Good Signs

Randy said he'd talk to the Honcho for me, and seemed to think the guy is reasonable and will work out a better rate for me in exchange for my going on autopilot. I'm supposed to check back today.



But as soon as I got into this hotel room, I hit the internet and did some more checking. I grabbed the Fort Wayne to Katy TX load once I confirmed that I could net about 600 bucks on it. This is so that I can contact the company in Katy which might have regular early-delivery-ok overnight parking ok runs for me. Texas is full of empty trucks, and I knew that I was risking getting stuck down there.



But then this week I got blitzed with Emails from one of my free boards. There were a whole bunch of brand-new listings coming from Houston and nearby for friday, and for monday (I intend to be empty before noon on monday).



I logged on at 8:45. When I called on the best-looking loads, they were all gone already...they never even made it to the board. This means that the loads still on the board probably suck.



This boosted my confidence, since normally on the road I'm up and could be online before 8 am; I'd have a good shot at these loads. I'm also often up past midnight, and now I'll do a last email-check before going to sleep. ALL of the loads coming out of there probably pay little due to supply-and-demand. The important thing is to get out of the truck-saturated zone with your fuel paid for and at least a few bucks left over.



I even checked some of the zones they were going to, and found several loads coming out of the northeast, where I was considering taking one load. I didn't check the rates; the main thing is that I knew I could get out of there.



Loads northeast tend to pay more because nobody wants to ge there. Lots of tolls, traffic, and hazardous conditions this time of year. Most experienced drivers know how to bypass some of the tolls and most of the traffic going north of NYC, but still hate it up there. But I grew up in Cleveland. I can take those loads.



What you get coming out is often very heavy--as often as not paper. It burns more fuel through the appalacians and makes you extra-vulnerable to slick roads. And I'm guessing (since I'm not sure) that you do a little better than break even on it.



But I have to fight my way into this as best I can, and will have to take some loads I don't want. I now suspect that another reason many owner-ops go under is because they're spoiled, and consider these rates beneath them. I even see signs on the back of trucks saying "say no to cheap freight".



There's an independant contracting union organizer. I'm supposed to be a good union guy and starve to death in order to extort more money out of shippers. These guys have no "enough" on their greedometers.

Anyway, Troy the broker called and asked about the paperwork he'd faxed last night, and I called Wayne to remind him. He found it and will take care of it. (I'm always afraid of the piano falling on my head. "The boss said we won't let you do that". Same thing as I feel every time I use an ATM.)

However these loads will now ship thursdays and fridays so I'll get mine the day after tomorrow, meaning another night in the hotel, and a new batch of load-searches and truck-postings. (I knew it would be involved, but am enjoying this process of learning about operations, and developing a schedule and system to compete with my fellow greedy bastards).

Now I know that I'll need to bust ass to get the load in by 3 pm friday. (I forgot to ask about weekend deliveries, so I default to the worst-case--I can't keep pestering Troy; GET Logistics is nationwide, and this guy is a valuable contact for me. You see, he knows where I'm going and will know when I get there, so he'll look for loads out of there for me before anything gets to a load-board. You want these people to like you, so you don't drive them crazy.)

This means that I probably get nothing until monday the 22nd. I will search more for the 19th, but shipping hours are often over before 5 pm, and that's a tough one to find. Most shippers don't ship on weekends. I'll focus on the 22nd with a certainty that I can be anywhere when anyplace opens for business. (You also need to prove yourself reliable. These guys don't know me from Adam yet).

I'm learning fast. I've thought more about the weekly loads from Fort Wayne to Katy...Now I'll keep those in mind as I seek to establish a regular route. I'd need another place in between.

For example, I find a shipper near Katy who ships to Pittsburgh on mondays. I deliver there wed. morning, and get a load back to near Fort Wayne to deliver thursday, and grab and repeat the cycle every week. But this is embryonic...we'll just see.

I saw that JB Hunt and Schneider list a lot of these, functioning as open market brokers. That's interesting. It means that the Schneider guys have no advantage whatsoever on me. Possibly, through a closed system the Schneider guys get the alerts faster, but it didn't feel like that. My free board's alerts included links for "details". These took me to their site, where I often saw "this load is no longer available". On a couple, the load still was on-site, and the dispatcher I called learned for the first time that it was gone upon doing a search.

This meant that I was the first driver he had to tell that to, which means in-turn that I barely missed it.

So screw Schneider--I can get the same loads, and make 7% more as it is...and probably more after Randy talks to Da Boss.

Troy just confirmed that I have the load. I'm supposed to get the specs from my own dispatchers, but Troy said I can pick up anytime after 7 am, which means that tomorrow I head there and park overnight. I want to get loaded before 0900 so I can cover over 700 miles, and without difficulty get there well before 1500 friday.

I'm supposed to call the reciever for an appointment--this is some of the extra stuff you have to do when you work with brokers.

Now that I've got the load locked down, know I'll have money coming in, and know that I can get back out of there, I'm thinking about spending thirty bucks for my first month of the Network loadboard. Katy is on the gulf, and a lot of imported commodities move out of there. Houston also has some manufacturing and stuff.

The thing sith that site is, they offter the 30/month plan, but also a discounted 6-month prepaid plan. But they say "you can cancel every six months". Aren't they saying that I'm comitting to the six-month plan either way?

Anyway, now I need to adjust my postings and do some new searches for loads out of there okbye