Attention Carriers - Time to wake up!

   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.

Drivers needed!

   Well, it's getting to be that time of year again.  The giveaway lists are building already & recruiters are going CRAZY trying to find drivers.  Unfortunately for them, they finally have their work cut out for them.
So far, within the last few months I've heard from carriers I looked into signing up with as much as three years ago!  I've been offered jobs from several places.  Another friend was offered a job at every agent he stopped at on a trip from Va to Southern Cal..  He told me an agent in El Cajon has no idea where he's going to put tonnage because,  in his words, 'No one is going to want to haul this junk...' ALREADY?!?  It's not quite May 1st yet...  He has an absolute right to worry and wonder because he is right.   My advice to him - Don't do it! Don't do it to yourself, your company, and your help!  It's stupid.  If the carriers want to overbook junk tonnage, let the carriers come pick it up off the street and bring it back to their cubicle and store it until they can sucker some greenhorn to take it!  We as drivers and small agents have a HUGE advantage right now people, let's not pass this oppurtunity up.  It's economics 101 - Supply and demand.
Drivers have never been in such high demand.  Now that finally it's being realized, even in the offices finally, that without drivers, there is no moving company.  Without the guys at the bottom, nothing gets done, nothing.  I'm actually interested about what this summer can bring.  I'm thinking hopefully we can throw alittle bit of OUR weight around now!  Tired of dispatchers and operations managers with their panties a little too tight??  You should be!  We are the slaves of today.  We do work noone else will do and we are doing it for free...  Slaves - sad to say in this day and age.  Let's take advantage of this oppurtunity..  Input from anyone would be good...  I know SOMEONE has to agree with me!?!  Let the salesman who books a 70% discount pick up the shipments - don't haul them!  How quick do you REALLY think it could change if NO driver will touch it?  Newsflash - if he doesn't get paid, if the job doesn't come out of the house.  They may fire the first guy that tries it, but when noone hauls it - what are they going to do?  Go into June with no drivers!?!  Let's get this together!  I want to make money.......

It's time to take a stand!

       Ok everyone,  as an owner operator,  I've continued to see this moving industry be controlled by large carriers and corporate know nothings for far too long!  It's time us, the operators and small agents stand up, stand together and say - "Enough is enough!".  I may not think the same as everyone, but all the folks I've dealt with over the past few years all say the same as me. This industry is running itself into the ground.  Especially within the last year or so the situation has gone from dire, to now - desperate.  Every driver I know personally, or have spoken with is broke!  BROKE?!? No, none of them are overindulging in Sin City either..  Everyone is saying the same thing over and over - 'I don't know about this moving game..'
       Well,  although it may sound stupid, but I used to enjoy it.  Most movers do - the work hard, ridiculous and alot of stress, but at one time you as a small business owner were rewarded with gratitude from everyone, and most importantly a nice fat settlement!  Boy those were the days....
       But wait! No, that's not good enough! Those weren't the days. What about tomorrow??

       What I haven't figured out is why is it the people that have NO IDEA about what it takes to do a household move have ALL the say in what WE get paid?!?  Are you kidding me?? The people in the office that are telling us what is best for us to do probably hasn't even stepped inside a truck and trailer, unless it was part of his little walk through about 'our operation here at ABC Van Lines'.  Come on guys we need to get together and say enough is enough! If its junk tonnage that isn't going to make us a profit, let the carrier deal with it.  Let Betty from customer service take your two wheeler and go out to the job.  Do you think ANYONE from the office will be shedding their button up to lug a dresser to the fourth floor?!?  We have a job NOBODY wants to do - but we get to do it for free!  What?  This is a no brainer - let's get together and put a stop to this nonsense - BEFORE the busy season!  Everyone is "gearing up" - Let us do the same and DEMAND what we deserve!  We are broke now - at least if we are broke over the summer, its nice out and we can enjoy time with the family.  Betty will be busy answering complaints but everyone else can be broke too then!