Hey Runawaytrain, I said the loss would be 17.3 million , only missed it by 300 grand. What is my prize , probably just a handshake. Things are not good boys, the Vitran train is derailed with nary a hope of getting back on the tracks. Before this 1st Q report, Vitran was left with 54.6 million cash after the SCO sale. Now with this loss of 17.6 million, we are left with 37 million dollars. Two more quarters of losses similar to this and you might as well close the doors. CK has been at the helm for 5 full quarters now and things are getting worse, not getting better. We are in a perfect storm. Customers have moved elswhere , revenues down 13.1% from a year ago while all our competitors enjoy large increases in revenue. Why have customers left Vitran, I call it "Vitran Fatigue". Years and years of poor on time service, damage levels that are simply unacceptable, claims that don't get paid, inaccurate invoicing, poor equipment ( no $hit there gents) . What CK needs to understand is the customers have options, there is still way too much capacity in this lousy business. Customers don't need Vitran, Vitran needs customers.
Another reason for the horrible results and massive drop in revenues is the loss of the best sales reps in the company. We have lost roughly one third of our sales force and it isn't the lazy or lousy reps that have left. The good reps were simply fed up with a substandard service product, they were tired of getting beat up day after day, just as you and I are when we deliver a pallet of freight that looks like it was hit by a nuclear bomb. How many customers tell you that if the damages don't stop, we are going elsewhere? And this leads to the internal employees "Vitran Fatigue". How many raises have you gotten in the past 7 years, one, a lousy 25 cent raise. Seriously, a lousy 25 cents. The salaried folks did not get that lousy 25 cents. Now how much did your health insurance rates increase this year, way more than that 25 cents would cover. Employee fatigue runs from bottom to top, almost everyone would leave our company if they could find a better job. Vitran is lucky that the economy has not gotten much better or they would have seen a mass exodus. That has happened though with the sales group as our competitors have cherry picked our best and most seasoned reps. I am told we are replacing them with snotty nosed rookies that will simply not succeed.
I've said it several times. I think Canada is going to spin us off into a holding company. The Canadian employees have been demanding this for more than a year. How long we can last after that , who knows, it won't be long. Will be interesting to see what the market has to say today, just glad I don't have any Vitran stock.
Another reason for the horrible results and massive drop in revenues is the loss of the best sales reps in the company. We have lost roughly one third of our sales force and it isn't the lazy or lousy reps that have left. The good reps were simply fed up with a substandard service product, they were tired of getting beat up day after day, just as you and I are when we deliver a pallet of freight that looks like it was hit by a nuclear bomb. How many customers tell you that if the damages don't stop, we are going elsewhere? And this leads to the internal employees "Vitran Fatigue". How many raises have you gotten in the past 7 years, one, a lousy 25 cent raise. Seriously, a lousy 25 cents. The salaried folks did not get that lousy 25 cents. Now how much did your health insurance rates increase this year, way more than that 25 cents would cover. Employee fatigue runs from bottom to top, almost everyone would leave our company if they could find a better job. Vitran is lucky that the economy has not gotten much better or they would have seen a mass exodus. That has happened though with the sales group as our competitors have cherry picked our best and most seasoned reps. I am told we are replacing them with snotty nosed rookies that will simply not succeed.
I've said it several times. I think Canada is going to spin us off into a holding company. The Canadian employees have been demanding this for more than a year. How long we can last after that , who knows, it won't be long. Will be interesting to see what the market has to say today, just glad I don't have any Vitran stock.
