[chris1]

You'll like the evolution's with auto's. Beating the 12's & 13's mpg even with cold weather and additives. Depending on the driver you need to tweak the trans settings to get the most from them.(if they allow it) Had to order 4 more today because they are already out of the D12 for end of year trucks.

[Roxie]

Originally Posted by mndriver

As has been my experience with companies....

They have one thing and one thing only in mind....The bottom line on the Profit and Loss statement. Make it as big as possible. The driver is nothing but a tool just like the truck. Between that steering wheel and the nut holding it, there are a ton of regulations that must be complied with.

He is a business owner.

Just to clarify...He is a business owner and started "running his business" while he was still under lease/purchase. He looked at it this way....as long as he was making the payments, the truck was his.

I understand where you are coming from with the bottom line aspect. However, the last company he worked for hired him to "drive the southern route from the upper mid-west (MN) and back. Once he signed on the dotted line that "southern route" thing flew out the window. He ran from MN to the east coast and back. Big pay going into PA, NJ, MD, NY but usually less than half the pay coming out. Plus maintenance, wear and tear on the truck, fuel costs pulling mountains, etc. He put his foot down about a year and a half into the lease. The one BIG advantage he had was that momma works too and he could have paid off the truck at that point and walked away. What he did do was speak to the owner of the company and carried the proof with him that he was making just as much "round trip" coming south as he was going east.

I think he will have to put the foot down again with this new company. He talks about going out on his own using the load boards but wants me to retire and "dispatch".

P.S. He is an O/O. The truck was paid off for Christmas!!!

[mndriver]

Originally Posted by merrick4

I was wondering if they had insurance Bigmon? But the broker, or the agent said he was going to be an indentured servant to his company for life if it didn't get resolved. So I'm not sure. About the insurance, sure we need it, we have it, but I've found it's cheaper to pay it as they raise the premiums so much that you end up paying more. Now just to clarify, that is for cargo insurance, not for cars or health or others etc. As someone told me once, there's a reason that the largest buildings in every city are banks and insurance companies. They don't lose.

Driver of the Year, actually, the stolen freight was a separate incident from the accident. They stole a trailer right out of the yard. I mean through it all it's still a profitable company but a lot of headaches. As posted many times, I am from New England, so grew up in a liberal climate. I got to Florida and was stunned to hear that everyone hated unions. Not that I knew anything about them, but I just grew up hearing everything good about them. That was always a goal, to get in the union.

More and more I am becoming much more conservative. Not so much socially, well even a bit there too. More and more I find we don't just have to accept things which I'm cool with (like gays, I don't care one way or another) but we have to have it thrown in our face and actually agree with it. (Just to clarify as I mentioned gays and don't want problems here, I don't agree nor disagree with it, I just don't care what people do in there personal lives).

Anyway, one regulation after another and I'm getting sick of it. Good lord, Aristotle wrote about the Happy Medium thousands of years ago, and why can't we get this right. It's either not regulated enough (we do need regulations) or it's over regulated.

I am going to go back and pull this forward a little bit....


I was talking to my insurance rep a couple weeks back...We were discussing expanding and what it required and the little idiosyncrasies about it all.

One thing I have concerns about is claims. Don't want any, but it's not a matter of if, but WHEN it's going to happen. I have to have the money to cover the deductible and from there, insurance covers it.

I asked directly, "How many cargo claims is too many?" answer, "Depends on the company."

He went on (and now I am paraphrasing):

overall in the market, most insurance companies will let a ratio of 1 claim per 4 trucks slide by per year. So if you have 35 trucks, that would be 8 claims per year. I wanted to get to 8-10 trucks and he said I wouldn't have much issues for 1-2 claims annually.

BUT...there's always that but ain't there....

If you start showing a history and pattern, they will raise your rates etc or drop you and report your credit history that way.

So it's still to our benefit as carriers to do our due diligence to minimize rates.

I still consider myself relatively new to being an O/O. I got my truck in July 12, authority in July 13. Been some interesting business lessons since then too.

[merrick4]

Well first let me say glad Chris1 you are having positive experiences with the Evolutions. I don't like the technical aspects of these things. I actually don't even like trucks. I wouldn't even drive a pickup truck. I know specs are important, that's why before I did the Ryder thing, I was buying trucks from Covenant. I figure they paid someone good enough to spec the trucks and why reinvent the wheel? I just bought their trucks. I do read a lot and it's not like I don't pay attention, I just don't like it. I'm looking into getting those plastic curtains for the back of the reefers for when the door is open.

What ever happened to the O/O from Canada, I think his name was Alan? That guy knew a lot about the mechanics.

