I'm out. Shutting down my brokerage after 15 years. (Page 2 of 2)
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Originally Posted By jos51700: ARHank, you have inspired me to be more aggressive about saying NO to people. Thank you for that. Same went for drivers. If you agree to do a job in a certain time frame, and something happens, let me know. No big deal. If you are late to deliver, and I have to call, and you won't answer or return my call, you better have a good excuse. If you lie to us you're gone. Unfortunately for you, my wife has a memory like an iron trap. You call two years later for a different job, she is going to tell you "no" and tell you exactly what happened last time. |
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Originally Posted By ARHank: Thank you. I'm not really stressed about shutting it down. A little disappointed. It was something we took pride in. It's sad to see an industry that we loved go down hill. I don't want to sound racist but it is getting over run with foreigners. The people who struggle to speak English have been increasing exponentially. Not that I care, as long as they do a good job, but they don't. You check their inspection records and they are littered with violations. I have drivers that we'll set clear expectations, prior to booking the job and they either don't comprehend or just don't GAF. Driver's calling customers in the middle of the night, demanding that they meet them miles away to pick up their car or they're going to abandon it. Crazy stuff. It was never like that before. When we would list a vehicle, you could almost always assign the job to the first person that called. Now we would turn down 5 or more companies before we would find one that we thought we could trust. Some parts of the country are even worse. Meanwhile there are shitty brokers out there that don't even check to see if the company they are hiring has an active MC or current insurance. Your customers look at you like, So & So company can get my car's moved, why can't you? Or they they think I charge too much because I pay the drivers a fair rate. It's a lot cheaper to run illegal and open a new shell company when you get caught. This was the wife's gig. I have a real job. I manage a large fleet of vehicles. It pays decent and has really good benefits. We live below our means. Our kids tuition is more than our mortgage but he'll graduate debt free. I'll be able to do the same for my daughter. I'm on track to retire with a few mil socked away and a pension. I should have the house paid off about the time my daughter graduates college. Our goal is to buy some acreage in the woods with a cabin or build on it. Originally Posted By ARHank: Originally Posted By TGE: Just ignore it. I assume it's supposed be some kind of joke to rile someone up but seems completely irrelevant. Interesting story, and I hate that you're feeling so stressed that you have to shut it all down. May end up being a good decision in the end though. I've left positions and companies due to high stress levels myself, and even though I've given up some money at times, I've never regretted living a better life despite not being able to buy quite as much junk. I'm not really stressed about shutting it down. A little disappointed. It was something we took pride in. It's sad to see an industry that we loved go down hill. I don't want to sound racist but it is getting over run with foreigners. The people who struggle to speak English have been increasing exponentially. Not that I care, as long as they do a good job, but they don't. You check their inspection records and they are littered with violations. I have drivers that we'll set clear expectations, prior to booking the job and they either don't comprehend or just don't GAF. Driver's calling customers in the middle of the night, demanding that they meet them miles away to pick up their car or they're going to abandon it. Crazy stuff. It was never like that before. When we would list a vehicle, you could almost always assign the job to the first person that called. Now we would turn down 5 or more companies before we would find one that we thought we could trust. Some parts of the country are even worse. Meanwhile there are shitty brokers out there that don't even check to see if the company they are hiring has an active MC or current insurance. Your customers look at you like, So & So company can get my car's