Finally Dit It!
 

My husband finally took the plunge and is running his first load under his own authority today.

A little background:
Married with 3 kids - the oldest a trucker himself, 2 in college.
Experienced in sales and business management. Big box stores and poor management twice put his former employers out of business. Said the heck with it - bought a truck and decided to work for himself.

O/O leased for several years. Almost made it till truck was paid for. Couldn't take the illegal, dangerous, no forced dispatch (hah) a day longer.
Clean driving record.
Take pride in on time deliveries.
2001 Freightliner Century - 53' Dry Van / almost paid for.
No restrictions but would love to stay reasonably close to home. (Gotta play a round of golf every once in a while.)
Several local contacts with decent freight.
Hooked up with a couple of brokers. (Trusting other truckers on this one.)

We have been reading the CAD message boards for some time now and have learned many things that have helped us get to this point. I anticipate that we will need your collective years of knowlege more than a few times in the coming months. Thanks in advance!

Good for you, and wish you both success! Keep us posted how the first few months go.

Good for you. Congratulations. It sounds like you are on the right track. We will be interested in hearing how you are progressing.

Best of luck to ya, let us know how the dry van goes, it'll be interesting to follow your progress.

1st problem so fast
 

OK - Need your help already. 2nd haul - sent to wrong adress. BOL had the address of the owner of the business it was to be delivered to instead of the actual delivery address. Needless to say DH was not happy as his truck was rolling through a residential neighborhood - truck scraping tree limbs, etc.
Called dispatcher and they gave him the correct address. Made out like it was no big deal.
Dh asked about compensation for time and miles and was told they would ask management about it.

Do you ask for a number to call and verify address before you pull the load? Any other tips for handling this type of problem?

finally made it to the correct delivery site. Now the receiver has unloaded half of load and refusing to take the rest! Says it's a bunch of junk. This is not turning out so well.

After receiving the rate confirmation sheet, I always get the phone # of the shipper and consignee and call them to verify pickup and delivery information. If the information is different than what's on the rate confirmation, I get it cleared up before I move. I also rerun the miles from point-to-point if there are any differences so if there are any discrepancies, they are worked out immediately.

Contact the Broker or Shipper and tell them the Consignee has refused the load and ask them what do they want you to do with it. There might be a claim filed against you. Was anything damaged? Were the items loaded not the correct items to be delivered?

It is a good policy to call the shipper and receiver to confirm address and delivery information. If it doesn't match the rate confirmation, then the matter should be addressed at that time. When you deliver and a receiver refuses part of all of the shipment, then the first thing to do is call the shipper or broker who gave you the load. If there is a possibility of a damage claim, then you should be prepared to take plenty of pictures to document the claim. If the receiver or shipper caused the damage, then that should be noted on the bills at the time it occurred.

could we get a update?

DH called the shipper and explained that the receiver was refusing part of the load. Took about 3 hours to resolve - so he was paid some detention time and they finally took the rest of the load. The delivery was some sort of plastic containers and the receiver said they were dented, etc. A dock worker told DH that the guy who refused the load was just hard to please and that he often has issues. (not exactly his words but don't want to get kicked off this forum.)

We will call to confirm delivery address in the future. Thanks for your help.

I would always call the consignee if it is my first time delivering to them. Somestime they require appointment times, might have a different delivery warehouse, no overnight parking, 24 hour loading/unloading & etc.

Tell your husband to buy a cheap digital camera. Make a habit of taking picture of his load and he can delete once the load is signed for.

Good Luck

Don't feel bad. I ended up in front of City Hall once with radar equipment. It was City Hall who paid for it but was going to the airport which I didn't know.

Question? Have any of you been asked if you would drop and hook your own trailer? The shipper has 2 loads next week going to the same location and I can pick up my trailer on the second load. Makes me a little nervous leaving my trailer.

Carriers do it all the time, as an O/O in reality your just a small carrier. Only thing to worry is if someone would steal tires off your trailer while your off with theirs, but they have the same worry.

One advange Save time getting loaded when he back for the second load.

Week One

Had a few glitches but made it. Rates OK - Miles OK

Week Two - Offers - but rates so low can't see where I would be making anything if I run them.

For those of you who just started out:

Do you run freight at low rates just to establish yourself with a Broker?
CH Robinson and other companies have freight - but do I need to run it cheap just to get my foot in the door?

When you guys say you knock on doors - How do you sell yourself? Not a stranger to cold calls or sales in general but who do you contact?

I want to run - need to run - have funds put back - but can't sit still forever. I have a few contacts - but obviously need way more. I read these boards for a long time before starting this venture and understood that it is hard starting out - but geez - this is crazy.

Who is running all this cheap freight and why? How the heck is anyone staying in business?

Brokers could care less if they know you are not. There is no foot in the door. Either you have a truck available or not. Have a truck? Have insurance? Great, your good to go.

