Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/649008
Voices channel 19 6 | Overdrive | March 2016 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. The image here, circa early 2011 as diesel crept back up above $4/ gallon at the Love's on I-65 in North Nashville, and elsewhere, shows John D. Hodges' clever suggestion for a caption. Other notable captions of- fered in response to requests for such over on Overdrive's Facebook page last month included Jerry Ward's "Ah, the good old days." Sarcasm? Could be, though truth is, plenty of comments were posted with reflections of the realities of a high surcharge for the fuel-efficiency-con- scious among owner-operators, by which I mean pretty much all of you, of course. "We made better money with the higher FSC then!" exclaimed David Michael Quickel. For those relying too much on the profit to be derived from a fuel surcharge, it's amazing how a falling surcharge can expose an inadequate rate, isn't it? Here's Aaron Calabro: "I like when guys say they make more money when fuel is high. If you depend on the fuel surcharge, you are probably not charging the right rate" or your leasing carrier isn't. Catch several more captions to the photo in the Feb. 11 post to the Channel 19 blog. " Sound fuel-management practices work when fuel is high or low. It is all in how the numbers look at the end of the spreadsheet, and mine are doing just fine. " — Cliff Downing SUBWAY AGAIN!? Surcharges and cheap diesel Shipper says skip middleman, come on down January's cover story on building relationships with shippers drew the attention of Ron Hazel, traffic manager for GEA Inc. The company manufactures milking products and other freight, most typically moved in dry vans, some on flatbeds. Hazel wrote to find out how to find owner-operators willing to serve his needs. He prefers dealing with the businessman in the cab to several experiences he's had getting burned by large carriers overpromising on service, only to fall short and put him in a bind. Dealing directly with owner-oper- ators without a broker middleman, too, leads to better rates for both his operation and the owner-operator's, he believes. "If I'm spending a dollar for transportation, I want to get a dol- lar's value out of it, and if I've got to pay a higher price, I'd much rather" that money go to the man doing the hauling, he adds. From his base facility in Naperville, Ill., just west of Chicago, Hazel says GEA "sends a lot of stuff up to South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota and surrounding states." He likes to work with operators domiciled in those areas, as well as others where the company commonly ships, allowing him to possibly put together a solid back-and-forth lane with his loads on the return. (GEA's flatbed freight by and large originates in Wisconsin and New York state.) Service needs are paramount, he says, making an old transport analogy to a horse's superior speed coming back to the barn versus the outbound trip: "If you can get a guy coming back to where he lives, you're going to get good service." In the end, Hazel believes the prin- cipal reason some owner-operators "are struggling is they're surrendering their profit to the broker." For better margins and long-term health, doing the hard work on rela- tionship-building with direct shippers will pay off in the long term. There are plenty more folks out there just like Hazel, no doubt. If you missed our January cover feature on building a customer base of direct shippers, catch links to the package online, as well as more discussion, via the Jan. 13 post to the blog.