Anyone ever done government hauling?

[Papa Rick]

Hey everyone, been awhile since been on here, things have been slow for me the past few months and was wondering if anyone has ever done any hauling for the government and if so what advice you would have for this.

[Rev.Vassago]

Don't expect much of anything for a FSC.

[repete]

I've never pulled anything for them But I have done contract work for em and they were supposed to be on a 60 day net but it would often drag out to 90 days or more if I let it. I made a big deal out of being paid on time that they finally dropped me, no biggie there!

[Chiefwhatdahey]

D.O.D. requires a 25k bond which can be very hard to get.

[firebird_1252]

i run us mail. if you like stress go for it. thank god i dont own a truck and do it. so far in the past week our schedule has changed 3 times, a post office went to closing, to staying open to closing again. last year the o/o's that we had were told they had no work with in the next 10 days. the pay isnt bad at all for o/o's but like i said its stress. oh and the post offices DO NOT CARE ABOUT DOT RULES. last friday i had 70000lbs of trash mail on my single axle...

however, the money is always there and for the most part you knwo what your doing every day, and its very easy clean work.

[Papa Rick]

firebird, do you have any info on the mail haul you could tell me about?

[Papa Rick]

The reason for me asking about info on mail haul is I have run across several people that do this and when I talked to them about this they all told me it was high stress, but paid very well. The question that always closed the conservation was how do I get involved or find out about this. You would have thought I was gonna steal their job from them and leave them homeless.

[GMAN]

Check with one of the General Mail Facilities. There is one in Chattanooga on Shallowford Road. They should be able to put you in touch with someone. I checked into it some years ago. I believe you need to bid on the runs.

I have hauled government loads for some years. If you want to haul direct there is a minimum $25,000 bond you must post. The amount of the bond is related to the number of states in which you want to haul freight. It is either a $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 bond, if I remember correctly. The feds are on the process of putting a logistics company in charge of all of the bases nationwide. They are taking it one facility at a time. It is a division of Conway called Menlo Logistics. I believe that is the correct spelling. If you want to haul direct you will need to set up with US Bank for direct payment. I believe that they charge about 1 1/2% to pay you within 24-72 hours once you get set up. There are some brokers who primarily concentrate on government loads. It is a lot less hassle to use one of them than go to the expense of the bond.

[chris1]

If you want to haul direct you will need to set up with US Bank for direct payment. I believe that they charge about 1 1/2% to pay you within 24-72 hours once you get set up.

Besides the government many large corporations use US Banks B2B payment system. You also don't have to except the discount for early pay.

[firebird_1252]

firebird, do you have any info on the mail haul you could tell me about?

sure what do you want to know? it does pay really well for both company driver and o/o. i was very stupid a while back i passed on work i had to buy my own truck ALL drop and hook $1.50 a mile. there were runs going from jacksonville to panama city that paid $920 a trip. thats just an example though.

normally though the contractor pays your fuel tolls and what not. sometimes they dont pay fuel, sometimes they only pay for something like 50 gal. a day or something like that. i know my boss has a requirment if your a o/o and he pays for fuel your truck must get no less then 6.5mpg.

as far as the stress goes. its very high because the load HAS TO BE THERE. your on a tight schedule. monday night i was in miami they checked me in 2 min late and i had to explain to them that i was ontime but they didnt get to me untill that time. MOST postal employees suck. when loading up you arent aloud to leave the dock plate to grab anything. trailer has to be locked and sealed at all times regardless. post office is right your wrong all the time. as i said earlyer your runs could last for 20 years.. or 2 months.


its very... i guess you can call it very highschoolish. every contractor hates the other. a driver from one company will pull the pin of another company's trailer just because.

if you want to look in to it look up post offices in your area. any post office with P&DC L&DC BMC ISC is what you want to look for.

anything else you want to know ask i'll help with the best of my knowledge

[GMAN]

Besides the government many large corporations use US Banks B2B payment system. You also don't have to except the discount for early pay.

I was surprised at how many of the larger companies use US Bank to process their payments.

[chris1]

It's a decent rate of return for acting as a factoring company. It's a ACH draft from the payer at 30 days and charge 1 1/2% to the carrier/supplier for 24-72 hour pay.

