America's Babies Have To Go
By
Phil Madsen, Expediter
(Written March 31, 2007 for publication on SuccessfulExpediters.com)
While every day is different in expediting, two of our recent days illustrate much about the day-to-day life and work.
We arrived at a Louisiana delivery location Tuesday, 10:00 p.m. The facility was closed until 8:00 a.m. so we spent the night in the truck, parked in the consignee’s lot, and delivered first thing Wednesday morning.
Those are the best kind of deliveries. Both codrivers get to sleep the night through in a non-moving truck. When you wake up, there is time for a relaxed breakfast. Because you are already there, you do not have to get up early and drive around searching for an unfamiliar address. You do not have to worry about rush hour traffic. You do not even have to get out of bed until shortly before the delivery time.
After the delivery, we moved to a nearby and quiet parking area. The morning weather was great. Not being pre-dispatched on another load or needing to go anywhere in particular, we spent an hour cleaning the inside of the truck while also keeping an ear open for the familiar Qualcomm beep that might signal an incoming load offer.
Qualcomm is a company name. The company makes an in-truck satellite communications device used to send messages back and forth between the carrier and drivers. Carriers that use this system give it their own name. Our carrier calls it Customer Link or C-Link. Many drivers simply call it, “clink.”
Clink suggested Shreveport, Louisiana as a layover location. While we were only two hours away, the idea of going to the Shreveport express center did not excite us. We have gotten good loads out of there, but Shreveport is not known as a busy freight location. We might be waiting a day or more for our next load.
Express center is our carrier’s term for a city or area in which freight originates. It means more to them than it does to us. Express centers are reference points for determining how well our carrier has the country covered with available trucks. It is not good to have zero trucks in an express center. It is better to have trucks waiting for freight. Available trucks can be immediately dispatched when customers call for help meeting an emergency freight need.
From our point of view, if there are a couple of trucks in the Shreveport express center and we are assigned there too, it is not a good thing. Loads come less frequently out of that area than the busier express centers. With a couple of trucks ahead of us, we might be there a while, making no money as we wait for freight.
Memphis, Tennessee has been a very good express center for us but it was far away. Going there would mean making no money while we deadheaded (drove with no freight on board). We would also burn fuel and put unpaid miles on the truck. Little Rock, Arkansas is busier than Shreveport, less busy than Memphis but closer.
The day of the week also weighed on our minds. Less freight is dispatched on weekends than weekdays. If we are not running on a weekend, we at least like to be in a busy express center where our chances of snagging some weekend freight are better.
From our carrier’s point of view, Shreveport was the place for us to go. From our point of view, it was the place to get out of before we got trapped for a weekend.
As independent contractors, we are free to go to any express center we wish at any time. Indeed, we have the freedom to go out of service any time we wish to kick back where we are or to go home.
Since Shreveport was on the way to Little Rock, we decided to go to a Shreveport truck stop for fuel and showers, and then to Wal-Mart to pick up some things. If we did not receive a load offer by late afternoon, we would go to Little Rock and wait there for freight.
Little Rock would be a more pleasant place to spend a weekend if we did not get a load. The William J. Clinton Presidential Library is there. We have seen several presidential libraries from the road. We would like to visit each one as time permits. As Wednesday was shaping up, it looked like we might have the chance to tour this one; though, of course, we would rather haul freight.
Whether we are under load or not, our priority of work is well established. Sleep comes first. If we need it, we get it, either while the codriver is driving or in a non-moving truck when that is possible. This day, we were both well rested since we had slept the entire night before.
After sleep, the truck comes next and then business paperwork. Having time to spare after the morning delivery and a place to park and work, we put a few minutes into completing run paperwork and about an hour into tidying up the truck.
Showers are important but are not a designated priority. They get worked in around the other priorities as shower opportunities rise. We most often get showers at truck stops when we fuel. When we are running hard, we may not get a proper indoor shower for several days. Instead, we use the sink and shower in our truck to freshen up.
Many expediter trucks have no water or toilets in them. When we drove fleet-owner trucks, we ran that way for three years. Drivers of such trucks use public bathrooms and baby wipes between truck stop showers or hotel stays.
As we neared Shreveport, we clinked our carrier to check into the express center. We knew from an earlier message that two other trucks were also checked in there.
We drove past the Petro truck stop and on to the nearby Flying J where fuel is a few cents less and an RV dump station is available. On the way, we saw both checked-in trucks; one parked at Petro, the other parked at Flying J. As we waited in line to buy fuel at Flying J, we saw that truck’s codrivers standing in the parking lot visiting with other drivers. While we have made many driver friends on the road, we did not recognize these folks. They did not notice us among the other trucks lined up at a very busy fuel island.
