Newbie looking for advice.

[Mniesen89]

Hey all, I'm a newbie looking to make the change to expediting. I'm looking to sign with expediter services as I've heard mostly good things about the company. I think I would prefer to be with FedEx.

Ive ve been driving straight trucks over the road oft about 8 years so that portion isn't new to me and my team driver is willing to make the switch as well. We would be driving a straight truck.

any information in regards to expediters services and fedex would be greatly appreciated. Any information on starting out would be appreciated as well.

Thanks, mike

 

[redytrk]

Welcome...You will make a fortune. Of course you have to have two fortunes to start with!

 

[zorry]

Good choices.

Good Luck.

 

[Mniesen89]

Rather then leaving me in suspense, could you explain to me the reason for your negative feedback Redytrk? Thanks

 

[zorry]

Possibly just a joke about trucking in general.

Two family members teamed at ES for Fedex.

ES is pretty straight forward and decent.
As a rookie to the business, you may find a better deal. Odds are you'll find a worse deal.
They have great training tools, are fair, and won't steal from you.

Rookies,and even experienced people get ripped off daily. ( At other places.)
If you don't make it there, you probably won't make it almost anywhere.

This industry isn't for everybody. I have 5 family members at Fedex, and none even consider leaving expediting.

I like to say " Expediting beats working for a living."

 

[Daffyduck528]

I worked for ES for a while. Good people, very honest. It isn't the best pay in the FedEx family, but it is a very fair/ good starting pay. They answer the phone when you call and when you are unsure what to do they will help guide you. They also have both surface trucks and white glove so you can move up easily within the fleet and make more money!

They are upgrading the fleet so you'll probably have a newer truck with (hopefully) few problems. My truck was an older one, but they did everything they could to keep it running smooth.

I'm glad I started with them. I made several beginner/ dumb choices working for them and they came to my rescue each time and made me a better expediter because of it. I'm sure a smaller fleet driver would've had a rough time with us at the beginning of our careers but ES is used to it by now and knows how to help when your having a rough time. You just have to ask.

They also will stay completely out of your way/business once you get the hang of it and let you run the truck as you see fit.

There's more I could say but I'm on a long run and need to get some sleep before my shift. Best of luck to you!

 

[redytrk]

Rather then leaving me in suspense, could you explain to me the reason for your negative feedback Redytrk? Thanks

Please read the post by A Team. "Profound Information for all Expedititors"

 

[zorry]

I was thinking of that post this morning.

I had a great driving job in the '80s making $50,000 a year.

I wouldn't need three times that figure to have the same lifestyle today.

 

[Mniesen89]

Thank you all for the replies.

I talked to the recruiter and these are the specs he gave me...

.48 cents a mile for team drivers split.
Average teams who run hard make anywhere from 800-1000$ a week.

are these true?

also, they have this path to ownership plan, is this a scam or worth it after a year of service?

i forgot to as the recruiter if they pay unloaded miles as well and if they pay for you to travel to FDCC for orientation......

 

[zorry]

The Piatteam would be very knowledgeable.

Hopefully they'll chime in.

 

[BobWolf]

The best advice I can give you is this.
1) Before deciding to go OTR the first question I ask is.....
Do you have a spouse and family and do you want to keep them? Regional work you get home regularly OTR you don't.
2) No matter who you work for is to interview, and check them out as thoroughly as they will you.
3) Don't believe everything a Recruiter tells you, their job is to get you to sign on
4) Don't jump at the first offer remember they need you to move their freight.

 

[Daffyduck528]

Thank you all for the replies.

I talked to the recruiter and these are the specs he gave me...

.48 cents a mile for team drivers split.
Average teams who run hard make anywhere from 800-1000$ a week.

are these true?

i forgot to as the recruiter if they pay unloaded miles as well and if they pay for you to travel to FDCC for orientation......

The .48cpm per team, (24cpm per person) is accurate and really the least you'll make. If you get hazmat or other clearances you will make a little more per load. When I was driving for them things like hazmat pay and manual labor were split 50/50 with your co driver and yourself; ES took none of that pay so you would actually do better than .24cpm.

