Keep in mind there are only 3 companies that write the actual ins policy........hundreds and hudreds of agents/brokers

 

Actually there are more than three. I was denied by Canal, Zurich, Occidental, American Alternative, National Indemnity etc

Then they all have sub insurance companies. Basically the agent, unless going direct with the insurance company, all have wholesale people they work with. The whole thing is somewhat complicated.

I think the agent did my right. His info is:

Robert J. Lytle III -

President

2100 Pooler Parkway

P.O. Box 536

Pooler, GA 31322

Office- 912-330-5250

Direct - 912-450-7014

Fax- 912-335-5741

Member - IANA, GMTA, SSTA, PWOF, TRAG, TRPNC

Interline Risk Services, Inc.


He insisted on flying down to personally have me go over the documents. He's a bright guy and has done me right the whole time. Plus I can be an a**. Well let me rephrase that. I don't play around. You tell me you're going to do something I expect it to be done. I don't want things sitting on desks. He's use to my aggressiveness ( I don't curse or anything, I just don't play and I look at things from all angles and like back up plans). But once that is done, he even admitted nobody hears from me. I don't need handholding and go do a lot myself. So once someone realizes how to deal with me, I'm actually a great customer. And I pay my bills on time. Anyway especially Gman I recommend calling him as he's in GA and does well with the Southern States. He's very knowledgeable too.

 

Had to get in a truck for the first time in a few years. I flew Southwest to St Louis (never flew them before as I usually use Orbitz and apparently they don't advertise on those things) to big up a truck that was damaged and headed straight home. It's been a few years like I said but seems like all the O/O are gone. All I saw were bigger companies. A lot of trucks and considering this downturn I was surprised to see so many.

I didn't bring any food and am funny about that so it wasn't a pleasant trip. But I left St Louis on Monday at 2PM and was back in bed Tuesday night.

Looking hard for a dispatcher or two now and it's not so easy. The job market in Florida is pretty good right now. Also finally opened a brokerage. People have been trying to get me to do that for several years. I never liked the idea but I did it. Now I just need to find the staff.

 

Thanks for the lead on insurance, Merrick. It can be challenging to find an insurance agent who will work for your business. I like my insurance people, but I still shop my insurance every year. Some wait until the last minute to get with me and that makes it difficult to do business with them.

It is good to hear that things are progressing with you. I think the most challenging aspect to running a business is finding good people who are honest and willing to do their best. Too many just want a paycheck without having to do much for it.

I have not been west of Texas for several years. I think that the reason you see fewer owner operators out west probably has more to do with California and their CARB rules than anything else. Rates are still low on the left coast and some have just gotten tired of fighting it. I have one friend who runs his authority and still runs the left coast due to servicing his direct shipper. Were it not for the business he generates from his shipper, I don't think he would continue servicing California. I have found that I can do better staying in the middle of the country rather than running to California. I can see running the left coast if you pull reefers. For the rest, it is hardly worth the effort.

It is good to hear from you, Merrick. Thanks for the update.

 

Figured I'd check in. Next year this thread will be 10 years old. I feel like I've aged 30 years. Can't seem to get past the low 40 truck number. It's always one thing or another. I will say humbly I do think we are a good company to work for. A lot of bonuses, free health insurance, dental and vision as well. It's hard to compete for drivers when you have the bigger companies basically saying anything to get you in the door.

This year as you all know has been bad. Probably the first time we will lose money since the day I started. I have all new equipment (leased) and it's not cheap. I have a full office staff to support drivers and customers and again not cheap. Probably I could have gotten out of this with a couple of million two years ago but bad timing; such is life.

I am very fortunate in that a company my size I can take drivers right out of school and train them. We work with one school that is very comprehensive; a 13 week program.

I've tried to venture out into other things but nothing has panned out. I've realized consultants are basically useless. We actually for a relatively small company have some big customers. We are really going to start recruiting heavily soon though we hate that word. Too much like salesman. We've realized that the best place to recruit is "fly over country", that is not on the coasts. They make the same money and it goes a lot further. South Florida has become very expensive. $50,000 here is not much but in Arkansas it goes a long way. Hard workers too.

We are looking to upgrade to Mcleod software but jesus they want $150,000 but it will make things much more efficient. We'd also like to open a terminal somewhere in the Midwest. We've gotten into perishable LTL and it is going well. Profitable loads just hard to time to it all together.

Well that's about all, still kicking it as they say. We still are on paper logs but have elogs in the truck and can flip the switch at any time but we are waiting.

Hope all is well with you all out there.

 

Great to hear from you!
I really appreciate the periodic updates and the display of rugged individualism that can be an inspiration to others...

 

Love this

 

Coming up on 3 years and nothing, brilliant.

 

Well an update to my little journey. I'm a multimillionaire driving around in a Lamborghini and living the high life off trucking. Oh wait that's what everyone thinks when you get a fleet of trucks. I've never been anything but honest and so I shall continue to be so.

This past couple of years have been very rough. I tried to do the best to shield the drivers from the downturn we've been experiencing. Higher pay, free health insurance, bonus after bonus. We are at about 60% customer freight which pays much better. Yet the good drivers we had that were here before the bonuses and health insurance are still here but many others just complained as usual. The grass is always greener on the other side. I will never understand why if you are not happy with a job why you just don't put in your two weeks and move on?

Well we just cut the fleet in half. I got myself into massive debt. When you are running over 40 trucks and a bunch of office people it's hard to control. This business has aged me without a doubt. I seriously regret getting into this. I tried to sell and had people fly in from around the world but we haven't been making much money the last couple of years. I actually had one driver tell me that on revenues of $10,000,000 I was making $4,000,000. They have no clue to the actual costs.

It is very hard in this age to make it big in anything. Not saying you can't but the days of the mom and pop businesses are going the way of the dodo bird. When I grew up in New England we never heard of Walmart. Now this country is one big Applebee's and Walmart. The middle class is being wiped out. Is it still possible? Yes anything is. Just much harder.

I've spoken several times to the owner of the 595 truck stop in South Florida. A very old man. He and his brother started in NYC pumping gas and fixing cars. Long story short, they are or were the owners of almost all parking garages in Manhattan. Now they are turning them into multimillion dollar mixed used buildings. The days of starting out like that and making it big are long gone. It's not just that the rich are keeping us down, people generally don't have the work ethic to do what these gentlemen did. The gentleman is almost 90 and still working all the time. He started in the 1950's.

A couple of years ago I could have sold without a doubt for a couple of million, but this latest downturn killed me. I've learned a lot but though I loved driving a truck and seeing the country, owing a trucking company (or any business with employees) is very very difficult.

So to cut down I had to turn in equipment and default on one big vendor. I'm dealing with lawyers now. Oh by the way, I've spent a ton in lawyers as it is because people think you are loaded and file frivolous lawsuits against you. Pallets tip over because the driver doesn't want to secure things and $30,000 claims. It's one thing after another. Again any business is difficult but this trucking is 24/7. Well just an update. I try and keep it real as you can see from the very beginning of this thing I had no clue what I was getting myself into. It's been good to me in a way but if I could start over I would have done something else. HOWEVER that's just me. I don't like having employees etc and I really don't care about trucking. I have a short fuse too, so other's might not feel the same way. All I can say for me, I've never ever woke up every two hours at night worrying about how I'm going to pay the bills. All these people that work for me, I am responsible for. I personally don't like that; I want to be responsible for me.

The battle continues.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the Carrier is liable for all the issues with the freight. if his insurance doesn't cover all the damage, the broker's insurance added.