Taking the CABS Course

Today I decided that I needed to ensure that I was continuing my business education and see that I was headed in the right direction.

I currently have my booking and taxes done by ATBS.  They seem to have done a decent job so far in both realms but I like to be more 'hands on'.  The monthly P&L statement I get from them is one month old or more by the time I receive a copy of it.  For me, this seems to be too much of a lag time to be able to make good timely decisions about my business to make sure I can keep it profitable.

Last year I had started to use an online program called MyGauges which allows me to put my numbers in weekly and track them week to week, month to month and so on giving me a much better 'real time' look.

Now in order to make sure I am getting the most for my money from both of these programs, I have decided to take the CABS course that ATBS has.  This course is a business course tailored for owner operators in the trucking industry.  There are quite a few lending institutions that will give a loan application more weight if you have been certified in this course as it is pretty in-depth.

There are 12 lessons that cover a whole range of topics.  You have to pass a test to get past each lesson and there is a nice long test at the end that you have to pass to get the certification.

I know I have learned a lot from other people, reading and just the school of 'hard knocks' since I have been out here, but I want to make sure that I have learned everything I need to know.  To me this course sets an excellent 'baseline' to see where I am at.

I don't plan on stopping with this course.  There are other things I can do.  One other course I plan on taking at some point will be the CMC, the Certified Master Contractors seminar put on by Kevin Rutherford.  It is a 5 day INTENSE seminar that is loaded with a wide range of topics that are covered in the industry today.  I know it will take the CABS course and add to it probably to a factor of 10.  For me the biggest thing is to determine if I can save enough to take the course this year, or if I will have to wait for next year as it will cost, between the course and the revenue loss for 5 days somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5k.  On the surface it does sound expensive but the knowledge gained at it should give a fairly quick ROI (return on investment) that would make up the loss.

So, first things first I have to complete the CABS course, (which is normally 500 but I got it at 350) and then see where things stand.  Oh, the other nice thing about the CABS course is that once completed, I get a 5% discount with everything I do with ATBS.  That does help quite a bit with the ROI on it.

State of the Union

I went and watched the State of the Union tonite.  Yes I know, what a way to spend an evening but there was something interesting.

Bing, had a real time 'pulse' meter where you could vote every 5 seconds to give instant feedback on what people thought of the speech.

Here are a few things I saw:

Both Republicans AND Independents were virtually the same as they moved across the meter.  You could not tell the lines apart.

The Democrat line was slightly higher, BUT it also followed the other two in the ups and downs as the speech went.  This was interesting in the fact that the meter never really got above 0, or neutral.  The lowest the meter hit was -77, and it got that low quite a few times during the speech.

Now if someone there on the Hill had any intelligence, they would take this meter readout, match it up with the speech and see what the country REALLY thinks about the subjects vs the polls that are taken.  I honestly think that this is a much better read than a poll that can be set up how you want it to read.

Overall, it should be interesting if the pundits pick up on this pulse and run with it, or if it suddenly fades in the background to be 'forgotten' since it doesn't state what they think.

An Interesting Trucking Company Model

I was listening to a trucking show the other day on my XM radio, called Trucking Business and Beyond hosted by Kevin Rutherford.

He had a caller call in about how he was operating under his own authority, but was dedicated pulling a larger companies trailers doing it.

It appears that some companies are drifting towards this kind of business model, where they have their owner/operators get their own authority so they have to handle all of the FMCSA's rules and regulations on compliance.

Another model is where a trucking company will go and either start or team up with a brokerage firm, then allow their drivers to use that firm to book freight.  It sounds like a great deal, which it is, but there is another possible motive for this.  By going with this model, it allows the company to go to a customer in the following possible scenario.  Before having a brokerage firm, they could only take contracts with X amount of loads per week.  Some customers have a 'surge' or seasonal freight where they might need a large amount of trucks to pull freight for a short amount of time.  By having the brokerage firm, they can inform this customer that they can handle ALL of their freight needs, not just the X amount per week.  By using the firm they can use it to cover the surge with outside trucks if they are needed.

When this model was explained, I realized that the company I currently work for is showing signs of possibly going to this kind of model.  As far as I'm concerned that's a good thing since it could give us more freight lanes to pull from, increasing our load volume and revenue potential.

It should be interesting to see how this will turn out.  

Getting out of my comfort zone

This week I was able to sign up on a pilot program with the company I am leased to.