I assume they told you the $800-$1000 was per person? As a team we regularly made $600-$700per person a week on average. Some weeks we made $150 each and some $800 each. In the time we drove for them, a little under a year, we made over $1,000 per person twice. We were a surface truck, White Glove may do better than that.

The deadhead miles, unloaded, are paid, but you only make 20% of that per person and the flat rate for them on deadhead miles is very low. I don't remember the exact number because it was so small. A dead head of a hundred miles might make you $2.

They gave us the option of being given a bus ticket to get to the truck with the understanding they would take it out of one of our checks. We rented a car instead and drove to the truck. Then you drive the truck to FedEx orientation. Our truck was in Ohio, but they keep a lot of them in Mississippi as well. There was no pay during orientation so I'd recommend some savings. Also, FedEx provides a nice breakfast and lunch during orientation.

I'd also like to disclaim that this was our terms over a year ago, they may have changed some of these policies. I'd advise you look at these things and double check them with the recruiter. Don't just take what I've said as the way it always is. And I think I'm giving all the correct info, but there is a chance I could misremember some details.

 

[Daffyduck528]

also, they have this path to ownership plan, is this a scam or worth it after a year of service?

The pathway to ownership is real, it is not a scam. It is the program we used to purchase our truck. They take a look at your past year and look to see how your performance has been and use that as a factor to giving you the financing to buy a truck.

They have several banks they work with and also have an in house line of financing for teams that don't quite qualify for bank financing. The Bank financing is cheaper than using the in house financing but it's not always an option. Neither option is a lease, this is not the same program that you see advertised in trucking mags by CRE or Swift. It is an actual loan. You own the truck.

Either way they go they are sticking their neck out to vouch for you to the bank on the loan. In some cases they help you with the down payment to ensure you have the necessary capital to run your truck.

Because of their investment in you and helping you get financed they are quite thorough in their research. There will be a day where ES will look at your earnings over the past year, month by month and ask about any weak months or peculiar business decisions you have made. For example, we had 2 bad months on our calendar we had to explain. December was terrible for us because we made a poor choice on a load and where to wait for a load around Christmas. We waited for over a week before we got a load and it hurt our month. We also took off a week and a half in February to go to Mexico for a vacation. This hurt because Feb is already a short month and it made our truck actually unprofitable for the month. We explained how the trip was already paid for from before we joined ES and missing it wasn't an option and that was that. If you have 6 months of these they probably will want you to wait longer before you enter into truck ownership. Its not just drive for 12 months and here's your new truck and loan. ES just wants to get to know you pretty good before they put their name or money down to help you. It's their due diligence.

The program has been great to us so far. If you go through this program you will be enrolled in Expediter Truck Management. There is no way out of this, however it has been a great help to us throughout this process. They truly seem to want to see you succeed.

Getting your 1st truck financed is tough and Expediter Services got it done for us.

 

[davekc]

Not knowing anything about ES, how do they pay .48 per mile at the Fed? That is 40 percent of only 1.20. I thought the Fed paid much better than that? Maybe not?

 

[Mniesen89]

The .48cpm per team, (24cpm per person) is accurate and really the least you'll make. If you get hazmat or other clearances you will make a little more per load. When I was driving for them things like hazmat pay and manual labor were split 50/50 with your co driver and yourself; ES took none of that pay so you would actually do better than .24cpm.

I assume they told you the $800-$1000 was per person? As a team we regularly made $600-$700per person a week on average. Some weeks we made $150 each and some $800 each. In the time we drove for them, a little under a year, we made over $1,000 per person twice. We were a surface truck, White Glove may do better than that.

The deadhead miles, unloaded, are paid, but you only make 20% of that per person and the flat rate for them on deadhead miles is very low. I don't remember the exact number because it was so small. A dead head of a hundred miles might make you $2.

They gave us the option of being given a bus ticket to get to the truck with the understanding they would take it out of one of our checks. We rented a car instead and drove to the truck. Then you drive the truck to FedEx orientation. Our truck was in Ohio, but they keep a lot of them in Mississippi as well. There was no pay during orientation so I'd recommend some savings. Also, FedEx provides a nice breakfast and lunch during orientation.

