For those with their own authority…

[Musicman]

Anyone familiar with NASTC (National Association of Small Trucking Companies)? I signed up a couple months ago and absolutely love the two programs I’ve taken advantage of so far… Sprint PCS 14% discount (my bill dropped from abt. $410 a month to abt. $360) and the fuel discount program (we’re seeing a savings of $.15 to $.50 per gallon). They offer a ton of other programs that you might be able to take advantage of. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested: NASTC Welcome To The National Association Of Small Trucking Companies - 800.264.8580

[henboy1]

Anyone familiar with NASTC (National Association of Small Trucking Companies)? I signed up a couple months ago and absolutely love the two programs I’ve taken advantage of so far… Sprint PCS 14% discount (my bill dropped from abt. $410 a month to abt. $360) and the fuel discount program (we’re seeing a savings of $.15 to $.50 per gallon). They offer a ton of other programs that you might be able to take advantage of. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested: NASTC Welcome To The National Association Of Small Trucking Companies - 800.264.8580

Please tell me more about this.Someone else mentioned this deal.I am more interested on the discountered fuel.

[Musicman]

Please tell me more about this.Someone else mentioned this deal.I am more interested on the discountered fuel.

Go browse around the NASTC site. You have to call them and ask for membership. It's a bit pricey, ($250 a year), but we've already made our membership dues back 2x in six weeks on the road in fuel savings and will knock over $700 a year off our Sprint PCS bill. They are like OOIDA (only a lot smarter) but for small trucking companies.

[henboy1]

Go browse around the NASTC site. You have to call them and ask for membership. It's a bit pricey, ($250 a year), but we've already made our membership dues back 2x in six weeks on the road in fuel savings and will knock over $700 a year off our Sprint PCS bill. They are like OOIDA (only a lot smarter) but for small trucking companies.

I knew there was a catch and that was why I wanted to hear it from you without having to apply and back down.I have to sit down and do my gallons/yr and see the savings with their $250/yr.
I am tired of memberships.I just dtched OOIDA's drug consortium and I found membership for a free .Thanks anyway, I will do the math.

[GMAN]

It is a shame that OODIA hasn't done a better job of getting fuel discounts. One problem I see with this company is that they use Fleet One as their card administrator. We used Fleet One for several years and I would not use them again. We have had some problems with them providing some documentation. OOIDA also used them, but I was told that they have also experienced some complaints from members about them. I wonder if this organization is actually owned by Fleet One since both are based in Nashville?

In any case, it would be interesting to see if the savings would justify the high membership fee. I like the idea of having a fee for each drug test rather than an annual fee for each driver. If you had several drivers that might be worth it.

I am not sure that I would want to use them simply because of their association with Fleet One and the problems that we ultimately had with them. If they had a different fuel card I might consider joining.

[merrick4]

The OOIDA drug program is a rip off. I signed up with a local service and pay per test. The guy from NASTC came and saw us; we are getting much better fuel discounts then he can offer. I don't use Sprint but get 5% back for paying with my Amex card and 15% off as I'm under some business plan. Didn't see much use in them but that was me.

No tire program either, which we find on our own. Pull into a T/A and pull out and get billed from my local tire dealer. Don't pay the T/A a dime.

[henboy1]

[QUOTE=merrick4;481684]The OOIDA drug program is a rip off. I signed up with a local service and pay per test. The guy from NASTC came and saw us; we are getting much better fuel discounts then he can offer. I don't use Sprint but get 5% back for paying with my Amex card and 15% off as I'm under some business plan. Didn't see much use in them but that was me.

No tire program either, which we find on our own. Pull into a T/A and pull out and get billed from my local tire dealer. Don't pay the T/A a dime.[/QUO


Thanks for that post.That OOIDA CMCI is the biggest rip off.I have to join the program even if I am not driving and that is 150/driver + my fee.What a relief to have joined a program that gives you free membership up to 3 drivers and charges you the year after and per sample.

That OOIDA's Fleet One is another joke just like Gman mentioned.They go through your credit with a magnifying glass, and only to get the cash price.I rarely use that card.

I try to haul for LS and once I get my fuel money for the week, I go some where else for freight.LS comdata/premiere card gave me as much as 30cents off the pump price in Whitsett, NC.
Music Man, have you actually sat down and done your math on this 250/yr you are paying?Then again I may be wrog because you are getting major discount on your Sprint.
When I was a LS BCO, I signed on T mobile with their corporate discount.For unlimited minutes and air card, I am paying $115.

