Thanks GT. You made the right decsion. It is simply impossible to generate enough revenue per hour if you have to pay someone to do those kind of routes. But this is where I was born and raised and when RPS came to me and asked me to join up with them as a day 1 in 1992, I still think back to then and question why I did it. At the same time however we were under Roadway which overall was a better mindset to deal with. BUT when X took over in 1997 the difference in attiude and mindset could not have been more different. The first thing we immediately noticed was that the distinction between contractor and regular employee was completely erased. At that point you were more than ever a contractor in name only especially when they started on an acquisition binge and needed Ground's industry leading profits to fund it.
fedex transition
- Thread starter echo
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Sorry was not implying that you can't make good money on rural routes, just not the ones I looked at. Someone wanted to sell me 4 PSAs plus a sup or two for over $600,000. I asked him what he netted and he couldn't tell me because he "didn't really know", finally got out of him roughly $70,000...........
My response "are you insane, I'll give you $200,000". We did not make a deal.
Try running a supplemental when you don't already have an extra vehicle. Especially with HD. Then be prepared for fedex to tell you to take packages from nearby(50 miles) because the other contractor is overloaded.
It will be fine
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I have no doubt I could have done better than working 14hr days and "selling" for the only offer I got. I'd have built a company like I did, add trucks and drivers, take work for free from other contractors. Eat short term losses in order to expand, etc. My company would be smaller, but it would be worth more than a single truck.
You really and truly are in a fantasyland. The barn I was in added a total of 14 routes over a 24 years span. That's less than 1 per year. Oh there was plenty of stops to take off of other contractors but the only reason they were made available is because they lost money for both the contractor who offered them and the guy he was trying to dump them off onto in areas that were so sparsely populated that there was no hope for enough growth to make them profitable not to mention mile after mile of unpaved township roads too rough and too narrow to do any better than 15 -20 MPH because they weren't designed for anymore than that.There is simply NO COMPARISON between what you do in the Boston Metro area and where I operated." Build a company" You're nothing more than a politically correct pimp. X pays you money in exchange for the pleasure of your cheap labor and you pay them accordingly. You may think that you're "building a company' but in reality reality all you're doing is adding to the creation of an already growing permanent economic underclass.Now in the end I may find myself down there with them but I will do so with a clear conscience knowing that I didn't drag somebody else down there with me.
It will be fine
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Bacha, if I started in your situation and they added 14 PSAs over the years, I would probably own 7-10 of those right now. By the sounds of it your terminal was staffed with contractors that never took advantage of the system, never embraced growing their business. If routes were contracted, they generated enough revenue to make a profit. That's really all there is to it. Make all the excuses you want, blame everyone else. The money was there for the taking and you passed on it.
You are a bit pompous. You just happen to be in the right place at the right time, and good for you that it is working out. Please remember you are not some great entrepreneur, your work is given to you. Each terminal is unique, it's a big country not every region is Boston. Maybe your terminal manager liked you.
Hey IWBF: It gives me great pleasure to remind you that a contractor can not control more than 30 % of a terminals routes If you did you would be trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible because you would be stetched across 11 rural counties and 2 states with routes nearly 200 miles apart . And you are just assuming that you can get somebody to work for the next to nothing you pay. You're just unhappy about the fact that somebody took this "company" of yours that you "built" and condensed it into a set of facts surrounding your "company" that are both unattractive and irrefutable. Oh by the way many of those rural counties are alone bigger than your entire state .
You're a bit out of touch. Those rural counties are seeing a lot of growth. A guy combining Ground and HD can actually turn a profit.
It will be fine
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After transition Bacha's entire terminal will be run by multiple route contractors. They will hire people to drive for them. They will make a profit. Bacha will still claim it's impossible.
How can it grow when the population is decreasing not increasing and the unemployment rate is going up not down and is located in the most depressed part of a state whose entire economy is growing at 1% annually and has schools and municipalities asking for the courts permission to merge in an effort to continue to provide basic services? HD and G will be merged some day in an effort to remain profitable but as it is now where the G and HD is under different ownership but in the same area who's going to give up what? With limited number of routes and widely varied degrees of profitabilitiy swapping back and forth is not the simple solution you think it is . Yes they will hire people to drive for them provided that they can get them to work for nothing, that is if they can get them at all especially the huge pay difference between what contractors pay and what the staffing agency payed and the staffing agency provided employer paid health care and payed by the hour for all hours worked not like contractors who pay the same rate no matter how many hours worked.
Unfreaking real. Transition is obviously a serious change for alot of contractors. We were told a timeline would be provided in Feb. You would think X would have a serious date. Instead my region gets a notice saying tentative june - dec 2017 subject to change. FK! Maybe i should deliver packages tentatively too. It doesn't even add up. I read it takes 6 to 9 months to complete and Nov to Dec is blacked out. They can write a contract down to the micro details of when I wipe my _ss but NOW we go with a whatever attitude. One more reason I'll be glad when I'm done.
It will be fine
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Doesn't sound too bad to me. If I remember correctly we only got 4-5 months to be at scale. You've got a year and a few months. That's a lot of time to get financing and make deals.
I could just do without all the disclaimers tentative ...subject to change etc I guess an actual date and timeline is too much to ask. My route was already for sale so transition scares off some buyers. Granted for the right person it is an opportunity to let X help fund your expansion. But now I have to say maybe in 2 years etc. It just irks me. If they are going to do it I'd like a hard date and timeline.
I don't generally complain about X . They are sleazy but I signed the contract. I do disagree with mgrs who like to only use the contract when it favors them but not when it favors me. When it comes to me, my performance , compliance, safety or vehicle there is no tentative or subject to change. I expect the samebfrom them. But that would be expecting X to be fair.
What's 2 years got to do with it? You probably need to take what you can get when you can get it. If there was a firm date, smart buyers would just wait you out.
I am sure every one would but if you step back and look at the other side of the equation would you not cover your bases if you were them. They haven't ever transitioned that many zones, some have had a few issues to resolve others haven't and now they have to do it nationwide within 3 years. A lot of potential variables there.
If people really want out they can get out whenever. $10,000 isn't much on an acquisition I am sure a buyer will split some of the difference with you if a route is worth owning. I am in talks with a single that I will be buying out soon. Even though I don't transition for a while, I can make back the purchase price by the time we transition to ISP even with eating an additional $5,000-$8,000
If people really want out they can get out whenever. $10,000 isn't much on an acquisition I am sure a buyer will split some of the difference with you if a route is worth owning. I am in talks with a single that I will be buying out soon. Even though I don't transition for a while, I can make back the purchase price by the time we transition to ISP even with eating an additional $5,000-$8,000
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