moved, why can't you? Or they they think I charge too much because I pay the drivers a fair rate. It's a lot cheaper to run illegal and open a new shell company when you get caught. This was the wife's gig. I have a real job. I manage a large fleet of vehicles. It pays decent and has really good benefits. We live below our means. Our kids tuition is more than our mortgage but he'll graduate debt free. I'll be able to do the same for my daughter. I'm on track to retire with a few mil socked away and a pension. I should have the house paid off about the time my daughter graduates college. Our goal is to buy some acreage in the woods with a cabin or build on it. What you are describing sounds like the transition from a "high-trust society" into a "low-trust society". The systems and procedures that function in a high-trust society break down and don't work well in a low-trust society. The US is in the (painful) transition period. |
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OP I work at a small dealership so my shipping experience is very limited but reflects what you said. 1. Ship mustang to las vegas for one of my very good customers for his son. I start the process by putting info into one of the broker sites. Get BOMBARDED with calls. I tell all of them I need a quote for this car to this address. Out of probably 25-30 calls 3 call me back. Customer, who is off the wall OCD, picks one and car gets picked up. Agreement is on the trailer and off the trailer and that's it. Car left here over the cab of the truck. Gets to Vegas in the belly of the trailer with 1.6 more miles on it than it had when loaded plus paint chips in hood. Luckily for me, OCD customer flips out on shipper who deflects for 6 months only to pay half of what the damage was. There is 0 debate of whether the damage was done by the shipper. 2. Couple other transports of verious stuff(Raptor F-150, Bronco raptors lately and a gt500) where drivers show up late or a day later than expected. Most have a truck with 500,000 miles on it and a trailer that looks like it came over on the mayflower. English is their 3rd or 4th language. All for some reason have to call a boss or a leader of some kind to verify what is going on. Every one loads vehicle with 0 thought of caring. 1 in 10 get to where it is supposed to be on time. Always late. 3. Ford contracted shippers for lease returns going back to ford. Same bazillion mile set up and same european drivers. Track suit and all. Show up 3 minutes before closing wanting us to sign off on the vehicle after it's loaded. Nope. We sign before it's loaded with a condition report. Rush everything and leave straps loose, drive cars into each other and various other failures I can't remeber right now. 4. We had one blow a hydraulic hose while loading on the side of the road. Like gallons of fluid on the pavement literally 50 yards from a river. Driver grabs a box of kitty litter, dumps it on the spill, loads the car and drives away never to be seen again. I read a quote one time that said trucking is one of the few jobs where the longer you do it the worse you get at it. Are there good truckers? Yes and I'm betting you are/ were one of them. But the VAST majority of them are fly by night hacks. |
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Originally Posted By VectorX: What you are describing sounds like the transition from a "high-trust society" into a "low-trust society". The systems and procedures that function in a high-trust society break down and don't work well in a low-trust society. The US is in the (painful) transition period. |
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Originally Posted By ARHank: Originally Posted By VectorX: What you are describing sounds like the transition from a "high-trust society" into a "low-trust society". The systems and procedures that function in a high-trust society break down and don't work well in a low-trust society. The US is in the (painful) transition period. I actually disagree. The shipping industry has always been adversarial, often downright shady, with high counterparty risk. It could probably be argued that the market conditions over the last five years have increased the propensity for shenanigans, but when things go wrong with even the most moral players (as they often do) it is generally always a “knives out” scenario. |
Don't you tell me about galaxies! I walk them in the timeline.