As for the claims, well I had an agent tell me something different and actually I ended up speaking to an underwriter who confirmed it. Basically (I can't remember the exact number) I think it was 65%. That is claims can't eat up more than 65% of the premiums. It really wouldn't make sense on the number of trucks as you could have a full load at $100,000 or 3 loads at $7,000 each.

Yesterday a truck collided with a train in Pompano. That was a mess and will be costly.

We went down and met the guy from the rail. That was interesting. We watched how they place the trailers on the train. From South Florida to Jacksonville is only $100 a trailer with 9 hour transit time. They want to buy reefers but the guy that met us is trying to persuade them against it and they want to partner up with us. It's just that perishable stuff scares me. We get alerts if the reefer goes down but what are we going to do when it's on a train?

To be honest, I think they want us to try it out and see how it goes and then do it themselves. He did say we could charge the customer whatever we want, they just want the trailers on their rail. They also have a train that goes to Atlanta but we didn't get that price. To be honest the whole thing was a bit overwhelming. We picked up a big shipper down here and they do mostly melons and I think we are charging $1000 to Jacksonville. Imagine if we could get it on a train? $$$$ The shipper is only about 2 miles from us too and then we only have to take about 15 miles to the train.

I set up the new company and have my MC # current and active with all the insurance. I'm all set to go. We signed up with the UIIA which basically all people have to do if they want to do intermodal. I just need to wait a little now though. One girl is on vacation, the safety/driver manager is going on vacation next week. I want to fire another girl there and I'm probably going to get my other hip operated on now. I want to get it over with. Though this time it should be easier as I know what to expect and I'm training to strengthen everything now. (I just got home now after a couple hours riding around on my bike, it's 81 out today).

By the way I heard in the old days guys use to get insurance for one truck and then run a bunch under that MC number. Well I was talking to this guy I know today who is very very smart but just does things the wrong way in life. I guess what he and some people down in Miami are doing is they get they put the truck on the insurance and then cancel it after they get the plate.

They don't pay taxes, insurance, etc. I don't know, maybe when I was 20, but adults have no business with stuff like that. Again this happens to be one of the smartest (book smart) people I know, yet he is doing stuff like that. But you guys with one or two trucks (and dont' take that wrong, I'm no big company ) anyway it's hard to compete with people blatantly violating the laws.

Well be safe everyone.

[GMAN]

If these people cancel their insurance after getting their plate, the insurance company will notify the feds and their authority will be cancelled. They would likely be stopped when they cross a scale or stopped by the dot. I don't understand how they could be able to conduct their business without having active insurance and authority. I never felt the need to compete with people such as you mentioned. They cannot last long. They are also the type who would think nothing of steeling the load and selling it. I have heard of some who will get the information on a legitimate carrier and essentially assume their identity. They take the money and run. Some hijack the load and then the shipper or broker starts looking for the real carrier. I read somewhere that this is much more common with Russians on the left coast.

[merrick4]

If I understood him right GMAN, they leave one or two trucks on their insurance. He was telling me of some other guy I met once (I didn't like him either, I could tell he was shifty) that he has all the same make and model trucks and puts the registration for the one on the policy in all the trucks as they usually don't usually check VIN or plates.

It's frustrating as we are all trying to do the right thing. I mean let's not kid ourselves, sometimes crime does pay and I never believed in that "what goes around, comes around". But it doesn't matter in the end; I have my morals I have always lived by so no matter how lucrative I wouldn't do something like that.

[GMAN]

That makes sense for them to maintain insurance on one or two trucks in order to keep their insurance and authority active. Insurance companies do check your pcs150 for the number of units you own or have leased to your authority. I don't think you ever get ahead by cheating or lying. You might see a short term advantage, but in the long term, I think that honesty and ethics do matter.

[chris1]

Couple of years ago I had a carrier based in CA back into one of my O/O's in MO. Their insurance was only good for a 500 mile radius and they only had one truck on it. So they had no insurance on the truck that hit my O/O. As far as FMCSA was concerned they were fine because their insurance company filed the mcs90 with them and their only concern is that it is filed not the limitations of it.

[GMAN]

It is irritating to think that we pay for all those who skirt the rules. From what I have observed, it is primarily those who's home is not the U.S. that tend to do this. I know insurance is expensive, but it hurts all of us when there are those who don't play by the same rules. It is my understanding that the insurance company may still be on the hook if the carrier has a claim, whether the individual vehicle is listed on the policy or not. They then may go back on the carrier to collect for any losses.

[Mackman]

I only have a 100 mile radius on my insurance. But up to 3 times a year i am allowed to go beyond 100 miles.