Holland | New account coming on board.

Because YRCW does not have the competent managers and manpower and equipment that is needed to handle such accounts as Amazon.Numbers are down as far as labor that is needed to run any of this operation.Short on acceptable equipment.Incompetent managers.No matter how many changes of operations that are granted nothing is going to change.Plus the expansion of PTS.Thats a travesty all in itself.
I meant that for YRC freight apparently it applies elsewhere
 
Who was the reporting agency on this video?
The way the media reports things, I still would like to hear proof that Walmart made these comments, or from Walmart themselves,and not from someone's source..
-Mart warns motor carriers to stop hauling Amazon loads ...

Jun 27, 2017 ... Wal-Martescalates e-commerce "cold war" between two retail giants, Jindel tells SMC 3 gathering.
www.dcvelocity.com/.../20170627-wal-mart-warns-motor-carriers-to-stop- hauling-amazon-loads-consultant-says/
 
Amazon like Walmart look for the lowest priced carrier to handle their freight. In the race to the bottom just to make our numbers per bill count look good YRCW/Holland is now in the race to handle a small portion of the overall demand that Amazon has moving freight to its centers.

It's all about numbers right now--- prior to this account coming on board the bill counts were way down. Our bread and butter accounts were using other carriers instead of using us. How many of you P&D drivers remember going to stops and seeing bills that said "Do Not Ship With YRC"?

I for one seen that at many locations.

So back to numbers-- since this account came on board city dispatch makes it a point to highlight that the shipment is for Amazon and has made it a priority pickup. Locally I have even seen dispatch sending out early drivers with empty's to specifically pick up Amazon accounts while we have loads being held over from the day before and trailers that are loaded with returns from the previous day that were undelivered from later starting bid drivers.

For the short term the increase in bill count numbers and "freight falling off the dock", looks good in the eyes of the TM and those that actually hold out hope of a turn around with this company.

But the elephant in the room is revenue!

Amazon and Walmart are discount retailers first and foremost. To keep those prices down they rely on volume to remain competitive and at the top of their market share. To do so since they hold leverage, they can place demands on vendors such as deep discounts and priority service.

This is something that in reality we can not preform nor sustain long term due to the state of the company as a whole. Sure we can do so in the short term to get the business and we can do so on a short term basis, but our operations were already struggling to keep pace in recent years even with the reduced volume of business that we already had.
 
Let's examine that for a moment and we can get back to numbers in a moment.

Not being able to handle the freight volume prior to taking on the Amazon account:

In the recent years as we all know, Holland as well as the entire family of YRCW family of companies has been picked bone dry. We have a lack of rolling stock as well as an aged fleet that needs complete replacement. Sure we are getting in a few hundred new tractors and trailers a year now, but in the overall picture of the size of the company what we are getting in is a drop in the bucket of what is actually needed.

In recent years due to the lack of manpower and the fact that we can not recruit (Experienced) manpower anylonger, the company was forced to rely on outside cartage to help cover even the reduced freight volumes. This costed the company millions of dollars a day to do so as we all know.

The company still faces those same issues today, but with the onboarding of the Amazon account that will kick up the volume demands it is in a position of playing the game from behind coming out of the tunnel.

Let's set the way back machine to the mid 1990's - the mid 2000's prior to the buyout by YRC. This is not a bid to reminisce over the glory days, but an educational overview.

At this time Holland was the premier carrier in the LTL industry and one that was Covenant with its place. Drivers desired to come to the company and shippers were willing to pay the extra cost to ship with it. Holland offered the premier damage free next day service in the lanes that it handled. In doing so it did not bend on pricing nor on standards both in its workforce or its equipment.

It was able to examine accounts such as one like Amazon or even Walmart and come to the table with some leveraging weight of its own. To be perfectly honest these types of accounts would have been rejected by both parties in the past.

For one Holland may have taken on the account initially then, but would have not made it the make or break type of account that it is today.

They sure as heck would not have made it the priority account over the existing accounts as they are doing today.

In the race to the bottom it has become all about numbers. Bill count numbers: bills per minute, bills per city trailer, bills per line haul trailer, and so forth. As a result the system that made Holland the premier carrier of the bygone days has been discarded.

No longer do we floor load and kick it down the road to meet both criteria's of damage free and on time service at premium rates. No sir today's operations revolves around those numbers and it is failing miserably!
 
