Today's Weekly Bulletin

Daffyduck528 · Jan 27, 2014

jjoerger said:
Maybe the sales agent that books the freight at a steeply discounted rate just to earn a commission should learn to say no to cheap freight. If they are bidding too low there won't be any money to pay a fair rate to the trucks or no profit for the carrier. But I am sure they will still get there commission.
Will anyone working in Green take a pay cut for a few hours a day because the rates are low?

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I mostly agree with the 1st part of your comment, but I think attacking the people in green isn't fair. Those people work for fedex, we work with fedex. The employee- employer relationship is drastically different than ours is to fedex. They do have supervisors and managers to answer to on a daily basis that we don't. I would also bet that fedex will put pressure on their internal employees prior to putting pressure on us contractors.

runrunner · Jan 27, 2014

zorry said:
Actually they do.
I spoke to Miss Kat about bringing two pallets of new toolboxes from Or to In for me in June.
Thought I'd give her whatever Roadway or whoever wanted and I'd get her excellent service.
And possibly she could fit another shipment or a tag-along as she would pull trls also.
Fedex Frt gives the shipper a 75% discount which just blew me away.
Miss Kat couldn't touch the rate and Fedex did a wonderful job.
This was Freight.
On the FDCC side I imagine there are places where volume discounting comes into play.
I recently deadheaded 700 miles to do a 40 mile reefer load.
My first counter-offer was jumped on, so I must have been reasonable.
The long deadheads are where I think these issues come into play for us.

That was Freight,did you get a quote from Custom Critical,and if you had what do you think you would have paid? It would not have been cheap,and that is why you didn't.

runrunner · Jan 27, 2014

I copied this from Glass Door. I understand it is only one person but still some insight is there.

helpful
“Leadership knows nothing about freight brokerage.”
Account Manager (Former Employee)

I worked at FedEx Custom Critical

Pros – Great benefits!!! I was able to work from home. The FedEx brand sometimes helps get customers. Nice hotel to stay in while visiting HQ.

Cons – They expect to perform both sides of freight brokerage business (get new accounts and deal with carriers to move all your loads) while paying you for only one. They start you off with a salary and wean you off to full commission in about 3 months. They have unrealistic profit margin expectations (minimum 25% net profit to be "in the black" and an expectation for much more) while the. Commission they want to pay is 8% of net. Management knows nothing about freight brokerage. They came from the Custom Critical side which is an expediting company where the customers are desperate for a truck and will pay anything. Many times that association with the expedite side of the business hurt my ability to gain new customers because there is already the expectation of higher rates. I could go on, but the important part is STAY AWAYIF YOU VALUE YOU TIME AND EFFORT.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire some management from outside FedEx and distance yourselves from Custom Critical. Adopt a more orthodox brokerage model in order to retain good brokers. Customer sales need to be separated from booking loads with carriers. You need to double the commission you are willing to pay.

No, I would not recommend

runrunner · Jan 27, 2014

The reason FedEx bought out Roberts Express was to get RPS which is now Ground,if Custom Critical was not profitable they would just shut it down.

This is from Nasdaq

The FedEx Express segment (accounted for 60.7% of 2013 revenues) includes Federal Express Corporation, which is the world's largest express transportation company, offering time-specific delivery within one to three business days and serving markets that comprise more than 90% of the world's gross domestic product. The FedEx Express segment also includes FedEx Trade Networks Inc., which provides international trade services, specializing in customs brokerage and global ocean and air cargo distribution.

The FedEx Ground segment (23.6%) includes FedEx Ground Package System Inc., which is a leading provider of small-package ground delivery service. FedEx Ground provides low-cost, day-specific service to every business address in the United States and Canada, as well as residential delivery to nearly 100% of U.S. residences through FedEx Home Delivery. The FedEx Ground segment also includes FedEx SmartPost Inc., which specializes in the consolidation and delivery of high volumes of low-weight, less time-sensitive business-to-consumer packages using the U.S. Postal Service or Canada Post Corporation for final delivery to any residential address or PO Box in the U.S. and Canada.

The FedEx Freight segment (12.1%) includes FedEx Freight Corporation, which is a leading U.S. provider of less-than-truckload (LTL) freight services through its FedEx Freight business (regional LTL freight services) and its FedEx National LTL business (long-haul LTL freight services). The FedEx Freight segment also includes FedEx Custom Critical Inc., North America's largest time-specific, critical shipment carrier.

The FedEx Services segment (3.6%) includes FedEx Services, which provides sales, marketing and information technology support to the other companies FedEx TechConnect, which is responsible for customer service, billing and collection of major business units in the U.S. and FedEx Office, which provides an array of document and business services as well as retail access to customers for the package transportation businesses.

zorry · Jan 27, 2014

I just glanced at the annual report yesterday.
I was surprised to see Fedex City "something or other", a courier type service up and running in 15 cities. The vehicle pictured was a small Ford Transit that appeared to be operated by Fedex Office.
There is almost no mention of CC. Which makes sense if we're a small speck of Freight who is only 12% of Corporate.
I hope we stay important enough not to be spun off in the future..
For all the little things they seem to do wrong I couldn't imagine any improvement by an ownership change .

zorry · Jan 27, 2014

runrunner said:
The reason FedEx bought out Roberts Express was to get RPS which is now Ground,if Custom Critical was not profitable they would just shut it down.

Therein lays the problem.
They're determined to keep it profitable.

Which in the long run is good for us.

runrunner · Jan 27, 2014

zorry said:
Therein lays the problem.
They're determined to keep it profitable.

Which in the long run is good for us.

Very,very true, as long as there profit is not at the expense of the contractor profit. Which I think they have done to the B units,by putting them on flat rate of .85 per mile. 1.00 per would be acceptable.

CCDriver · Jan 27, 2014

TeamCaffee said:
The price of our vehicles or operations does not set market rate... Compare what our averages are on loaded miles to another company.

I always have to remind myself not all companies pay anything dead head... Like someone else pointed out we often have to dead head a long ways to get a load and this is sometimes due to a truck who is sitting beside the load that refused it.

It might not be that operating costs dictate the market rate but if Fed Ex who doesn't own any of these WhiteGlove units doesn't keep our rates up there who's really going to go broke providing their service.

And really they don't pay for deadheading anymore. It's up to the drivers to figure out what is fair compensation. I like driving for WhiteGlove Custom Critical. Have wanted to do it several years before finaly getting on with them. I don't however put them on a pedestal and worship them like they can do no wrong or make bad decisions that harm WGCC.

I know some out there follow so closely with their noses near an oriface that brake lights may be needed on the back pockets of manangement so during a quick stop their heads don't get stuck.
Be a horrible way to lose some drivers.

jjoerger · Jan 27, 2014

Daffyduck528 said:
I mostly agree with the 1st part of your comment, but I think attacking the people in green isn't fair. Those people work for fedex, we work with fedex. The employee- employer relationship is drastically different than ours is to fedex. They do have supervisors and managers to answer to on a daily basis that we don't. I would also bet that fedex will put pressure on their internal employees prior to putting pressure on us contractors.

I did not mean to undermine the employees in Green. They are hard working people trying to make a living like the rest of us. I hope they view the owner operators and contractors the same way. I am still convinced FedEx CC is the best fit for me.

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runrunner · Jan 28, 2014

CCDriver said:
It might not be that operating costs dictate the market rate but if Fed Ex who doesn't own any of these WhiteGlove units doesn't keep our rates up there who's really going to go broke providing their service.

And really they don't pay for deadheading anymore. It's up to the drivers to figure out what is fair compensation. I like driving for WhiteGlove Custom Critical. Have wanted to do it several years before finaly getting on with them. I don't however put them on a pedestal and worship them like they can do no wrong or make bad decisions that harm WGCC.

I know some out there follow so closely with their noses near an oriface that brake lights may be needed on the back pockets of manangement so during a quick stop their heads don't get stuck.
Be a horrible way to lose some drivers.

I wish I could quadruple Like this post!

iceroadtrucker · Feb 6, 2014

Hmm 96% inservice rate for the Year and 100 percent for the Quarter GET me Moving. PUT some Hustle Behind the Mussel.

I don't go OOS to hide from the refusels.

To the rest of ya ya cold get ya ya some Coveralls, Truck freezing up use Power Service anti Gel its good down to 40 below. Carry Filters and Anti Gell and 911. Oh ya one last thing cover your Radiator some to hold the heat.

DRs Slow down the faster the truck goes the harder it is on the reefer Unite as well as the truck. One more thing Rates just remember it take more money to run in the cold Anti Gel is 17 to 18 bucks a bottle and in 0 - -20 below weather a gallon of souse if not more for each tank and a full Qt for the Reefer. Carring extra filters, 911, anti Gel ect cost more.
Artic Winter Desert Scorching Summer Hmmm Very Very hard on Equipment and by the way adding a bottle of Heat for winter driven may be ok for a car but not a truck. Carring a case of water for Hot scorching summer monthes may be ok for a Car but not a truck. Git my drift Now GETTERRR DONE!

mrgoodtude · Feb 6, 2014

iceroadtrucker said:
Hmm 96% inservice rate for the Year and 100 percent for the Quarter GET me Moving. PUT some Hustle Behind the Mussel.

I don't go OOS to hide from the refusels.

To the rest of ya ya cold get ya ya some Coveralls, Truck freezing up use Power Service anti Gel its good down to 40 below. Carry Filters and Anti Gell and 911. Oh ya one last thing cover your Radiator some to hold the heat.

DRs Slow down the faster the truck goes the harder it is on the reefer Unite as well as the truck. One more thing Rates just remember it take more money to run in the cold Anti Gel is 17 to 18 bucks a bottle and in 0 - -20 below weather a gallon of souse if not more for each tank and a full Qt for the Reefer. Carring extra filters, 911, anti Gel ect cost more.
Artic Winter Desert Scorching Summer Hmmm Very Very hard on Equipment and by the way adding a bottle of Heat for winter driven may be ok for a car but not a truck. Carring a case of water for Hot scorching summer monthes may be ok for a Car but not a truck. Git my drift Now GETTERRR DONE!