Making Adjustments
 

We are living in challenging times for the transportation industry. Some have given up their authority to lease to larger carriers. Others have left their carriers to get their authority. Still others have either parked their trucks and become company drivers or gotten out of the business all together.

Being in business has always involved making changes or adjustments based upon what is taking place in the marketplace. This last year we have seen record numbers of owner operators and carriers going out of business either by choice or from what is going on in the market. We are likely to see more going out this year.

I find it interesting that there are still so many who are trying to become an owner operator in this environment. On the other hand, if someone is flush with cash or has very low debt this could be a good time to make the change.

I think it would be interesting to hear how others are making adjustments to survive in this economy.

Gman how are you making adjustments ???


BTW buying a truck right now i think is a bad idea. But im talking dump trucks not OTR.

For over 30 years I have owned my own trucks. I have never driven a company truck. I had my own auth. for 11 years. I was operating 7 trucks at the highest point, my wife and I did everything ourselves including sales, maintainence, IFTA, We did fairly well but decided to regress. Over a period of a couple of years I was back to two paid off trucks and several vans. last september I layed my auth. dorment and leased to another carrier. I am not nearly as happy as I was on my own and am not making the money I made on my own, but the last few months of Tyger River(my company) the rates I was seeing were heart breaking, the amount of time I was spending trying to put loads togeather was crazy. I was hit twice as hard because the area I am was also a major textile center and my business was based on textiles. So between textiles going overseas and the economy down the tube I decided to take it easy and lease to another carrier. Fortunately I had shop, equipment, and yard paid for so I was able to take a drop in income. My wife now works for another carrier dispatching and getting return loads and every day she tells me about the sorry rates shes offered and thats from all 48, I do not want to discourage anyone from getting thier own auth. In fact anyone considering buying thier own truck I say do it. especially if your young and can do at least some of your own repair work. If I had it to do all over again I would. I'm sorry for being so long winded but I would like to add that if things ever get back to normal I would re-instate my auth. not because I made more money but because I was more content. I make out OK and the people I am leased to are great but it's just not the same.

Some of the owner operators I run with on a regular basis have been talking about updating their trucks but only if they can keep their payments the same or even lower them. Nobody has been talking about changing to another carrier though.

Quite some time ago I dropped ITS and Getloaded but I kept the more expensive DAT. They have more loads which allows me to reduce my DH miles, and with rates the way they are, reducing DH is one of the few remaining ways to make money.

Bought a used RGN to create some more opportunities and reduce DH miles.

We always avoided QC before. Now, I've registered the business in QC and are moving wide loads in there (trucking companies that are not registered in QC are not able to get permits).

I always avoided loads that required pilot cars, but not any more.

Have marketed our outbound product in ways and places that we never thought of before.

Have identified what I will call "arbitrage opportunities". Specifically, buying products in parts of the country where they are cheap and trucking them to parts of the country where they are more expensive and selling them ourselves.

Took one truck off the US runs (saves ~$6,000 in insurance).

Always sort of avoided "The Port" because it was kind of a hassle. We went there 3 times last month and applied for TWIC's while we were there.

Outbound sales are off ~40% and inventories are up. In an effort to avoid selling at super low prices, we are building another storage facility in hopes that we can cash in when the market turns around.

I think it would be interesting to hear how others are making adjustments to survive in this economy.[/QUOTE]

I think the adjustments would of, or should of, been made long before we
found ourselves in this type of economy. that is HOW you make it in this economy. Some say it is a good time to buy a truck. though as most anything you have your eye on, it's always cheaper when you have no money to spare. trucks are a bargain now. though what are you going to do with a great deal on a nice truck if you cannot afford to run it? I.M.O. running different lanes, hauling different type of commodity, being frugal with expenses are all good adjustments. taking freight at too low of rate just to get by, hurts everybody. my adjustments were made as I said long, long, ago. I will say that whenever I have good paying loads & plenty of mile's, I always made adjustments then. put something away for times like now. as of this date my main adjustment is... I refuse to leave the house for anything that is not worth the pay. period. I am down 70 % of just 7 months ago. with the exception of doing $1,800 3 weeks ago.


If there is anyone on here taking cheap freight in my area, you can thank me for getting it. because it is what I will refuse to haul that give you the chance to get it. though I would not recommend it. it just brings things to a slow death, instead of a quicker recovery. I.M.O. of course.

UPDATE! UPDATE! I just put up my first close line. 2 to be exact. going to let clothes hang out on the line, to save on the cost of drying, & NO. I am not kidding. that is my adjustment for today.

Did I say close line? lol meant to say clothes line. see what happens when ya move from the north to the south?? here is another excuse... I was just spelling phonetically. have fun ya'll...

Aren't ypu green. Al Gore will probably put you on his Christmas card list.

not doing it to be green at all. just trying to break the 400.00 monthly utility bill. I also have a small yard. may go to a non motorized push mower next.