[Tobytob]

any questions on Blue thunder Send me and IM and I will do my best to answer your questions.
Car hauling is a great job, the money is very good but you will earn every penny of it. I get alot of satisfaction when I am done loading.

The weather does play a factor in loading but a good rain coat and a body suit for those cold days will get u thru the day much better.

Right now Blue thunder is in Chap 11 and things dont look good, alot of guys are leaving becuase of the equipment. When the trucks break down, we can't get them fixed do to the chap 11, roadside services dont want anything to do with us, they figure we wont pay them. its hard being a driver over here right now, but I hope things will get better. we will see, if not I have to go to my Plan B(back to dryvan/reefer for good).

[merrick4]

That's funny cause Allied is in the bankruptcy process as well. They were so hurting for drivers that they came to our school to recruit. Apparently they had never done that before. The money looked good but I wanted to get a little experience under my belt before I started learing how to haul cars.

[Sentinel]

Originally Posted by Tobytob

any questions on Blue thunder Send me and IM and I will do my best to answer your questions.
Car hauling is a great job, the money is very good but you will earn every penny of it. I get alot of satisfaction when I am done loading.

The weather does play a factor in loading but a good rain coat and a body suit for those cold days will get u thru the day much better.

Right now Blue thunder is in Chap 11 and things dont look good, alot of guys are leaving becuase of the equipment. When the trucks break down, we can't get them fixed do to the chap 11, roadside services dont want anything to do with us, they figure we wont pay them. its hard being a driver over here right now, but I hope things will get better. we will see, if not I have to go to my Plan B(back to dryvan/reefer for good).

Tobytob,

I do have a few questions regarding Blue Thunder. I have done a large amount of research on Blue Thunder but to date am unable to answer these questions and appreciate your offer.

1. BT has hired investment bank Morgan Keegan & Co., under the advisement of Aurora Management Partners Inc., to find a buyer for Blue Thunder. Have there been any serious offers yet?

2. It appears that BT did not have a rotational/new purchase plan for their vehicles much like other carriers do. As a result BT is running many older vehicles. Vehicles are a high dollar portion of any companies assets. In addition the company has little in the way of actual terminals so not much in real estate assets owned. BT has posted $9 Million in losses the past two years alone. Does BT have an ace up its sleeve that would make it worth purchasing $20 Million + in debt (last reported figure) that we are not aware of now?

3. BT has hinged its core business on hauling newly manufactured automobiles as demonstrated by the contracts they reported with GM Ford, Daimler Chrysler, Toyota, Lexus and Volkswagon. From what I can find the majority of that was from the American Big 3. Ford is in trouble now and Daimler has recently reported they are looking for buyers for the troubled Chrysler unit. Where GM's sales are not as bad as the others they too have taken a hit this past year or two. All of the Big 3 have announced production cuts and plant closings and/or significant scaling back of production. How has that affected BT's revenue from these sources?

4. BT does not have any significant contracts for hauling other than new vehicles. Is BT hauling these cross country or are they doing mostly very short runs with their loads? If cross country what does BT do for backhauling to its normal pickup points so not to run deadhead and waste significant money? Was that one of the significant causes of such massive debt over the last two years?

5. If BT is unable to find a buyer do they have a plan for selling off assets that will allow drivers to transition to new jobs in an orderly fashion? Or will BT just close its doors and place drivers out in the street?

6. BT driver pay has been reported to be the same as dry van for a driver with a year or two experience (somewhere around 34 cpm). Yet other car carriers are offering almost three times that for drivers. Can you provide BT pay rates for various experience levels?

I'm sure I have other questions but can start with these.

Thanks

[Orangetxguy]

Just wondering....Does Jerry M, have anything to do with BT...being as it "Was" part of Swifty??

[Tobytob]

No, Jerry has nothing to do with BT. When Jerry sold Swift the investors saw the auto divison as a big loss, so they sold it to its current owners. Who have done nothing but run it in to the ground. These folks used to own Ryder and we all know what happend to them. Well if you dont they are now called Penske.

1) Last I heard we didnt have a serious bidder yet, I was told last week that we had untill the 1st of march or the wall is coming down.

2) No Aces up the sleeves here. In the last driver meeting they talked about refurbishing the equipment. So I guess the answer is NO. Doesn't look promising for new trucks for a long time.

3) The only acct I know of is GM. we dont haul brand new Fords or Chrylser's. We do haul Some Toyota's and lexus, but thats mainly over flow. We also haul Audi, Saab, Volvo and VW, but those are mainly from the ports. So I would say no the big 3 haven't effected our revenue much.

4) Most of our loads, if not all are 500 mi and under, we dont do cross country thats whats the rail is for. we specialize in new cars. we do have some back hauls if freight drys up. those runs are usaully longer than 500 miles. The cars are usaully used and go to auctions or rental car
companies.
I will say we do alot of DH sometimes over 500mi to get back to a plant to P/U. This may be a reason why the company is doing so bad, but it a very small reason, evry company has to deal with DH, there is no way around it.

5) I dont have a clue of whats going to happen, I just hope they dont leave us out to dry. To be Honest i may not be around to find out.

6) yes the pay is low but we not only get paid by the mile we also get paid $7 to load and Unload which makes it a total of $14 a car.
Mileage pay is $.35-.40 loaded and $.30-.35 MT. On a good with @ the bottom of the pay scale with 4 good loads(400 miles or better) you can gross $2000, now what you take home all depends on your tax situation.

I hope I didnt leave anything unanswered I tried to answer to the best of my ability. I have one question for you. how did you find all that INfo? because I have been looking for it for weeks now, LOL

[Sentinel]

Tobytob,

Thanks for the straight answers. You must not be a recruiter :lol: :lol: ! It is very refreshing to actually obtain good answers under those situations.

Without a doubt I certainly hope it bodes well for you at Blue Thunder. I've been involved in corporate bankruptcies before and have kept tabs on many more. There have been some real Phoenix' rising from the fires and hope that is the case with Blue Thunder.

As for the information I am very adept at finding things that nobody wants found :lol:

[thebobguy]

Tobytob, I'm also a driver with BT, lets stay in touch, BT lost Volkswagen and Lexus in the last 7 days, pray things improve. There is supposively an investor ready to sign a letter of intent to buy BT, let's see.

[Tobytob]

Bob, it's hard. I am getting tired of th BS thats going on. I hope something works out here soon, but even if it does we still dont have any contracts.

[thebobguy]

Well, yesterday Tuesday February 27, 2007 the Jacksonville, FL and reportedly the entire Blue Thunder company has closed their doors and lost all of their contracts. I know everyone in Jacksonville was let go and other upper management as well. I know BT lost AT LEAST 11 million dollars in a year and a half. Even my wife doesn't go through that kind of money!!!

[Tobytob]

Thats right, its offical, Blue thunder is no longer alive. The owners have done nothing but fatten ther pockets and leave, they haven't paid any of debts owed, but some how manage to pocket 31 mill in two years.

We go the word this morning in a drivers meetting that fri would be the last day, today was my last day with a load. When I woke up this morning I had a bad feeling and I was going home anyway so it didnt surprise me to hear the news.

Well I guess it's back to CFI for me( I should have never left) I dont know what I was thinking, but hey you live and you learn.