[GMAN]

OOIDA has a 10% discount with Sprint. Unfortunately, the Sprint plan that I have doesn't qualify for any more discounts. I have unlimited nationwide coverage for $89 plus taxes. I have also not found any organization that can beat the price that I pay locally for tires. Frankly, I am tired of joining associations or organizations that don't do any more for me than I can do for myself. I checked into joining the ATA a couple of years or so ago. The main reason was that I wanted to save on my insurance. As it turned out I would not only have had to pay the high membership fee but pay a higher premium than I was paying at the time. Sometimes, I think that we can do better on our own if we are willing to spend some of our time and effort.

[Musicman]

The OOIDA drug program is a rip off. I signed up with a local service and pay per test. The guy from NASTC came and saw us; we are getting much better fuel discounts then he can offer. I don't use Sprint but get 5% back for paying with my Amex card and 15% off as I'm under some business plan. Didn't see much use in them but that was me.

No tire program either, which we find on our own. Pull into a T/A and pull out and get billed from my local tire dealer. Don't pay the T/A a dime.

You get "much better" discounts than wholesale cost plus four cents? Really? I hate to dispute that, but any cheaper and the truck stops would be PAYING you to come get their fuel. My actual savings off pump price, since we left the house on April 16th: $955.34 on 4510.399 gallons of fuel. In some instances I am buying my fuel in places like TA that inflate their pump price when I would have (using my TCH account as I did before) bought at Flying J, but after a little further analysis, I have discovered the following: Not only do I save the $1.80 per transaction fee I used to pay TCH, but I have the advantage of knowing not only what today’s prices will be, but by 10:00 CDT, I know what the prices will be for the following day. There are many times in the past where I guessed wrongly about what fuel prices would do. I’d map out my fuel purchases for my route, but by the time I’d get to a stop the next day, the price had jumped ten cents and I would have been better off buying elsewhere. I would be curious what your prices are. Why not post what you paid for fuel last week at all of your fuel stops, including location you bought fuel at and day, and I will post the prices I would have paid and let’s see how your program matches up with the NASTC program. I'll be home for pretty much the rest of June (starting tomorrow night, that is). I’d be happy looking at another program if it is that much better.

[Musicman]

[QUOTE=henboy1;481690]

Music Man, have you actually sat down and done your math on this 250/yr you are paying?Then again I may be wrog because you are getting major discount on your Sprint. When I was a LS BCO, I signed on T mobile with their corporate discount.For unlimited minutes and air card, I am paying $115.

I've got 6 phones and one air card. The six phones split 3k peak time minutes, unlimited everything else. Unlimited cell to cell, unlimited data and texting. The air card is also unlimited bandwidth. My old bill was around $410 a month. My discounted bill is around $365. OOIDA said they'd get me a discount, but turns out I have a high end corporate account and they couldn't do anything for me.

[Musicman]

It is a shame that OODIA hasn't done a better job of getting fuel discounts. One problem I see with this company is that they use Fleet One as their card administrator. We used Fleet One for several years and I would not use them again. We have had some problems with them providing some documentation. OOIDA also used them, but I was told that they have also experienced some complaints from members about them. I wonder if this organization is actually owned by Fleet One since both are based in Nashville?

In any case, it would be interesting to see if the savings would justify the high membership fee. I like the idea of having a fee for each drug test rather than an annual fee for each driver. If you had several drivers that might be worth it.

I am not sure that I would want to use them simply because of their association with Fleet One and the problems that we ultimately had with them. If they had a different fuel card I might consider joining.

As far as I know, NASTC is a family run business that has no affiliation with Fleet One which is the old TransPlatinum corporation. NASTC seems to know that FleetOne isn’t the best company to work with, but I think they are the company that gave NASTC what it wanted. I absolutely cannot stand FleetOne, but to save the money I’m saving on fuel, I will be willing to deal with the morons. I actually used to think that they were owned by OOIDA, because they exhibit the same level of competence and professionalism, but they are actually TransPlatinum under a different name. TCH gave me 10 days of “float” and a $10k limit. In spite of my 815 credit score, Fleet One would not extend more than $2500 to me. Their excuse was that I had an account through OOIDA for three years that I only used once. My response was that was because they suck @ss compared to TCH. I don’t think they appreciated that remark. Anyway, they told me that after I show that I need more than $2500 (which I do, even at today’s prices) and show that I make on-time payments, they will reconsider increasing my limit.

