[*anonymous*]

Just wanted to add that if you run for a percentage of line haul - be very careful of whom you choose to do that with, do your homework.

I just fired my last company, they paid percentage, 72% if you pull their trailer. They paid plates, permits, fuel tax. 100% of FSC/detention went TTT. Sounded ok. We tried to background them, procured O/O settlement sheets (with names blacked out) to verify the income they'd told us their O/Os averaged. And I ran good for the first month there but then it went very downhill.

Problem: We had assigned dispatchers and they dealt with a huge amount more of broker freight than we were led to believe, they didn't have enough good company accounts, or they lost them in my duration there.

The individual dispatchers are also the company account reps. How you'd do would depend on whose board you were on. If you got shuttled off the board of the dispatcher who had the "good accounts", you'd never get those loads b/c they'd be withheld. Not a good idea. (We didn't know it worked that way when signing on.)

We'd maybe get a good head haul once in awhile at $2.00 mi TTT. That's great. But then we'd have back hauls at .65 cpm TTT (wish I was kidding) that would exceed the length of the head haul, trashing any profits by the time you could get back and grab a sensible load again.

If you refused the .65 cpm load, you were "punished" by having to sit and having them try to beg and cajole you into going to get that load that they'd booked without running it by you first, thus burning the entire afternoon. They they'd "go home" for the day or tell you since the load was "split" (you'd drop in the yard instead of delivering, etc.) they just "didn't know" what the rate was right then and you'd find on your settlement that it was .65 cpm.

Or if you made a dispatcher mad he would withhold the good company loads and you would run solid broker freight. The dispatcher I had was lazy, didn't want to even try to find more sensible brokered loads. He'd pick whatever was first and easiest. Point, click, he was done. They do exist above .65 CPM TTT where I was at.

For example, (all "fuel" figures factored in) a company load to Mpls at $1.50/mi TTT. Ok, not so bad. But then sent on a 90 mile, unpaid, & a 22% deadhead average, to grab a 44,000 broker load that would only bring $.89/mi TTT and exceeded the length of the original $1.50/mi haul to Mpls. Plus then another up-to-70 mi (unpaid) deadhead back to the yard again. The truck only made $1.11/mi, not factoring the empty return to the yard. Nowhere near acceptable. (I did refuse that load because that round simply didn't profit.)

You can't do this with any consistency and keep a good average to the truck.

I did look at Landstar but was not impressed with the gross rates they offered, at least not for the sheets of inbound/outbound loads to my neck of the woods, but I understand some do alright there. I like their choose-your-own-freight system.

If you run for percentage and the company has dispatchers in charge of procuring your loads, be especially careful of whom you choose to go with. Make sure you work out the whole round average before taking any old thing to make sure your truck will stay floating financially. You don't want a crappy back haul that exceeds the length of the head haul (factoring all rates, deadhead, etc.) or you'll end up losing money quickly.

Even if they don't have formal dispatch, make sure you can get a look at actual loads and revenue. You know how you want to run, what you need to make. See if they have a decent balance, something you can make a living at that fits with you.

I'm sure that there are companies who work it much better than the one I just fired, just some things to watch for and check out while you're looking. They were small and suffered from an apparent, unfortunate case of hidden cranial-rectal infusion.

[GMAN]

When you lease to a carrier who pays percentage, you need to be much more proactive. It is up to you to find the better paying loads. It is also your responsibility to find out what the rate is before taking the load. I established a minimum haul rate when was leased to those percentage carriers. They would sometimes still offer me cheaper loads, but I had a minimum for which I would take a load. I have leased to two carriers and never taken a load that I didn't know the rate before I left to pick it up.

[*anonymous*]

Agreed. We did get as proactive as possible as it was to do with their setup, also telling them we couldn't take a load for under X-amount, suggesting alternatives, etc. It fell upon deaf ears. (Hence 2 of us leaving within a week of each other and a third with his hand on the door handle - lol).

They didn't want to cooperate upon refusal of the ridiculously low-paying loads. We were just supposed to take them and be quiet. When we didn't, hence the punishment factor. We found out our dispatcher didn't actually like O/Os b/c he didn't want to have to worry about "rates". Not good. It is his job, overall, to find freight. That's how they're structured. It costs that company more to run their company trucks than it does for me so if I run at a loss, so do they, and they are. You have to factor "rates" - lol.

The situation I mentioned w/the "gee, I don't know the rate" that dispatcher had stuck me with that line and left for an extended weekend. I refused anything 'unknown' after that nonsense - if they didn't know, I didn't go.

Our issues stemmed from the fact that they were unwilling to comply with the very things you mentioned.

We were under exclusive contract so if they didn't want to book something else you were at their mercy. Did they get that petty? Unfortunately, yes. You'd think they would also want better rates because it's better financially for them as well as us but we don't really know what they were doing.