[Papa Rick]

if you want to look in to it look up post offices in your area. any post office with P&DC L&DC BMC ISC is what you want to look for.

anything else you want to know ask i'll help with the best of my knowledge

Firebird, what does those codes mean, and where do you find out the information about this?

I went to 3 different PO and asked them about getting involved and all 3 told me the same thing that I have to bid on the runs and when I asked them how to go about bidding, they told me they did not know this.

They were all real helpful and nice when I was asking questions, but none of them knew how to get in on it? I started watching to see where the contract trucks were from to see if I could talk to them and all 3 of them were from a company out of the county from where they were working.

Talked to all 3 and they work for a company and all 3 were nice, but no help in figuring out how to get in on the bidding process, called the company (WOW you would have thought I was asking for a Top Secret Item) not no help at all?

Only thing they would tell me is I would have to get online and bid on jobs, but would not give me the web address to get on line and bid?

Any help on any of this would be greatly appreciated.

[firebird_1252]

papa rick, forget about getting your own contract. you'll never get the good stuff. to get it is hard.. real hard, you need alot of cash in the bank (something like $100+k ) perfect credit, got to list all stocks, bonds, savings, checking etc etc. i'm on the mailing list.. but its not what you think. these contracts sometimes go every 4 years for rebidding. thats why i say look for a contractor that highers o/o's.

i forget what the aberviations mean to be honest. i know BMC is the bulk mail center, ISC has something to do with international mail, P&DC and L&DC i get confused with.

sorry if i'm real vague i jsut got in off my morning runs.. now gotta run with over lapping runs for the rest of the day.

[Orangetxguy]

Check with one of the General Mail Facilities. There is one in Chattanooga on Shallowford Road. They should be able to put you in touch with someone. I checked into it some years ago. I believe you need to bid on the runs.

I have hauled government loads for some years. If you want to haul direct there is a minimum $25,000 bond you must post. The amount of the bond is related to the number of states in which you want to haul freight. It is either a $25,000, $50,000 or $100,000 bond, if I remember correctly. The feds are on the process of putting a logistics company in charge of all of the bases nationwide. They are taking it one facility at a time. It is a division of Conway called Menlo Logistics. I believe that is the correct spelling. If you want to haul direct you will need to set up with US Bank for direct payment. I believe that they charge about 1 1/2% to pay you within 24-72 hours once you get set up. There are some brokers who primarily concentrate on government loads. It is a lot less hassle to use one of them than go to the expense of the bond.

It is far more lucrative to be set up with the government, for direct billing, than to work through brokers.

Error free billing paperwork is usually posted (paid) within 5 days of receipt. Or so went my experience with them.

To set up with the government you need your SCAC code, a Dun & Bradstreet number, as well as the mentioned bond, for the service you chose to provide.
I don't know about the post office.

Go here for your D&B, Information on the D&B D-U-N-S Number and how to request one at dnb.com

Here for SCAC, National Motor Freight Traffic Association

[GMAN]

You are right about it being more lucrative to be set up to do business direct with the government, Orangetxguy. It can also be a little expensive having to pay for the bond. I checked into it a couple of years ago. I am not sure how much longer the government is going to allow carriers to do business direct. They are contracting out the logistics to an outside vendor, Montlow Logistics (?). I have been told that they will eventually have everything go through them. They want to centralize purchasing. I am not sure if that is only the military or everything. When I first started doing business with the Feds, I don't remember them requiring a bond and you had to go through the GSA (General Services Administration) for most contracts. That was back in the 1970's. They would advertise each contract in their publication. I don't know if they still publish it or if it is available on line.

[sidman82]

Papa, if you go on Web site of Post office, you should find spot to fill out info. I was just mailed a couple of upcoming bids on runs in the Northeast.

You fill out areas only where you can run. Send off paperwork and wait. You might not receive anything for a year or you might get something right away. Then you have to figure the correct price to bid. The papers they send you have miles per year run and cubes needed, you figure the rest.

I have moved to GA already and not bidding. When I find the papers I will try to post info. I might have thrown them away.