Happy New Year! How Slow Are You?

I simply could not find a line haul spot anywhere. A few companies had ads posted called me back, and told me they were on hiring freeze. Ecm called me called them back a few days later and they told me the Chicago terminal is on a hiring freeze for lack of freight. Unless it’s a niche like fuel hauling or transferring trash to landfills seems everybody is extremely slow.

Not slow at all because my company can't find drivers. So I'm working an extra day every week

I don’t know if this is an anomaly, but I sure think something is different with freight at my company.

My last 7 days I drove 2614 miles. Normally, I get over 3000 in 7 days. Granted, I got some detention and layover pay, but it seems my assignments have a more spread out schedule between pickup and delivery.

My current assignment is really weird. I picked up a full load in Minnesota, drove 300 miles to Iowa where most of the cargo was unloaded. Now I’m carrying 310 pounds (yes that’s not a typo. 310 pounds in the trailer) 900 miles to Whole Foods in Austin, TX. When unloaded, I will deadhead almost 500 miles to Friona, TX to get a meat load bound for Wisconsin.

This has done wonders for my fuel mileage. But how is shipping 310 pounds 900 miles economically feasible?

Is this a symptom of the economic slowdown?

But how is shipping 310 pounds 900 miles economically feasible?

It's not, but there's a lot more to than just the run.

First, there's all the stuff behind the door we don't know about. Quid pro quo, contracts etc.

Second, if drivers don't work they start looking at the job boards and exploring their options. You've been at Helwig for a year and you have 2 years experience. You can find something else.

FedEx furloughed drivers, is covering their insurance and is paying a 300/week bonus. That doesn't make sense financially until you start to think about how much it costs to onboard new drivers when things pick up.

You have to start competing with other companies offering outrageous sign on bonuses (that angers current employees) and training new permit holders. The cost to train me was at least 15k when you think about what I was paid, what my instructor was paid, what my city mentor was paid, the cost of equipment and my road test. It's cheaper long term to do it the way they're doing it.

Sounds like Helwig and many others are doing the same thing. Short term loses for long term gains.

But how is shipping 310 pounds 900 miles economically feasible?

It's not, but there's a lot more to than just the run.

First, there's all the stuff behind the door we don't know about. Quid pro quo, contracts etc.

Second, if drivers don't work they start looking at the job boards and exploring their options. You've been at Helwig for a year and you have 2 years experience. You can find something else.

FedEx furloughed drivers, is covering their insurance and is paying a 300/week bonus. That doesn't make sense financially until you start to think about how much it costs to onboard new drivers when things pick up.

You have to start competing with other companies offering outrageous sign on bonuses (that angers current employees) and training new permit holders. The cost to train me was at least 15k when you think about what I was paid, what my instructor was paid, what my city mentor was paid, the cost of equipment and my road test. It's cheaper long term to do it the way they're doing it.

Sounds like Helwig and many others are doing the same thing. Short term loses for long term gains.

Banks, that makes sense and I understand that it’s the whole picture, not just one piece of the puzzle.

I’ve been through many economic cycles during my 70+ years. Upturns, downturns. The best advice is just to stay the course and not panic.

Weve been very erratic for some time. Its really frustrating. Im nearly in the same situation, being two years experience, with zero safety issues, no incidents/accidents, zero service failures and an excellent reputation for reliability and being easy to work with, I can go just about anywhere I choose. Im used to having 3 or more short to medium loads stacked up on me, I usually always get 3k or more a week in mileage. Ive never had to fight for miles.

Ive gone from that experience to taking any load I can get, no matter how absurd they are, Its exhausting me, its like herding cats. On top of having the freight market issues, I have a young, inexperienced DM who doesnt know how to work our load planners yet, so in effect, they take gross advantage of her and leave her with nothing but very undesirable loads.

I plan on discussing the situation with my Terminal Manager tomorrow to see if there is anything I can do. This week will be roughly 1700 miles that were hard fought for, I had to arrange all the rescheduling, rerouting and logistics. If I had taken what the load planners had offered, I would have maybe had 1000 miles. Some of the highlights I turned down were a live unload in Compton CA (yes, south central LA, aka combat zone), a 300 mile deadhead over Donner Pass right after I sent in pics of the chain control message and shut down notice, a 200 mile added reroute through death valley.

Its hard not to take it personally, but some of our more seasoned DMs appreciate it and will throw money at the problems with added layover, bonuses, mystery bonuses (where I get money added that I have no idea where it came from) and others. Im currently on a whopping 124 mile load over donner yet again. Some of our drivers are still getting good weeks, but its hit and miss. One thing that keeps me going is that I work for the largest freight carrier in North America, if they cant keep me fed, who can? On the other hand, Its at a breaking point for me, Im really considering switching companies, but really dont want to.

Davy, you could get on with the company I drive for, I’m confident. You would be like a rock star at Helwig.

Also, a number of Helwig drivers have jumped to a company out of Green Bay, WI, ASL or America’s Service Line. From what I hear they are starting experienced drivers out at .64 cpm. They have about 200 trucks and I think they are 100% reefer.

Davy,

We've all been there. I worked for US Xpress for six years and had a flawless record. I had almost ten years of experience before I even started there. Yet, when the freight slowed, so did my miles. I didn't slow as much as most drivers, but my miles would drop from an average of over 3,000 down to 2,200 - 2,500. It felt like I had a part-time job running so little.

But I knew the laws of economics, and I knew my company couldn't keep paying their bills if they couldn't use their trucks efficiently, so it was only a matter of time before things picked up again.

Every company has fluctuations in its freight and truck utilization. It's best to ride it out instead of hoping to find a company that's immune to it because there are none.

Now if you were to find a dedicated route somewhere that guaranteed a certain mileage, that might be worth looking into. But things are just slow right now and getting slower. I've had one company (CRST) stop taking applications altogether, and another (Wilson Logistics) cut way back on their applications. I expect more to follow soon.

Unless it’s a niche like fuel hauling or transferring trash to landfills seems everybody is extremely slow.

Yep, been great for us. My terminal has a hard time finding drivers to meet all our requirements (no manual restriction, x endorsement, passport/enhanced license, and twic), but with so many drivers looking for work, the pool has grown, and we've hired four new guys since the start of the year. (Only two guys hired in the three years previous.)

Still very slow, I was called off today, didn't work last Wednesday either. P&D guys are lucky if they work 8 hours. Some of them do not even have deliveries to make, they are starting their days with pickup.

It seems when ever I go to a terminal it is a ghost town, Indy has parking for 300 relay trailers there was 10 there last week.

I'm starting to get a little worried as it seems to be getting worse instead of better.