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Originally Posted By Crash1433: OP I work at a small dealership so my shipping experience is very limited but reflects what you said. 1. Ship mustang to las vegas for one of my very good customers for his son. I start the process by putting info into one of the broker sites. Get BOMBARDED with calls. I tell all of them I need a quote for this car to this address. Out of probably 25-30 calls 3 call me back. Customer, who is off the wall OCD, picks one and car gets picked up. Agreement is on the trailer and off the trailer and that's it. Car left here over the cab of the truck. Gets to Vegas in the belly of the trailer with 1.6 more miles on it than it had when loaded plus paint chips in hood. Luckily for me, OCD customer flips out on shipper who deflects for 6 months only to pay half of what the damage was. There is 0 debate of whether the damage was done by the shipper. 2. Couple other transports of verious stuff(Raptor F-150, Bronco raptors lately and a gt500) where drivers show up late or a day later than expected. Most have a truck with 500,000 miles on it and a trailer that looks like it came over on the mayflower. English is their 3rd or 4th language. All for some reason have to call a boss or a leader of some kind to verify what is going on. Every one loads vehicle with 0 thought of caring. 1 in 10 get to where it is supposed to be on time. Always late. 3. Ford contracted shippers for lease returns going back to ford. Same bazillion mile set up and same european drivers. Track suit and all. Show up 3 minutes before closing wanting us to sign off on the vehicle after it's loaded. Nope. We sign before it's loaded with a condition report. Rush everything and leave straps loose, drive cars into each other and various other failures I can't remeber right now. 4. We had one blow a hydraulic hose while loading on the side of the road. Like gallons of fluid on the pavement literally 50 yards from a river. Driver grabs a box of kitty litter, dumps it on the spill, loads the car and drives away never to be seen again. I read a quote one time that said trucking is one of the few jobs where the longer you do it the worse you get at it. Are there good truckers? Yes and I'm betting you are/ were one of them. But the VAST majority of them are fly by night hacks. 2. I have damage and MIA stories for days. 3. When I worked at a dealership I organized all of the lease return keys on a sandwich board. That way we could run the board out there, in case one was blocked in, we could get it out. One day I go looking for the board and can't find it. Turns out our lot attendant left it in the back seat of a car that was shipped,two days ago. There were close to 100 sets of keys on the board. Luckily the driver was nice enough to stop somewhere and overnight them to us. 4. The best part about hydraulic fluid is that it eats paint. It may not show up for days or weeks after the car is delivered. Always wash a car after it's shipped. There are still a lot of good drivers but it gets harder for them every day. I have seen so many shut their doors. |
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This thread makes me sad. If I wanted to live on the road I'd buy my own truck and be a fucking legend. They call me The Professor here at work. I don't even own a track suit. Attached File Attached File |
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Originally Posted By fike: I actually disagree. The shipping industry has always been adversarial, often downright shady, with high counterparty risk. It could probably be argued that the market conditions over the last five years have increased the propensity for shenanigans, but when things go wrong with even the most moral players (as they often do) it is generally always a "knives out" scenario. I just feel the number of people who have zero business even being in the industry, has increased. Folks who are revoked or not insured is ridiculous. I am not even joking. I receive more calls for jobs from people who can't legally transport a vehicle then those who can. |
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Originally Posted By PhuzzyGnu: This thread makes me sad. If I wanted to live on the road I'd buy my own truck and be a fucking legend. They call me The Professor here at work. I don't even own a track suit. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69748/1000012896_jpg-3246432.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69748/PXL_20240206_225527209-01_jpeg-3246427.JPG (FFM nomenclature credit goes to Your1Savior) It's a lot cheaper to run when you don't maintain your truck or pay for insurance. Plus if you ever get in trouble, you just close that company down and run under your cousin's. |
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Originally Posted By ARHank: I'd say you'd make a killing but you'd probably end up getting your throat cut by the flip flop mafia. (FFM nomenclature credit goes to Your1Savior) It's a lot cheaper to run when you don't maintain your truck or pay for insurance. Plus if you ever get in trouble, you just close that company down and run under your cousin's. Originally Posted By ARHank: Originally Posted By PhuzzyGnu: This thread makes me sad. If I wanted to live on the road I'd buy my own truck and be a fucking legend. They call me The Professor here at work. I don't even own a track suit. https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69748/1000012896_jpg-3246432.JPG https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/69748/PXL_20240206_225527209-01_jpeg-3246427.JPG (FFM nomenclature credit goes to Your1Savior) It's a lot cheaper to run when you don't maintain your truck or pay for insurance. Plus if you ever get in trouble, you just close that company down and run under your cousin's. Neighbor got into flipping cars, and transporting (hotshot style with a pickup, not semi truck) for others to keep busy in retirement, anything really, but mostly cars. He shut down the transportation business he ran with another guy, and only does it for friends or a few dealerships that are easy to work with. Still keeps busy, but saying no a LOT made him happier. Mind you he doesn't need the money. 2 cars on a trailer at most, usually one. Lot of our conversations start because I get distracted at his fence by what I see passing through. 
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I'm out. Shutting down my brokerage after 15 years. (Page 2 of 2)
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