No, The rates aren't lower, the broker is just taking a bigger cut at your expense.

It may surprise you but CH Robinson give the biggest percentage of their freight to major carriers, the left overs go on their call board.

No. If you pull cheap they will rememeber you and they are not likely to offer you anthing good in the future. In all of my repeat business with brokers, the rates have been established by usiing the previous load as a starting point i.e. they will say "Well, let's see here...last time you did this for $2/mile......"

In times like this, for a new carrier such as yourself without any contacts, there are only two ways to get good rates that I know of:

1. Get lucky. Maybe another truck has dropped the load ad you are in the right place at the right time.
2. Go places and do things that other guys won't.

We move tall and wide stuff into Ontario and that was working good but the bottom has fallen out of that too. It's going to be an ugly winter I think.

Week 2 was pretty scary. Spent 2 days looking for decent loads. Have to agree with Pepe that this is hard work. Takes a lot of time to locate decent paying freight and get set up with each broker/shipper.

Ended up pretty good and ran several short mile loads for good money. Had to stay on top of it though. Lot's of hours on the computer and the phone. Had time on my hands though. I sat a lot of hours between loads because I don't know any of these companies I'm pulling for and how long they take to load and unload. Wouldn't want to book something and then not be able to make it on time. Guess this will get better with time.

For those of you considering staying local under you own authority this may be something to consider.

Shorter loads = more work finding the loads and more paperwork.

It's amazing how little some of these loads pay. I feel sorry for the truckers who are so strapped they have to haul for no profit.

You do not need to take cheap freight to get in with these brokers. Unless you keep your rates high enough, you won't be in business very long. Every business MUST make a profit to continue to exist.

If you want to find your own shippers you will need to get out and make some sales calls. You must find the one who can make a decision. The shipping manager is a good place to start. Some shippers have logistics companies to handle their shipping needs. You can use the telephone, direct mail or personal sales calls. Any or all of them can result in gaining new business.

This is a time of year when rates tend to soften. The key is to remain flexible. During winter months some won't run in the cold and snow. That usually results in rates being higher in those areas and lower in the warmer climate. I see no need to haul freight unless I can make a fair profit. It doesn't make any sense to haul freight just to keep the truck moving. Unless someone is willing to pay me enough to make a fair profit then I won't waste my time with them. Apparently, there are plenty of owner operators and carriers who are willing to run for $1/mile on some loads. I would prefer sitting or deadhead out than take one of those cheap loads. A friend of mine is in the Northwest. He wound up deadheading over to his brother in Idaho rather than hauling a heavy load of lumber for $1/or so. He feels like me about hauling for fuel money. Fuel costs are approaching $0.70/mile in the far Northwest. Rates should be going up rather than down. The problem is that there are too many people who get into this business, buy a truck and don't have enough money to run their business. They run scared. They are so afraid of losing everything that they take this cheap freight to try and out run the bill collectors. Of course, in the end, they wind up losing everything anyway. You can't run for FREE forever. If we had more business people in this business rates would be higher. What these people don't realize is that if enough people let this freight sit then rates come up. Rates will come up until someone takes it.

Rates are somewhat artificially low right now. The building and automobile industries are slow. Those are two areas where trucking rely heavily on freight. Those who usually haul this type of freight must look for other avenues until these industries begin to recover. That throws an excess capacity into the mix during a slow time of year. The result is more trucks for the available freight. Last year during this time there wasn't as much freight. This year there seems to be plenty of freight but rates are lower, in part due to the excess capacity. One thing we seem to forget. Shippers MUST move their goods. They can only wait so long before shipping them. Unless they ship to their customers they cannot survive. It is a waiting game. I think some shippers are better at it than many in the trucking business.

Hmmm i did 1.....wasnt concerned about leaving the trailer, they had good control there n security.
Ended up a disaster tho cuz Ohio flooded (heavy rains) n i lost 5 days cuz of weather that they couldnt unload my trailer n i didnt get detention wrote into the agreement (foolish me!).....all in all tho the freight payed well....just my dumb luck to get caught in a flash flood so try to get them to agree to any detention reimbursement.

KBlickster- considering, you are running a dryvan, you need to specialize it. Do you have vents? Do you have a pallet jack? Etrac? Blankets? You are in direct competiton with Schneider, USX, JHunt, Swift and all of the other megacarriers if you are just running dryvan freight. You may need to put together some LTLs, try your luck at building a full trailer load using partials. You can start with Yale Forklifts in NC, Add some dropdoor vents and haul produce or nursery, Have you looked at hauling furniture, NC is the furniture capital. STAY AWAY from brokers especially on your headhaul, you will go broke. Have you computed your cost per mile?

I don't think detention would have been paid in that case anyway Pepe. It would probably come under the heading of "Force Majure" or "Act of God".

