It's a Team's Life
Team Boundaries - If Married
When starting in Expediting everyone wants to make a good impression and we accept loads that later on we will look back and wonder what were we thinking. As time passes and our knowledge grows about expediting we learn about the destination of loads. If a load takes us to the middle of nowhere it has to pay more than the load that takes to an area with good freight. There cannot be a set bottom line of how much we want per mile.
In a team situation, both drivers need to be on the same page or at least in the same chapter when accepting a load. The rules about which load is profitable has to be flexible as rates do not stay the same. What was once a good area of the country for freight can change depending on the season.
We all have stress and patience tolerance and there are areas of the country or Canada that are very difficult for some of us to drive in. There are areas of the country where we know we will take a load and we might wait a day to see if another load is offered or that we might have to deadhead out of. We have met drivers who were born and raised in large cities and staying in very congested areas does not bother them, others that were raised in the country have to get away from the cities after a bit. It is all about communication, the desire to stay married and to run a profitable business.
Learning what loads will be acceptable to both parties takes time and it sure helps if you both like the same area of the country. When I accepted our first load to New York City as I read the city wrong it was a little tense in our truck. I accepted the load as it was getting us out of the area and into South Carolina. I missed a lot of details and the worst was that it was a return trip. After that fiasco, we sat down and decided on boundaries of loads that we could not accept without talking to each other.
There are still times when we discuss taking a load into areas of the country we do not like to run in and depending on freight we might or we might not accept a load. We each have to decide how we are going to run the truck and if the stress of a load causes stress in the marriage is it worth it? We are a team and we need to run as a team.
Bob & Linda Caffee
TeamCaffee
Saint Louis MO
Expediters since January 2005
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.