys they sometimes theycall me to pick up a run too.
I lose money driving back but staying also costs a lot too in hotels and resturant food for 2 people.And my wife always wants to hit the department stores then my wallets empty after that ,so by leaving early i save a lot of money.
 

cheri1122

Veteran Expediter
Driver
You're not going to like my question, either, but: are you out on the road to work, or take your wife shopping? I know that sounds cold, but seriously, does she drive? Are you a team, or what?
If your wife is a codriver, does she not share your financial goals? If she doesn't drive, why are you doubling your road expenses?
I don't mean to beat up on you, but I have to wonder, how long have you been doing this? And how long can you keep deadheading home, before you're broke?
 

ATeam

Senior Member
Retired Expediter
As I read your posts, kellmellus, I wonder if home means more to you than you are letting on. You gave four reasons for getting home (1) you don't like to sit, (2) runs are better there, 3) it keeps your wife from spending money in department stores, and (4) food and lodging costs are less at home than they are on the road.

I once met a team that was very proud of the fact that they got home like clockwork x number of times per year. For them, home time was more important than time in service or deadhead expense. When the time came to go home, they went, no matter what. There is nothing wrong with that. Home time was their highest priority and they achieved it.

If home time is your first priority, and if you run a profitable business, as this team did, everything else will fall into place to support your home time goals.

I don't know how long you have been an expediter. If you are brand new, the pull toward home is understandable. It's a different world on the road that takes some getting used to.

With very few excpetions, expediting is a job that, by its very nature, takes you away from home. In general, the more you stay out, the better you can do. If you are new, you might try making up your mind to not go home for a month or so. That will help you focus on what lies ahead instead of what you left behind. It will also help you adjust more quickly to life on the road.

If you have been an expediter for a while, I think Broompilot has it right.
 

x06col

Veteran Expediter
Charter Member
Retired Expediter
US Army
Yepper, there is the "THEY" word again. Quite often "we" are our own worse enemy.
Just me, but, i'd get the bride a job (in) a department store. That way she could help support her habit, and, you would'nt have that extra mouth to feed and provide a room for while on the road.
Probably solve about 90% of your difficulties.
 

kellmellus

Seasoned Expediter
I agree what everything ATeam said, thanks for the post.

I have only been an expediter for 3 months and am learning fast,on this job the hardest part is sitting in a van waiting for a run in over 100 degree heat(tenn last wed-thur)for two days.Then you ask yourself what the #### am i doing,thats when i deadhead home also.

I love the money but hate the wait,maybe after a year of this i will be able to adjust.

I just wish companys could just get you round trip that has a return all on the same run so there is no waiting time.
I know i am dreaming but who knows what can happen in the future so i am willing to wait and find out hopeing they can improve the return system.
 

Broompilot

Veteran Expediter
Round trips are just not going to happen. Get that frame of mind out of your thoughts.

Second if your not a member of OOIDA Join, even Van Drivers are welcome, than begin listening to XM 171 for min of two hours a day for valuable $ saving ideas.

Third stop ideling that Van in hot, hot weather, after you Join OOIDA you can also get what is called CLC Corporate Lodging Card. For $5.00 or if you have internet service this book shows every Motel in the US that is a mamber. Very nice clean places for a bargin. $35.00 a night usually.

Now if you really want to make some $ start asking about stepping out of a Van and into a Straight Truck, much harder to get into Malls. Use that shopping time for $ earning time.

Just a suggestion, but two in a Van WOW no wonder she wants out.
 

Doggie Daddy

Veteran Expediter
kellmellus,maybe the problem is the company that you are leased to.There are alot of smaller companies out there that can get loads out of a certain area,but are unable to get you back to that area or anywhere else for that matter.