We planned to greet those drivers after we fueled the truck, used the RV dump station and parked. After we showered and if they had time, we might talk shop over coffee. That was not to be. Before we reached the pumps, clink beeped with a load offer.
It was an ordinary run that bordered on cheap freight. By ordinary I mean a run that did not require a lift gate, inside delivery, temperature control, security clearance or other such value-added service. Any team-driven truck could take it.
Assuming the other two trucks had received the offer before us and turned it down, we called dispatch to complain about the low pay and see if we could talk up the price a bit. The dispatcher said she could not raise the pay before offering the run to other trucks.
It surprised us that the other trucks had not been offered the load. They had more dwell time (time waiting for freight in a given express center). Under the formula our carrier uses to dispatch trucks, dwell time is good. All other things being equal, the truck with the most dwell time will receive the load offer first.
The trouble is, the formula is complex and all other things are never equal. Dwell time is just one of many factors that determine the order in which trucks receive load offers. Most drivers, including Diane and me, do not fully understand the system. We have read some about it and talked to people at our carrier to learn more. Still, it is difficult to grasp; partly because our carrier is not entirely forthcoming with the details.
Over time we have learned to live with that. We do well under the formula. There is no need to push for details. As long as the money keeps coming in, we are content to live with the mystery.
Unsuccessfully negotiating for more money, we had a decision to make. Do we decline the load in hopes that the other trucks will also turn it down and give us the chance to negotiate again? That would be a long shot. One of the other trucks probably would take the load if it was offered to them.
So … do we decline the load and wait for something better, or do we take the marginal load now? If we declined the load, we might end up waiting in Shreveport longer than we wished. With the weekend approaching, we might enjoy a library visit while simultaneously kicking ourselves for not taking the marginal load.
If we accepted the offer, the load pick up was ASAP about 50 miles away. It delivered Thursday morning in South Carolina. The run paid less per mile than our rule-of-thumb minimum. Yes, we could still make money hauling the freight, but it would be less than normal. Do we take the load? Do we decline it and wait for a better-paying load? Do we haul freight now or turn it down and gamble that something better may come without a long wait? Expediters ponder such questions with every load offer.
It did not take us long to decide to take the load. Freight-wise, South Carolina is a much better place to be than Louisiana. The load got us moving instead of sitting. And we would not have to deadhead to Little Rock or Memphis where uncertainty awaited.
As our turn at the pumps came up and just before we pulled under the canopy, we clinked in the acceptance code while we still had a satellite signal. That put us on the load and it picked up soon.
Our focus and pace immediately shifted. We would not greet the other drivers as there was not time. We were glad to see the truck ahead of us pull away. We would not be trapped at the fuel island by a driver who was taking his time in the truck stop. Showers would have to wait. The load left no time for them.
As I fueled the truck, Diane fired up the laptop to map our route. Other than town names, we had no directions to the shipper or consignee. Those would come when the clink signal returned. Directions do not pour in. They trickle in as a series of messages received over a few minutes. The computer could tell us the general direction to head. The specific pickup address and directions would arrive as we drove.
Moving quickly, I went inside to pay for the fuel. Diane drove the truck around to the dump station and started work there. After a bathroom stop in the truck stop, I joined Diane at the truck. She went inside to write up the load paperwork. I finished things up at the dump station. Moments later we were on our way. An hour later we were at the shipper’s dock ready to load the truck.
Part of the fun of expedited freight transport is you never know what you will be hauling next. This time it was an emergency shipment. There is nothing unusual about that in this business. But we have never hauled this freight before.
There is a baby diaper manufacturer in South Carolina. The diaper packaging is made where we were docked. While the shipper send packaging to the diaper company on an ongoing basis, something went wrong somewhere. The diaper company was out of packaging. Without it, diaper production would be interrupted.
Do you remember the title of this piece? America’s babies have to go. If the diaper company could not keep them supplied, parents would buy a competitor’s product. That is a bad thing if you make your money selling diapers. It is also a bad thing if you make your money selling packaging to the company that sells diapers.
The packaging shortage was a problem for the packaging company, diaper company and everyone between them and the babies that wear the diapers. In this case, Diane and I and our carrier were the solution.
Learning the circumstances that prompted this run, we could easily imagine a boss in an office somewhere saying, “Call in an expediter. Get a truck to the packaging plant right now and drive that freight straight through to the delivery.”
America’s babies have to go. We are proud to have done our part.