It is still a self preservation driven environment and the preservation of ones own livelihood will always come first .I wasn't a "day 1 contractor" but I find none of this to be true today. X can bes but we contractors all get along and work well together.
Overlap plan
- Thread starter Knowledgeseeker
- Start date
We take care of ourselves and help each other when need and ability are present. We're not looking to screw anyone out of their territory because getting bigger in the same location no longer seems worth it.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
the terminal does not look to me any different than any other office environment where we all work for our benefit, but as long as it does not hurt us too much, we all want to cooperate and help each other out to survive. X is just like any other big firm too, which sets up your business and gives you money till you are solving it's problem, but wants all control and does not care about anything or anybody that comes in its way of making more profits.
Does anybody know if X will pay us lesser if we as owners do not have the same experience as the owner who was running the route previously or is it almost based on the zip code we are operating or is it completely based on your negotiation skills.
Does anybody know if X will pay us lesser if we as owners do not have the same experience as the owner who was running the route previously or is it almost based on the zip code we are operating or is it completely based on your negotiation skills.
If you ever figure out the answer to those questions, you are sworn to relay the information here under penalty of death should you fail to do so.
It will be fine
Well-Known Member
There's an algorithm that determines your compensation. The head of negotiations told us we have no control over the bottom line. You can move money around between the buckets to a certain extent, but that's it.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
Ha ha that's funny bbsam. I guess there is some math guy like me sitting in a corporate office who setup a algorithm based on futuristic projections, which definitely does not consider the impact of everything that happens in real life. I guess I can set myself up for a job in fedex quant analysis and find you the answer
Office environment huh? Pal you are about as far removed from an office environment as you can get. Typical morning. You walk into the place and what do you find on many a morning. Guys call off or never called at all. You can't get a hold of them because they're in jail for beating up the old woman and oh by the way they got picked up for DUI a week earlier and never told you. I even had a guy who had the cops come in and pull him out of the truck because he didn't go to a court ordered divorce hearing.A short time ago the guy who bought me had a female driver called in for a random but never went.The inbound trailers are late. You have a new preloader who doesn't know what goes on your truck or where and the motor freight they stole off the LTL's simply rolled down onto the floor between the trucks where it gets soaked by the snow and ice that melted off the truck. Looking around some more and you see a puddle of green liquid from the hole in the radiator punched into it by a rock or a deer strike. Now the damn thing won't start because of a short in the battery or starter or an alternator that had been slowly failing and shorts in step vans are a major problem because of wire chaffing. And don't forget the tire that had been slowly going flat overnight because of the nail it picked up the day earlier.
Now you finally get underway and hopefully manned by someone who knows a little bit about the area can keep up with the work pace required and hopefully doesn't have to try to service an area the size of most European nations and if all goes well he doesn't get himself or somebody else killed out there.
Then you go into the office and have to deal with the customer complaints. misdelivered boxes, and God knows what other issues along with the random drug tests driver turnover peak season manpower procurement etc, etc. These are just a few of the daily headaches, solving them is all on you and this is only just the morning
And as IWBF pointed out, you're only going to get just so much money out of X and based on what they think should be the cost of running that route. And rest assured it will be based on the lowest estimate.
Still think this is something you want to do? Then leave your Armani suits and Gucci shoes in the closet , climb into your Carharts and grab you tool belt.
As long as he can find somebody to do the daily dirty work and has enough money to pay them allowing him to just sit back and count the money ok. But then again you're only as good as the economy the weather and the transportation network of the area you cover. X is a nationwide carrier serving a highly diverse nation and demography which still requires somebody to try to cover the less desirable parts of the nation and for many of the guys in that region there's not enough money in it to hire people to insulate you from the daily headaches.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
Guys I am no wealthy person, just a guy who has worked in different environments and completely open to adapt and learn. I am a knowledgeseeker and nothing else. I will pose more questions when I get to meet the ground guys. I may be working in wall street now but I don't belong from there. We should not stereotype people.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
I enjoy doing what you call dirty work and would love to be part of it.
There's a manager at the station I was at who would give up just about any required organ or body part in exchange to the chance to be a floor trader on the NYSE.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
I have no doubt, but I am no trader just a quant guy. We just work as hard as any of you and get paid for our work. We solve the problems that come to us and resolve daily headaches. I find it very insulting when people think that somebody like me who has had to compete with millions and earn every penny through his own effort has had it any easier than you or anybody else. I really am very grateful for the great insights provided so far and will continue to seek help in future. I may not have the time to do the driving but my family members do and I will participate during weekends and in getting us through the process of buying and selling and negotiating.
What I'm getting at is that every morning there will be issues some minor some contract killing that will require immediate resolution. Therefore somebody will have to be on site either you or somebody in your behalf who has the knowledge and resources needed to resolve the matter to the satisfaction of X right then and there. Negotiate? There's nothing to negotiate with when it comes to X. With X it's a matter of absolute control. This is when you start. This is when you stop. This is what you drive This is what you wear. This is where you go. This is how you do it. etc etc.
The key to all of this is redundancy. Redundancy that can immediately respond to as many of the situations that arise as possible Plenty of extra machines, materials and manpower . It will cost you plenty and it will cut heavily into your margins but you can't be without it or be afraid to spend the money to get it and the sooner you spend the money to get it the better off you'll be . BTW unless you're the type of person who truly enjoys a great big family fight do not take the avalanche of problems and tasks you're signing on to and simply dump them into the lap of family members. Leave them completely out of it unless they have a direct economic interest in the matter and sincerely want to be involved. They have their own lives to live.
Knowledgeseeker
Member
Ok good to know there is an alternative to vrp. It will be a really useful to train drivers.
Yes. Ground's system is called Vision and can be tailored to each route.
OrioN
double tap o da horn dooshbag
Well, twist my nipples & call me Dave... cover driver for 70 different routes & , it was better than driving to an area blind.
Yup, I'm living proof that I am one of them!
I still use the Garmin GPS unit with the turn by turns, butt I don't follow it 100%. The map printout will quickly give me a big picture & I can load my own sequence of delivery. It greatly helps when the sun goes down & I can verify I'm on the correct dirt road...
Also, and HD driver went to ground opco for peak season. It was good $ & he liked Monday to Friday work week... but then the amount of oversized and overweight boxes got to him & it was no longer worth the $1000+ weekly pay for all that back breaking work. He came back to HD recently.
With HD, we do get an occasional oversized or heavyweight boxes that should have went to a p1000, but they know the space capacity of the delivery vehicles on each route so we won't usually leave stuff behind.
PS, I wish they finished the other building to become a collocation... I left 10 businesses that were closed on Saturday. If it was a collocation, I could've PiP them to a ground truck for Monday deliveries, while pilfering some of the residential stops in exchange to keep my stop count up.
50 stops to go at 1500 today. Done by 1900.
In my region, there's less than 10 standalone HD terminals left. With plans to phase them out or turn them into colocations for that overlap, I guess
But at least I am a landlord that gets passive income no matter wut happens down the road.
Heck, I can become an Amazonian driver or GASP, and express driver if this mess will be ill-managed
Good luck with those p1000s that I see on my route that can't enter some driveways due to sheer size & weight. The ground drivers & some UPS drivers gets out an just leaves the boxes on the driveway or by the mailbox on the road. UPS drivers gets paid hourly so I have no idea why they don't put em on a 2 wheeler hand truck& walk em in
And don't forget the homemade bridges built out of 2x6's if your lucky that they used 2x6's instead of 2x4's . This is why you leave the heavy haulers in town and put the fast movers with off road capability out in the jhing weeds.
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