A single o/o and methods of finding direct customers.

I think it depends on the shipper, but having your own direct customer doesn't mean that you are obligated to X amount of loads a week.

I have one customer, I can do five loads a week for him or none. It's completely up to me. For this customer I just call in advance and tell him what day to put me on the schedule. When they run orders for that day he calls and tells me what all they have. If nothing sparks my interest I'm not obligated to take something just because.

Last year I went around selling my service. I stopped at something like 25 places. A few said they don't work with O/O's and a few said they could use me once in awhile. I've never heard from them and never really expected to either. It was just a way to get rid of me. A couple about fell over when I started talking rates. I don't need someone's business bad enough to work for cheap. Out of those 25 stops I did end up with two customers, one of which I fired.

Doing sales like that is kinda tough if you've never done it before. Stop at the places you think you would like to work with the least to practice on and build your confidence.

 

We had 3 coustemers when I started with this company. One closed so he has 2 now. I get last dibs on that freight. Goes to company trucks first. They are spotty but pay fair.

I have picked up 3 since I've been here. They are nothing great but I can use them whenever I want. None of them pay all that great compared to what I have been getting off load boards this year. One is power only and pays round trip odometer miles Right from the house. But not much even with with zero deadhead.

One, I knew the salesman from a previous life, the other two were local places I just walked in and started jaw jacking with anyone that would listen. All three of the places I got have there own set rates. Two of these are all the miles you can eat. I just call and say I'm looking for a load on Tuesday and they set me up. The other has a in house load board I can look at pick whatever I want.

The two the carrier has, one has set rate the other is negotiated each load. The one with the set rate we do fill in work the house carrier can't cover. The other calls when she has something we might be interested in or she can't cover.

There are a few others that use us a couple times a year. Like reclaimed lumber loads, scrap steel loads, local hay loads or a local farmer that bought a new tank or something?

 

You don't have to wear a suit and tie, you can approach the situation as something to fear or something exciting that will bring new opportunities.


Sales is fun, but it certainly can be disheartening when you get a hundred "no" responses.

 

I worked for a long time in sales for Comcast and I killed it. Usually 80-90k a year not including all the freebies I won. Something I learned quickly was earn your no's. A no is not negative its just 1 step closer to a yes. Its hard at first but it gets easier. I was scared at first from the rejection but you quickly learn it ain't nothing, just get to the next cx.

 

We don't make anymore off our coustemers than I do off the board. Heck I have even pulled some freight off the board for our coustemers that paid better then they offered us direct for the same load. Our coustemers are not that great though. It's nice to have a direct line to them when rates are down but don't pay any better than loadboard. I'm sure there are better direct coustemers but we don't have any.

 

You've both touched on important aspect of having direct customers: stability and rates.

Having stability is good, however IMO stability with average or below average rates aren't the customers that are worthwhile to have as a single truck OO or small fleet. There are lots of customers with poor rates and average rates: generally speaking, those aren't the customers you want even if they have loads for you every day of the week/as much as you can haul. You want customers that have a need for service; which as a smaller carrier, you'll have a much better grasp on how to provide that excellent service which you warrants better rates.

You can get good rates off of loadboards, but IMO not nearly as consistently as you can from good customers that you service directly and are the "person to call" when they need something done, done right, and done right the first time, every time.

Lots of shippers just want the cheapest rate: as a small carrier there isn't any point IMO to having customers like that. The economy of scale isn't there to make the volume that creates profitability for larger carriers.

 

That's why %95 of my freight this year is loadboard. Rates are to good to pass up right now. My loaded miles average this year is $2.98. I will still pull for our coustemers but there has to be a need that fits my schedule. None of our coustemers rates are that high on average. Last year my average was much lower but I pulled a lot more direct. In hindsight I could have done my power only coustemer last year only, and done the exact same as I did for running all over the country pulling my own trailer though.

Good paying, consistent coustemers are difficult to find and get your foot in the door. As they should be. They are out there though.