You talk about round trips like you expect to leave the house and then be dispatched to come right back to your home area.To me that is not truly expediting,sounds more like regional delivery to me.DD.
 

nightcreacher

Veteran Expediter
The being home part, to many of our drivers,isn't that simple to answer.Husband and wife teams,have one situation,but, two family teams is another ball of wax.Many years ago,Roberts Exress, now FedExCC, had a policy that foreign trucks,trucks that were from another express center, got loaded before the home bodies,so in my case it made scence to stay out for three weeks,and then go home,cause it would take about a week to get loaded out again,and thats if you stayed in service the week you were home.In my area,many foreign trucks would be there every day.
So,in my way of thinking,if I want off 2 days a week,like most people,then stay out 3 weeks,take 1 week off,that makes a 40 week year.Broom states,to make a living you need to stay out 3 weeks,thats true in a lot of cases,although there are many people that could stay out a year, and not make any money.
While you are out,you have to look into why your not being loaded,slow time of year,slow exp.center,to many trucks in an exp.center.Every situation can be corrected,but if its time to go home,cause the wife at home is about to call that lawyer,she threatened you with,then by all means go home,I just hope there are more loads at home than are on the road,or this may not be the right business for you.Myself,FedEx's policy changed about foreign trucks,if I've made the right amount of revenue,and I'm within 400 miles of home,to keep my co driver happy,I'm taking him home,now how long I stay home depends how long we were out.I find 12 days gone,3 days home does very well,you never miss a payday,like you do when you take a week off,and my revenue is usually what it needs to be.
 

nightcreacher

Veteran Expediter
In expedite a round trip is;load out deadhead back,50% dead head is not going to make the bank account full of money.Sure there will be a now and then,that you might get load home from that load out,but don't hold your breathe,few and far between.And if your in a van,better join a movie club,so you can make use of your CD player,this will come in very usefull,unless your on EO with your laptop,joining in the fun.
 

kellmellus

Seasoned Expediter
Hi Broompilot i use CLC Corporate Lodging Card. For $5.00 but here's what happened with them.I stayed at a country inn for 1 nite and they charged me for 5 nites on my credit card.I have been fighting with CLC Corporate Lodging Card for a month to get my money back even the hotel even told them i did not stay 5 nites.So yesterday now they say they have no record of ever charging me and i told them it's on my visa bill.Anyways i ended up puting a stop on that charge for now and have to mail my credit card company a copy of my hotel stay bill.

here,s another:1 brought 1 hotel book from them and they sent 2 and charged me for 2,they agreed to give me credit back for 1 but we will have to see if they do that.

CLC Corporate Lodging Card has great rate but you have to watch them.
 

fastrod

Expert Expediter
Kellmellus. I deadhead home after every run. And I have been expediting this way for 7years now. Been doing it 2 years with my own authority. I am not making millions this way but I make enough to keep me happy. You will find on this forum that many people believe that the only way to make money is to set somewhere and wait for there carrier to call with a run and stay out on the road for 3 or 4 weeks at a time. If you expedite long enough and think outside the box you will find ways to expedite and make money doing it the way you want to.
 

nightcreacher

Veteran Expediter
>Hi Broompilot i use CLC Corporate Lodging Card. For $5.00
>but here's what happened with them.I stayed at a country inn
>for 1 nite and they charged me for 5 nites on my credit
>card.I have been fighting with CLC Corporate Lodging Card
>for a month to get my money back even the hotel even told
>them i did not stay 5 nites.So yesterday now they say they
>have no record of ever charging me and i told them it's on
>my visa bill.Anyways i ended up puting a stop on that charge
>for now and have to mail my credit card company a copy of my
>hotel stay bill.
>
>here,s another:1 brought 1 hotel book from them and they
>sent 2 and charged me for 2,they agreed to give me credit
>back for 1 but we will have to see if they do that.
>
>CLC Corporate Lodging Card has great rate but you have to
>watch them.


ive had similar problem,but when the money was actually take out of my account,it was just for the time i was there
 

lanier1

Seasoned Expediter
I didn't see where kellmellus stated he was going broke or had much of a problem at all. He shared what he is doing and asked what others do. For that he has been told he was in the wrong business, needs to stay out three weeks at a time or just hang it up, should leave his wife at home, put his wife to work in a department store and one person has even presumed to assume his wife is really not on his side at all !!