[Musicman]

I have also not found any organization that can beat the price that I pay locally for tires. Frankly, I am tired of joining associations or organizations that don't do any more for me than I can do for myself. I checked into joining the ATA a couple of years or so ago. The main reason was that I wanted to save on my insurance. As it turned out I would not only have had to pay the high membership fee but pay a higher premium than I was paying at the time. Sometimes, I think that we can do better on our own if we are willing to spend some of our time and effort.

Tires are pretty much always best purchased at a local shop. I’ve been running Yokohama 16 ply Y023 all position tires for the last year and have a local shop that sells them for $311 out the door and then gives a minimum $50 casing credit. My tire costs are now under a penny a mile. I’m sure someone will post that they are getting tires for free somewhere, but I’m pretty happy paying $.008 per mile for tires.

OOIDA has been one disappointment after another over the years. Their insurance was extremely expensive, and when our truck was stolen, they screwed us out of the $9k they should’ve paid for the APU and then low-balled the estimated value of our truck by at least $10k. We had just had an inframe done with a new head and injectors and they generously added an extra $1k to the value of the truck. I’ve slowly cut ties with them and am considering terminating my membership altogether when it come up for renewal.

I am with you on not wasting money on memberships that do little or nothing, but when I get my dues back 25x a year in cost savings, I have to say it’s worth it. Perhaps for those who could not benefit from a 14% Sprint PCS discount or who purchase very little fuel it might not be worth the cost of membership, but last year we purchased 29,212 gallons. Even a savings of a penny a gallon would more than cover the cost of membership. Actually, since I spent $351 in fuel card fees alone last year(TCH charges $1.80 per use) just having a card that has no transaction fee will pay for one and a half annual memberships a year.

[GMAN]

Some of the big brokers have their own fuel cards which can give one decent fuel discounts. Landstar and CH Robinson are a couple who come to mind. There are others, such as Schneider who also have their own fuel programs. If you haul mostly for those brokerages then it might pay you to use their card. The down side to any of them is that you cannot load the card yourself. The issuer is the only one who can load it. For instance, if you haul a CH Robinson load then they are the only one who can load it. They will ONLY load it when you haul one of their loads. Some of these cards also have discounts on tires and parts available. Each company has a slightly different program.

[RostyC]

Anyone familiar with NASTC (National Association of Small Trucking Companies)? I signed up a couple months ago and absolutely love the two programs I’ve taken advantage of so far… Sprint PCS 14% discount (my bill dropped from abt. $410 a month to abt. $360) and the fuel discount program (we’re seeing a savings of $.15 to $.50 per gallon). They offer a ton of other programs that you might be able to take advantage of. Here’s the link if anyone’s interested: NASTC Welcome To The National Association Of Small Trucking Companies - 800.264.8580

I see they have a loadboard as well. Have you tried it yet?
How about the best broker program? Any experience there?

[Musicman]

I see they have a loadboard as well. Have you tried it yet?
How about the best broker program? Any experience there?

The load board sounds like a good deal, from what I know about it. For what we do right now, we really can't make use of it, but I do know that all brokers have to pass NASTC's standards for credit worthiness, etc. to be allowed to post on it. I also believe that one substantiated complaint from an NASTC member and the broker is supposed to be banned.

I've never factored either, but NASTC offers programs where factoring may be as low as one percent or so (I think). I've been toying with the idea of adding drivers and factoring bills to make it easier to meet payroll and fuel, but I'm still uncommitted at his point. Jumping out there and adding a few more drivers with an uncertain economy is a bit scary to me.

I know I may sound like a bit of a shill for these folks, but it’s rare that I talk to anybody in our business who really impresses me. Hunter Owen, the NASTC guy I spoke with for about two hours on the phone did just that, and so has everybody I’ve dealt with there so far.

[RostyC]

The load board sounds like a good deal, from what I know about it. For what we do right now, we really can't make use of it, but I do know that all brokers have to pass NASTC's standards for credit worthiness, etc. to be allowed to post on it. I also believe that one substantiated complaint from an NASTC member and the broker is supposed to be banned.

I've never factored either, but NASTC offers programs where factoring may be as low as one percent or so (I think). I've been toying with the idea of adding drivers and factoring bills to make it easier to meet payroll and fuel, but I'm still uncommitted at his point. Jumping out there and adding a few more drivers with an uncertain economy is a bit scary to me.