I'll tell you one thing about people telling you to have something put into the contract. It doesn't work. I tried a few times with some of the larger carriers and was told they would have legal look it over but that would mean I wouldn't get the current load because it could take weeks for legal to make a decision.

Believe me, big brokers and shippers are not going to allow their flunky phone people to modify a contract and I wouldn't either if I was in charge.

[quote="LOAD IT"]KBlickster- considering, you are running a dryvan, you need to specialize it. Do you have vents? Do you have a pallet jack? Etrac? Blankets?

Load It,
Are you suggesting he should have this stuff? Seems like a good idea.

[quote="Bigmon"]Yes he should, how much/what depends on the freight he finds.

Now I've heard this twice today

Thanks Load It! I wish that I could stay away from the brokers all together. Hate calling them and hearing their pitiful rates or I just booked that load and 3 hours later it's still posted.

I just don't have enough contacts yet to get me the miles I'd like to run without using them some. Apparently not many of the new guys do either. I figure I gotta pay my dues and hopefully will make contact with some decent shippers in the process.

Week 3
Made a drop on Monday morning and then went to pick up a load. Got to the location and noticed something wrong with my trailer. The bracket that holds the airbag up was broken. I have only had this trailer a month and was pretty dissappointed that something broke on it. Fortunately I was only 2 hours from home so I drove to a local mechanic and for 75.00 he helped me rig it up to get it home to my mechanic. The part was going to take a week - so my guy rebuilds it for me.

I had to cancel all my appts and didn't have a concrete time that the truck would be ready so I was home for 2 days looking at the load boards and signing up with brokers, and knocked on some more doors.

Thursday I was back on the road - a little afraid to venture to far out - took a couple more short loads and ended up making enough to pay for my fuel and repairs. Have a decent load that delivers on Monday on the truck now.

Oh, the load I was to pick up this morning which I booked Wednesday afternoon called just before I arrived to tell me it was cancelled. This would totally screw me up and I was p----ed! I told her that I had a contract and that I was already there and would bill her anyway. She told me it wasn't ready yet - but she would check and see what she could do. She called me back a little later and told me that I could come and pick up a partial load and that they would honor the contract.

Is this a common problem? I guess what I told her was OK cause it worked out for me.

Still struggling to figure out how close I can book loads. I do not want to book jobs to close and not be able to pick up on time. This makes it really difficult for me as dry van freight gets snapped up pretty fast. I guess my judgement will improve with time.

Myself, I really can't book a load to pick up right after I drop off. It's way to stressful for me. I think I've only been able to do it once in a the past year. I was at the customer site at 7am and unloading and the next load I had until 3pm to get loaded. Most other times something goes wrong and then the phone starts to ring and everyone is worried then either I say screw it or the broker does. Then I sigh with relief and go shutdown at a truckstop. Next thing you know the broker calls and asks if I can still make it. I say no, and they say if you pick it up in the morning that would be OK. GEEZUS

kblickster--where in NC do you live?

Greensboro - I called the forklift company you mentioned but the guy I need to talk to is out of the office until Monday the 12th.

Hauling my first load of Christmas trees from NC to Dalton and Atlanta GA. Great rate but pretty nervous about unloading 700 trees. Sure hope there is help when I get there.

Have a good paying load back to NC and was offered another load of trees. Told them I better hold off and see if I'm still alive and able to pull another load before I book it.

Anybody else out there hauling trees? I have to deliver tomorrow.

Steve, I know how you feel about not wanting to haul produce ever again. I don't want to ever haul a load of Christmas trees again. The money was good on paper - but the labor involved just wasn't worth it.

I hauled the load of trees from NC to GA - 2 stops at Lowes. Did pretty good unloading the first ones. 6 to 8 foot trees. It was hard but got them all off with the help of some young guy.

The second stop was a whole different ball game! 10 to 12 foot trees - Lord it was about a 150 degrees inside my truck. Had 1 guy helping me. The trees had settled, were all stuck together and weighed a ton. Got down to the last 6 in the truck - Dragged 2 of them to the door and I guess the guy felt so sorry for me, he offered to get the last 4. Told him I really appreciated it because I didn't think I could have done it. I had sap all over me - don't know if my jeans will ever come clean.

My phone is ringing off the hook, but I don't ever seem to be in the right place at the right time. Still able to get some decent loads though and things seem a little less frightening this week.

:D :D :D :D Thank you....Misery LOVES company.... :D :D :D :D

I find myself getting more comforable booking loads for the same day that I empty. Of course things could always happend, but I notice the rate confimations that have big sections that mention detention guidlines are the places you get help up. This is more reefer, but Smithfield has twice now kept me for many many hours but it works out good cause I needed the rest and charged $25 per hour which from what I have read is too low.

Are you hauling direct for Smithfield?

I wish. :D They pay good. No problem whatsoever either for paying detention.

Where else can you get job that pays $25 to per hour sleep? :lol: