My wife and I find expediting to be one of the easiest jobs we've ever done UNTIL we decide we need to be someplace in particular. Most of the time, we just go with the flow, accept most load offers (80% or more) and find ourselves wherever the freight takes us. But when we want or need to get someplace - like home for Christmas, or to a certain city for a business meeting - the pressure is on.
When you are trying to get someplace particular at a specific time, considerations enter into your load acceptance strategy well ahead of the event you need to attend. Turning down loads that take you further from your desired location and/or holding out for loads that might take you closer gets very expensive very fast in lost runs.
You may be out three to five weeks at a time, but if you try to get home during part of that time by turning down loads or holding out for loads that move in the "right" direction, your income will significantly degrade.
Last year, we delivered 90 miles from home on December 23. This year, we found ourselves in New Jersey on December 19th or so and decided to go out of service for Christmas and go home (MN) from there. You just never know.
That's the way it is for us with FedEx CC. Some other carriers talk about backhaul, trip leasing, etc. You might want to check that out. Perhaps others can tell us how good or bad getting home is with the carriers they run for.
We are not troubled by FedEx CC's disinterest in getting us home (or someplace else) when we need to be there. We knew that's the way it would be when we signed on.
Expediting is a difficult business to bargain with. If you go with the flow and do what the job requires, you can do very well. If you try to inject items into expediting that shippers and receivers do not care about - like getting you home - the job becomes difficult if not impossible.
Think about that for a moment. Expediting is the business of delivering freight safely and on time, with great care for the freight, and/or with great speed. It's a job that by its very nature requires you to be out on the road, and often great distances from home.
If you enter the business wanting the freight to take you where you want to go, you have it backwards. In this business, you take the freight where it wants to go.
At least, that's how it is with FedEx CC. As I said, other carriers may be able to get you home as you need.
