It's a Team's Life
Dead head or empty miles
An interesting fact about Expediting is our dead head miles. We had a difficult time grasping the concept of dead head miles when we first moved over to Expediting as we were used to picking up very close to where we delivered with US Xpress. A long dead head was one hundred miles and we did not do that often.
Our longest dead head this year has been 1496 miles and there were some unusual circumstances surrounding the load. The better our qualifications for a load the more in demand we are for specialty freight. Our truck has a dry box and I have heard of the T-Val reefer trucks getting even longer dead heads to pick up special loads.
This year we have dead headed 34% of our total miles which means that 34% of the time we get the best fuel mileage possible and have the least wear and tear on our truck while going down the road. With our company we are paid percentage of what the load pays and when the total miles divided by total dollars is an acceptable for an all miles rate we take the load.
There is a down side to this that does not happen often but does happen. At the last minute the load cancels and we have dead headed the miles and been under dispatch that long and unavailable for another load offer. Usually the dry run pay makes up for most of this but is not as much as we could have potentially made.
Our truckload friends shake their heads over our dead head
and struggle with the concept of expediting and why customers are willing to
pay for our services.
I can think of
several reasons after being in both worlds of why we are often in high demand.
Bob & Linda Caffee
Leased to: FedEx Custom Critical 

TeamCaffee

Saint Louis MO
Expediters 7 years been out here on the road 12 years
Expediting isn't just trucking, it's a lifestyle; 

Expediting isn't just a lifestyle, it's an adventure;

Expediting isn't just an adventure, it's a job;

Expediting isn't just a job, it's a business.