The company I am leased to currently has a per mile contract that the owner operators are on for calculation of our pay.  This contract does have a graduated scale on mileage, and a fuel surcharge.  The thing is though is that it does limit the amount of revenue I can bring in with the truck.

This pilot program opens up a new potential line of revenue for my truck.  The company has a contract with a brokerage firm, which allows us to call them to get a load through them.  The difference in this is the fact that I, as the driver, negotiate the amount I will be paid on the load.  Once an amount is agreed on, I go and take the load.

This is a major step up from running under a static pay model.  Depending on where I am at, what the load volume is, and in small part how well I negotiate will determine how much I will make on this type of load.  It has the potential to make a nice bit of profit to add to the revenue stream.  It also has the potential to lower it too with bad decisions.

I am both excited, and a little scared on stepping out of my comfort zone.  The thing is though, the only way to grow is to get out of that zone.

Reserved Parking for 18 Wheelers

One of the major truck stop chains has started a new campaign recently. The TA/Petro chain has been going and putting in a few 'reserved' parking spots at their locations. Now they are only using about 2-5 percent of their total parking capacity at this point to do this.

The concept I believe is a good one.  They have a number you can call into and reserve a parking spot for the night (or day) for a fee ranging from 8-13 dollars. 

This allows you to plan your routes easier since you don't have to worry about whether or not you will find a spot when you are about to run out on your 14 hour clock.   This also allows people that pull oversized loads to acquire parking easier, although depending on how big the load is they might have to pay for 2 spots.

Now there are a 'few' drivers in the trucking community that do not like this new idea, hence my nice little picture above in the corner.  These are your drivers that, I swear, if you told them the sky was going to be blue, would argue with you over the point.  There are some out there that you just can't make happy. 

I have heard complaints ranging from 'they charge how much? well thats @#$%2 bs' to 'they are taking spots away from other drivers, if you can't make it there, tough, find another truck stop'.

I'm going to let you in on a neat little secret guys.......

The truck stops OWN the land that their parking lots are on.  Also, that kinda sorta makes it PRIVATE PROPERTY which allows them to do with it what they please.  There are truck stops out here that charge you to park in their parking lot....period.  You have drivers that don't buy fuel, or purchase items at the truck stop, but they want to take up a parking space there.  The truck stop has to spend money to clean and maintain the parking area.  They do have a business to run that needs to make a profit.

 Do you think that money comes out of thin air?  Well if you think our government is doing just fine you might so scratch that thought.....

It boils down to this neat little thing called CHOICE.  If you don't like it, don't use the service, its as simple as that.  Honestly, I'm not surprised that more truck stops haven't gone to the 'pay to park' model more.  Keeping up a large parking area is not cheap.  Quite a few truck stops now have security roaming around at night to help keep things safe.  Where does the money come from to pay for that?  Everything costs money guys, its just a matter of what you want to pay for.

As for me, I'll pay for the service when I need it.  I've already used it a few times and I have enjoyed the fact I didn't have to prowl the parking lot hoping to find a spot or catch someone leaving.  If your an Owner/Operator, its also a tax write-off, a deduction, so why all the whining?

One down one to go....

Well, I was able to make it back in time for Turkey Day. It was a pretty decent day overall.

I was able to relax for a few days before getting back on the road.  Note to self....don't go back on the road in the middle of a holiday weekend.  What can go wrong will.

I had a nice load going up to the northeast, but there was a massive screw up with the paperwork when I got there.  They gave me a mediocre load after that, ugh.

Now to get ready for the fat man in the red suit.  After that, we have New Year's.  This time of year it seems there is so much going on.

So did everyone else have a good Turkey Day?

Busy time of the year

The one thing I can say about the end of the year is that freight picks up pretty good. I mean heck, how do you think all of those gifts and stuff get to the stores? lol

I have been keeping pretty busy since the last time I have blogged and I apologize.  Right now I am helping out one of our many dedicated fleets that we have.

I am up in Corinne, Utah running with one of our Wal-Mart dedicated grocery fleets delivering to the stores in their area.  I have done this before for some of our other fleets and have always given them a very good performance, so when I wander in their area, they like to snag me up to help.

The nice thing about running this freight is that I can make more money running it vs OTR.  Now if I was to stay on the dedicated fleet and sign the contract it would drop back down to about what I made OTR so that's one of the reasons I like to run the 'surge' as they call it.

Well, I just got another load so I better get back to work.  I am hoping to be home for Thanksgiving, so chat with everyone later.