I know I may sound like a bit of a shill for these folks, but it’s rare that I talk to anybody in our business who really impresses me. Hunter Owen, the NASTC guy I spoke with for about two hours on the phone did just that, and so has everybody I’ve dealt with there so far.

Do they charge extra for the load board or is that included?

[Musicman]

Do they charge extra for the load board or is that included?

Like I said, I don't use it right now, so I'm no expert on the load board, but I think... and I stress "think"... there's a fee with a free trial.

[skrissel]

For those of you that are factoring, I don't think that you can beat Apex.
Apex Capital - Freight Bill Factoring, Trucking Factoring, Factoring Invoices

For the month of May I purchased 5833 gallons. My discount was $1765. Average of $0.30/gal off cash price. Mostly at TA's, which is not always the cheapest, I averaged $2.72/gal for the month. I did fill up in SC last night at $2.52/gal. There is a $1.50 transaction fee.

You have to be an "active" factoring customer. If you sign up and do not factor with them, you can still use the fuel card. Just no discount

Great company, great customer service. Zero B.S.

-scott

[Musicman]

For those of you that are factoring, I don't think that you can beat Apex.
Apex Capital - Freight Bill Factoring, Trucking Factoring, Factoring Invoices

For the month of May I purchased 5833 gallons. My discount was $1765. Average of $0.30/gal off cash price. Mostly at TA's, which is not always the cheapest, I averaged $2.72/gal for the month. I did fill up in SC last night at $2.52/gal. There is a $1.50 transaction fee.

You have to be an "active" factoring customer. If you sign up and do not factor with them, you can still use the fuel card. Just no discount

Great company, great customer service. Zero B.S.

-scott

So you have to use the factor service (pay several percent of your load) to get the discount and there is a fee on top of that? Do you know what BOTH today's and tomorrow's prices will be like I do? And if you’re comparing the price at the pump of a TA to the discount price, I'd think you should be averaging at least 30 cpg... sometimes as much as 45 cpg (or even more in some cases) off pump price. TA inflates the pump price like crazy. Right now the price at the TA in Mobile, Al is $2.939 and my price is $2.619. TA in Seattle pump price is $3.359, my price is $2.902. Some places the cost differential is less. In places where competition is stiffer for the truck stops, their pump prices will be lower than in areas where there is little competition. Also, it fluctuates based on where we are in the diesel price curve. Truck stops often make less and less profit as prices rise, so my "cost plus 4 cents" discount won’t amount to much. Once the wholesale prices start to fall, the truck stops artificially keep pump prices high to make up for the loss in profit they had when the prices were rising and that is when a wholesale cost based discount program really pays off.

[skrissel]

So you have to use the factor service (pay several percent of your load) to get the discount and there is a fee on top of that? Do you know what BOTH today's and tomorrow's prices will be like I do? And if you’re comparing the price at the pump of a TA to the discount price, I'd think you should be averaging at least 30 cpg... sometimes as much as 45 cpg (or even more in some cases) off pump price. TA inflates the pump price like crazy. Right now the price at the TA in Mobile, Al is $2.939 and my price is $2.619. TA in Seattle pump price is $3.359, my price is $2.902. Some places the cost differential is less. In places where competition is stiffer for the truck stops, their pump prices will be lower than in areas where there is little competition. Also, it fluctuates based on where we are in the diesel price curve. Truck stops often make less and less profit as prices rise, so my "cost plus 4 cents" discount won’t amount to much. Once the wholesale prices start to fall, the truck stops artificially keep pump prices high to make up for the loss in profit they had when the prices were rising and that is when a wholesale cost based discount program really pays off.

Musciman,

I stated this was a good option for someone that is factoring or considering it. I decided to factor last year after I had been running 3 trucks and had over $45k in A/R. As far as the transaction fee, I can live with a $1.50 fee on a $500-$600 fill up.

You are correct, TA does have some of the highest prices out there (as I stated).

Today the Apex price at the TA in Mobile is $2.579/gal and in Seattle it is $2.839/gal. The pump prices are the same as you found.

I use their website, which allows you to enter a start and end point and it will list the best prices along the route. It does not show pre-tax cost, so you have to keep up with the different fuel taxes from state to state to determine the true fuel cost.

I have looked at the NASTC program in the past, it appears to be a good program. I may not factor forever, so I have a few questions. Have you had any Fleet One card problems like others have mentioned? What methods do they accept for payment? Will they allow you to "overpay" your account if they set you up with a low limit?

Thanks and travel safe!

-scott