We had "traditional" dispatch. It wasn't like Landstar or Schneider's percentage leases where you could literally pick your freight. When we signed on there was supposed to be a decent volume of company freight which is what we were supposed to run the majority of the time. The extensive broker freight and horrible rates (and that they would TAKE them, even for their company trucks) were a rude surprise. My goodness we learned quickly. I'd went looking for my OWN resources, found many had fees for use, and we'd been run so badly within a short amount of time that the writing was on the wall & that company themselves are considerably in the hole.

Once again, if your dispatcher consistently didn't want to cooperate, work WITH you and book something alternative b/c you refused his .65 cpm load offering, what do you do? I guess if I could have bypassed dispatch and had access to further resources and their accounting stuff to still book and run the load for them under their authority (with them still getting their cut), had they allowed me to do this, I would have tried that. The option was to fight with them over common sense and continue to lose time and money, or leave. Done.

Each dispatcher apparently had different resources that they had established - one liked Cheap Heavy Robinson, another would use Landstar broker freight or small, mom & pop brokers. One poor dispatcher there, they didn't give her ANY company freight, she had to wing it all on broker but, she was the best and could blow the rest out of the water for load rates. If you didn't have her as far as broker loads were concerned, you got the guy who liked to give you .65 cpm loads. lol. Their structure was/is weird.

That was basically my word of caution - make sure they'll work WITH you (for the most part anyhow) if you go on percentage. BE PROACTIVE, if they fight you after making a reasonable effort - you can pull the truck. It's best to not get in that situation to begin with, it was some things we didn't know to look for when going there.

Sounds like your companies maybe had their setup together a little better or maybe were better about working with you. A number of us had been fighting w/this outfit. Are we perfect? No. Do we know everything? Heavens no. But we did try what we could.

Best of wishes to all.

[GMAN]

Communication is critical with this type of operation. In fact, it is very important that you have good lines of communication between drivers or owner operators and dispatch. If you can't get along or get what you need from your dispatcher, then it is usually good to go up the ladder until you can find someone who will help. If not, then you can always leave the company. I prefer trying to work things out at the present carrier. It costs both the owner operator and carrier money when you start and leave a short time later.

Originally Posted by *anonymous*

Agreed. We did get as proactive as possible as it was to do with their setup, also telling them we couldn't take a load for under X-amount, suggesting alternatives, etc. It fell upon deaf ears. (Hence 2 of us leaving within a week of each other and a third with his hand on the door handle - lol).

They didn't want to cooperate upon refusal of the ridiculously low-paying loads. We were just supposed to take them and be quiet. When we didn't, hence the punishment factor. We found out our dispatcher didn't actually like O/Os b/c he didn't want to have to worry about "rates". Not good. It is his job, overall, to find freight. That's how they're structured. It costs that company more to run their company trucks than it does for me so if I run at a loss, so do they, and they are. You have to factor "rates" - lol.

The situation I mentioned w/the "gee, I don't know the rate" that dispatcher had stuck me with that line and left for an extended weekend. I refused anything 'unknown' after that nonsense - if they didn't know, I didn't go.

Our issues stemmed from the fact that they were unwilling to comply with the very things you mentioned.

We were under exclusive contract so if they didn't want to book something else you were at their mercy. Did they get that petty? Unfortunately, yes. You'd think they would also want better rates because it's better financially for them as well as us but we don't really know what they were doing.

We had "traditional" dispatch. It wasn't like Landstar or Schneider's percentage leases where you could literally pick your freight. When we signed on there was supposed to be a decent volume of company freight which is what we were supposed to run the majority of the time. The extensive broker freight and horrible rates (and that they would TAKE them, even for their company trucks) were a rude surprise. My goodness we learned quickly. I'd went looking for my OWN resources, found many had fees for use, and we'd been run so badly within a short amount of time that the writing was on the wall & that company themselves are considerably in the hole.

Once again, if your dispatcher consistently didn't want to cooperate, work WITH you and book something alternative b/c you refused his .65 cpm load offering, what do you do? I guess if I could have bypassed dispatch and had access to further resources and their accounting stuff to still book and run the load for them under their authority (with them still getting their cut), had they allowed me to do this, I would have tried that. The option was to fight with them over common sense and continue to lose time and money, or leave. Done.

Each dispatcher apparently had different resources that they had established - one liked Cheap Heavy Robinson, another would use Landstar broker freight or small, mom & pop brokers. One poor dispatcher there, they didn't give her ANY company freight, she had to wing it all on broker but, she was the best and could blow the rest out of the water for load rates. If you didn't have her as far as broker loads were concerned, you got the guy who liked to give you .65 cpm loads. lol. Their structure was/is weird.

That was basically my word of caution - make sure they'll work WITH you (for the most part anyhow) if you go on percentage. BE PROACTIVE, if they fight you after making a reasonable effort - you can pull the truck. It's best to not get in that situation to begin with, it was some things we didn't know to look for when going there.

Sounds like your companies maybe had their setup together a little better or maybe were better about working with you. A number of us had been fighting w/this outfit. Are we perfect? No. Do we know everything? Heavens no. But we did try what we could.

Best of wishes to all.

So give us a name for this outfit so the rest of us can stay clear ???