The only certainty in this business is you have to find out what works for YOU! If I sit for two business days, as kellmellus stated, I start moving toward home as well unless I feel really confident a run will come up the next day. I will stop at a busy center on the way and sit for a day if the situation is right to do that. If I am within 500 miles of home on Friday afternoon in this heat, guess what?? I'M GOING HOME !! Fuel cost $150 maximum, hotel savings $70 to $100. For $50 to $80 the feeling of being at home... Priceless. Granted, if I had an APU it would change my thinking and when the weather is more tolerable the miles from home figure drops significantly. This works for me and I'm the only one it has to work for. Keep in mind that if my home were not an easy center for me to get out of I might not have the freedom to do it this way.

I met someone at a pickup on Thursday and then ran into them again on Friday at a truckstop. This person had been out for six weeks straight and didn't have enough extra built up to afford fuel to get home and home was not 500 miles away. This person went on to say that in 8 months had only turned down about 7 loads and they were all Canada runs. This person was a solo owner in a 2006 truck with nice sleeper and APU. Doesn't sound like thats working out too well to me.

My point is what works for one won't necessarily work for everyone. Carrier, priorities and expense obligations, among other things, determine what can work for you. I hate to see someone get slammed for sharing what they do just because thats not what others think they should be doing. We all have the freedom to do what is right for us and I dare say that is why most of us gravitated to this.
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
>I didn't see where kellmellus stated he was going broke or
>had much of a problem at all. He shared what he is doing and
>asked what others do. For that he has been told he was in
>the wrong business, needs to stay out three weeks at a time
>or just hang it up, should leave his wife at home, put his
>wife to work in a department store and one person has even
>presumed to assume his wife is really not on his side at all
> !!
>

Lanier is correct, the question was and still is:

"how does everyone else pick there times to deciede when to deadhead home.sitting drives me crazy thats why i do not wait forever."

He's asked us to share how we do business in this situation, not for our take on any life problems he may or may not have!
 

TeamCaffee

Administrator
Staff member
Owner/Operator
When you are driving a C unit and above it is impossible to reply to this post with much knowledge unless you where a former van operator.

We stay out till we have an appointment at home or the wind shifts and we are very close. We carry most of the comforts of home with us unlike a van driver so our needs are different.

I haven't figured out how a van can stay out very long and afford the costs of living on the road without having their home on wheels with them.
 

Broompilot

Veteran Expediter
I know what my DH % was. I also know that rising that % meant it came from somewhere. So how big is that box to think my way out of?

That is plain and simple a dumb business move if one cares about Profits.

Maybee there is somehting here I just do not get? Like keeping the profit as the End Goal? YES THOSE THAT ANSWERED THOSE QUESTIONS Lanier are BUSINESS PROFESSIONALs that maximize there PROFITABLITY, I found the answers as straight forward as can be to MAXIMIZE the profitablity.

One is free to spend ones earnings going right back home. Sooner or later that Carrier is either gona Cancel that Lease, or just give up all together on finding one a load out of any city and should. Ones who committ are the ones who should benefit. I choose not to make the Arabs $ until I do first. Let me tell you just a little secret, it made me a BIG PILE OF $, so one more little secret, purchase an APU they really pay for themsleves or a generator if ya got a Van. Like gas is what now $2.70 a gallon X 14 miles in a Van at best = $ lots of $ X going home every week = OUT OF BUSINESS for most, unless that box comes with insutructions on how to go home for free.

PS on the CLC if one ever has that kind of Dispute, write IMM. to your credit card arguing the amount. It goes into settlement so you are not responsible for the $ in question until it is resolved. Good luck.
 

Falligator

Expert Expediter
If I don't get a load within 24 hrs of sitting on a particular board I head to another. I don't dh home about every 2 or 3 weeks. Depending on whether frieght is busy in area where I am at on a Friday. If freight is busy in the area where I am at on a Friday I will stay until Saturday or Monday. I usually find this out by talking with dispatch and "usually" they will be able to tell me how a particular area is doing or if they have been busy booking a lot of loads. Then I'll stay out for that weekend. If they tell me they are not busy and I'll head home. long as I am within 1 tank of the house. about 400 miles.
 
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