I'd also like to disclaim that this was our terms over a year ago, they may have changed some of these policies. I'd advise you look at these things and double check them with the recruiter. Don't just take what I've said as the way it always is. And I think I'm giving all the correct info, but there is a chance I could misremember some details.

Thanks do the info, they I say it it per person as far as wages.

 

[Mniesen89]

The program has been great to us so far. If you go through this program you will be enrolled in Expediter Truck Management. There is no way out of this, however it has been a great help to us throughout this process. They truly seem to want to see you succeed.

Getting your 1st truck financed is tough and Expediter Services got it done for us.

they told me this part also, I think the cost was like 13.00$ a month, does that seem accurate?

my whole goal as most is to become an owner after I feel confident in the business. With the experience you all have, does running 3-4 weeks and home for a week seem reasonable time to make good profit? I understand there are other variables to profit but as far as time out goes is this standard?

 

[Daffyduck528]

The 3-4 weeks out and home for a week is the minimum you can do. We usually stay out 2-3 months and then go home. Especially when it's busy we stay out as long as we can. I also live near a major account with FedEx so occasionally I'll get a load heading there without planning to go home and I take advantage of that to see everyone or take care of business for a day or 2 then get back on the road. Maybe someone else on here can comment on that?

The .48cpm is 40% of 1.20/mile. They say .48cpm to simplify the math. When we receive load offers from FedEx they include fsc and if you look at 40% of the total your figures would be way off. ES' flat rate with FDCC is $1.20/ loaded mile plus fsc and like .20cpm unloaded plus fsc. No negotiation. It's not an option anyone else can get when they join FedEx now. Its not what we have now in our truck. We opted for the percent when we purchased and leased on to FDCC and have seen our revenue greatly increase. Maybe it's just a simplicity thing with ES so new drivers don't have to worry about negotiating a rate when they really don't know what's a good load and what's a bad load. That's only for surface expedite. White Glove trucks are percentage based just like most of the FDCC fleet is.

We pay $12.50/week up to $50/month for ES services now. We save more than $50/month using their insurance so I don't mind the additional costs.

 

[Mniesen89]

Thanks Daffy, im not saying I would do exaclty 3 weeks and then go home. im from florida and I already know im in a bad state. I figured if I had a load that went to florida then I would go home or even atlanta maybe....

Wonder how long some of these other teams are staying out or if hour results are standard.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using EO Forums mobile app

 

[davekc]

The .48cpm is 40% of 1.20/mile. They say .48cpm to simplify the math. When we receive load offers from FedEx they include fsc and if you look at 40% of the total your figures would be way off. ES' flat rate with FDCC is $1.20/ loaded mile plus fsc and like .20cpm unloaded plus fsc. No negotiation. It's not an option anyone else can get when they join FedEx now. Its not what we have now in our truck. We opted for the percent when we purchased and leased on to FDCC and have seen our revenue greatly increase. Maybe it's just a simplicity thing with ES so new drivers don't have to worry about negotiating a rate when they really don't know what's a good load and what's a bad load.

If your revenue increased as suggested, and the only difference is whether they would call to confirm whether a load was good, wouldn't that appear to be taking advantage of the new folks and paying them less?

 

[Daffyduck528]

If your revenue increased as suggested, and the only difference is whether they would call to confirm whether a load was good, wouldn't that appear to be taking advantage of the new folks and paying them less?

Maybe, but I'm not sure they are staffed to take those calls. Each fleet manager has like 50 trucks they each manage. They may be spread too thin to get bombarded with calls continuously about load offers. That's why I said in my 1st thread they pay fair but may not be the absolute best paying. Then again, as a new driver it's hard to get someone to take you on at all. After all, isn't that what most trucking companies do? Give you a lesser wage until you have some experience?

I also haven't figured the math to see if their form of flat rate is better or worse than the standard $1/mile flat rate all miles FDCC offers now. They may actually be making a little better than the current offer. I'm not sure.