While it may give the impression to management and many of the employees that the new Amazon account is a sign in the right direction, in reality it is only highlighting the fact that we have become the bottom feeders in the industry.

Bill count and numbers do not always equal gains in revenue long term. Revenue and damage free shipments = sustainability.

This is something this account will not provide. And quite frankly something Holland is no longer able to provide for that matter.

We are all aware of the problems facing this place and for the most part most of us have been in the industry long enough be it here or elsewhere to recognize that the good ship Holland/YRCW is a vessel so far off course that it may have already crossed the point of no return.

While we can welcome this new account for its short term feel good aspects, the long term mountain facing this company cannot be climbed by looking at this account as a sign of progress or sustainability.

Exsisting accounts will suffer chasing the pennies thrown our way. The future unfortunately is in servicing accounts like Amazon since they are now the biggest boys and girls on the block, but it will be done at a cost that's for sure.
 
The next wave of things to come may be even more devastating to dinosaur companies like YRCW/Holland.

Please don't fault me or doubt me for bringing this up because there is already a basis for this.

I have brought up on other threads and was dismissed and shot down for bringing this up, but there is already an example of this that has taken place.

Here we go: Uber Freight is in its infancy at the moment, BUT after its initial rollout in Texas, it opened its market share up in Arizona, Chicago, and a few other locations on the 3rd of August 2017. This along with Google's "Convoy" will in the long run revolutinalize the industry in ways many old timers can not grasp. Sure you want to dismiss it right now, but let me highlight what they have done to the taxi and livery industry for a moment.

In 5 short years they have completely reinvented that industry! Sure at cut throats rates, but gentleman the technology they introduced and the way that it works is light years ahead of the current model that the trucking industry operates under.

The vast majority of loads garnered by both owner operators as well as dinosaur companies such as Holland are third party generated. Shippers go through brokers to find the cheapest and fastest carrier now.

This is where the technology that these two companies come into play.

Matching available space with available lanes at near instantaneous time is something today's brokers are unable to accomplish. For one they still operate under an antiquated system even with all the upgrades just like the vast majority of trucking companies do.

Rideshare for instance matches riders to drivers through a smartphone and algorithm that for those who have never experienced it have a hard time understanding. The technology that these two powerhouses have will enable the same in the freight industry. It already has where it was beta tested, and the owner ops get paid out within days instead of weeks.

Dispatch is instantaneous compared to what is currently in place in the industry. The AI and algorithms are able to do the job at a pace no human could ever achieve.

The key to the game in trucking be it O/O or a corporation like YRC is keeping the wheels turning while attempting to keep overhead costs reduced.

The reality of today is that everything is on demand same day to next day in LTL, and for long haul matching loads with reduced dead head as well as trucks heading in the right direction with available space has always been a challenge.

While crossdock operations continues to have a place for the present, the model of break bulk and crossdock is antiquated as it is inefficient overall and labor intensive.

It requires large workforces that cuts into the bottom line, it allows for damage to occur at an alarming rate, and overall it is something that worked well in the past due to the limitations of technology, but in the 21st century where I can wait no longer than 10 minutes and in some markets 2 minutes to be matched up with a ride somewhere by simply putting in a request in an app on a phone anywhere in the world where it is available only shows that continuously believing that how we do things today will carry into tomorrow will survive.

I know some will complain that jobs will be lost and that the Unions will be effected as well, but if you have not already figured out even these models are antiquities in so many regards as well.

Shippers care less about the Union or how all the politics involved surrounding it and labor. They want instant service, just as riders grew tired of the antiquated service and model that taxies and livery delivered.
 
Gentleman whether we want to accept it or not we are in an app society where things are outpacing even most of the with IT companies. And the dinosaur known as YRCW/Holland is in no place or position to compleate in the tidal wave coming its way with technology stuck in the early 2000's at best..


I know it's going to effect the whole balance of things including the Unions and much of labor as we know it today and we can dismiss it and complain about it, but it is a wave that is coming at a pace most can not comprehend.

In today's app society any type of job you can imagine can be requested and fulfilled for the most part from drivers to landscapers to white collar piece work such as proofreading and IT work. The flexibility, availability, and efficiency surpasses the "Legacy" companies such as ours and others and is what is the dirrection of the future.

Doubt me?

Well this thread is about Amazon is it not?
 
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