Today is May 15th, the day the military rates are supposed to go up to a rate where someone besides the carriers may be able to make a buck. Unfortunately I'm thinking a change for the better has been made, but for most it is going to be too little and probably too late. Many owner operators and agents have been trying the best we can to get by on the travesty that you, the carriers have started. And what have the larger companies been doing while we've been suffering?? "Necessary" things like cutting all their overhead with their trucks and putting all the expense on some poor driver, or how about, the definitely needed logo change? Hello?!?! Mr CEO, your drivers are starving, losing everything they have, your agents are shutting the doors at a rate unheard of, and you think a new logo is going to do the trick?? I don't make the huge salary that you or your whole marketing department does, but I DO know a new logo for an entire fleet of trucks is not cheap nor is it going to help your business. I do know however, that if you took a little more time and money and put it into your MOST VALUABLE resource, your contractors, you'd see a significant difference. You are asking us to go into situations where we KNOW we aren't going to make a paycheck and perform a service no one else wants to do, and do it with a smile.. How many drivers out here do you think are happy making no money? I can see in someones face when they aren't happy - your customers can too. And their quality of work is what is going to sell your business NOT your logo!! So next time when you have your board meeting, why don't you have some representation from us, your drivers? And no, not a yes-man, figurehead. I'm mean an intelligent businessman driver. You may have to do a little searching, and schedule your meeting around his schedule, but you'll get REAL input on what's going on in the street, where your work is done, believe it or not . How are office workers who have never been on a job going to figure out what it needs to take to make a change?? I've never seen a Bible of Moving, and the corny training videos you publish don't come close to real life situations. That's like training a soldier on an XBox, isn't the same. All the money spent on your logo change could have been put to good use by the guys who do the work, if they're still in business. You could have split the money in half, put half in your pocket and the other half split between drivers and you would have had a bigger profit (as if you need one), overjoyed drivers who would still be happy with their job, and even drivers beating your door down for a job. Instead you have drivers leaving by the busload, and no one can figure out why... because they aren't making money!! It's not brain surgery.
Now, the reason we aren't making any money:
The first and foremost reason we are not making any money is because the people who set the rates in this industry have NO IDEA what it takes to do a household move. None. So, that being the case, why is that their job?!? I wouldn't want a dentist telling me how much it is going to cost to have a toilet installed. But this is how the moving industry is run. It's absurd. The people saying the work can be done at a 75% discount have no idea what's involved. I just don't understand. The salesmen are getting ridiculous as well.
All to book a job that isn't profitable? How many days do you think either of these people would work if THEIR paycheck didn't come? Or if it was discounted 75%?? But yet your drivers do it everyday!!
Instead of having a stupid video to show your office people what goes on - how about they get in a truck for a couple weeks or better yet, until the driver gets back to HIS home, and see what happens. First of all, the positions would probably stay open but that's besides the point. At that point I feel a salesman would be able to accurately price a job. He'd be able to see what it REALLY takes to do things such as: hoist a couch out of a third floor window, fight to get a truck into a tiny alley fighting traffic, put up with unrealistic shippers IN PERSON, not on the phone, sit in a truck stop for days on end waiting for a load, put up with the DOT regualtions and cops who have hard ons for truckers, and the list goes on and on.
What everyone fails to realize is that us drivers give up a big part of our personnal lives for our jobs. You don't. You don't miss birthdays, holidays, dinner with long lost relatives, baseball and soccer games, plays, first days of school, etc., etc.. And as far as you're concerned, apparently, none of these things are worth anything. Well they are and if you don't make this profitable for the drivers your salesmen and office people will soon have no choice but to be on the truck or there will be no job. If we made the money we deserve nobody would have to miss these things because airplane tickets or rental cars would be affordable in order for people to get to where they need to be and be back in time to complete their jobs. In the past I've done it but now I can't afford to! This is why we drivers are taking a stand in order to have OUR lives back.. Wake up corporate moving industry or there will not be a moving industry no more! Let the people who want to bicker over pennies move their own stuff! They'll only do it once, trust me. Then they'll call back and pay the price that we need to get. Stop wasteful spending and put it into your most valuable resource: YOUR DRIVERS!!
Now, fuel prices. Need I say more?? It disgusts me that we are paying over $4.00/ gal for fuel. And I've heard of non-existent fuel surcharges, are you kidding?? EVERY business out here is charging a fuel surcharge. And remind me the reason the carrier needs any of the fuel surcharge? I put the fuel in my truck, I need the fuel surcharge, not you. Here's an example of how assanine this is:
I'm looking at an estimate on a 5000# move going short mileage. Surprisingly, it's a 68% discount. The fuel surcharge rate is 0.0027 and totals $12.69. 0.0027??? Twentyseven ten-thousandths?? And how far is $12.69 going to get my truck. Well let's figure it out: $12.69 divided by $4.499/gal = 2.8206 gallons of diesel fuel. My truck gets approx. 5 mpg therefore my truck would be able to go 14.1 miles. Basically, that doesn't get me out of the hell hole of an apartment complex that your salesman said was 'no problem at all, easily accessed'. This is RIDICULOUS! The only other business I know that doesn't charge a fuel surcharge is the US Post Office.. Want me to figure out what it would cost a shipper if they had to move a trailer load of household items via the USPS?? I bet the numbers would have 5 or 6 figures in it. But yet we do it for next to nothing! If the shippers do not want to pay the price let THEM buy the fuel and load it in a rental truck. Save us all a headache. When they arrive at their new destination and their loved one is crying and screaming because over half their stuff is broken and now junk, next time they will pay what it's worth.
On the same estimate the extra stop rate is $40.70. I guess this means the extra stop is definitely within 25 miles, because it only pays for less than 10 gallons of fuel. (I guess the help rides around for free!) Think about what you are doing. We drivers can not absorb anymore costs!! We aren't making any money to begin with because of simple things like this.
If you care so much about the customer, stop taking the money out of our pockets and reach into yours. WE do the work, WE keep the customer happy, WE get situations figured out 100 times a day WITHOUT calling an operations manager for help. We'll most likely get a voicemail ,so why bother when we can save all important time figuring it out ourselves. No one in the corporate world of moving know what job his contractors actually have.. We are professionals at way more than just carrying boxes like most think. Actually, alot of drivers don't actually tote much but they manage a crew of workers as well as the customers. We have to direct all our help but also deal with everything else that is involved. Sometimes that involves comforting a shipper who is in tears as her sofa is being carried out of the house. Or, like I recently had to deal with, a shipper who was apparently bipolar, on strong meds and drinking the entire 32 hours I was on the job. (That didn't include the 3 day pack) We have to deal with the DOT regulations, the police, the company mandated policies, over and above the state and federal policies, for what?? For some moron to tell us how to do our job when we are doing it for next to nothing!?!
It's time for everyone to wake up! EVERYONE! Carriers wake up and appreciate what we do every day for you and drivers wake up and stand up for yourselves!! Don't quit - quitting is easy... Fight! Fight for your occupation and livelihood! If we are going down, let's put our feet down, our heads together and demand a change! If not let the them sink with us.
No comments:
Post a Comment