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XPO | Where is our freight

upnorth said:
They drill this numbers :horseshit: into the fos's. No logic anymore. I'm really starting to push back at this, and have gone to my regional and am prepared to go higher. It's asinine. I'm told " you don't understand". When I ask why I'm cramming and jamming, with an mty going home, I get a stunned look. No answer. Frustrating as all :censored:. I'm just going to do what I think is right and rattle some chains.
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I am thinking their logic for cramming 1 trailer with an empty behind Up, is like Rdwy would do years ago. Only 1 trailer to unhook, and 1 to put to the dock. Less yard moves, less dock people. Less cost. And then like I said, more damage....
 
BIG R GUY said:
I am thinking their logic for cramming 1 trailer with an empty behind Up, is like Rdwy would do years ago. Only 1 trailer to unhook, and 1 to put to the dock. Less yard moves, less dock people. Less cost. And then like I said, more damage....
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I was told, " you don't understand the numbers." ****ing right I don't. Told him don't give a rats ass about his numbers. Care more about the freight, that actually pays our wages.
 
This board is like going to the barbershop. You know how the barber rants about politics but really has no idea what he's talking about, yet he knows how to fix the entire world? That's what reading the XPO board here is like.

cdd2002 said:
Why would somebody want to buy it now after xpo has took the most profitable part Menlo out. Nobody will want to pay enough to buy it anyway just like truckload.
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Menlo is not the most profitable part of the business. Menlo does a ton of volume but at thin margins. Menlo is high growth with Amazon and such, but it's not the major profit contributor. Go read the quarterlies.

The Truckload situation is completely different than LTL. Stotlar bought CFI for $700 million and you couldn't get $300 million for it today. CNW just got snookered, plain and simple, and if XPO sold it they'd have to recognize a huge loss, so for now they'll run it. I imagine they'd love to sell it because while TL isn't a bad business, CNW grossly overpaid.

had enough said:
All I know is xpo didn't want Conway LTL but had to take it along with what they really wanted, Menlo. And by the looks of things they still don't really want or care about it, a company that big could sell it or purposely run it into the ground and write it off before they unload it.
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Complete fantasy.

Brad Jacobs has explained why they bought Con-way many times. More to the point, it's been explained in annual reports, and you're not allowed to lie in those. Even more to the point, what he says makes sense:

- They want Menlo for the accounts in fast-moving ecommerce. Really, it's just the accounts - it's merging in with the other logistics company they bought (New Breed). Menlo has nothing but accounts - everything else is bought as needed for customers, so there is no standing inventory or such. Menlo doesn't own warehouses, for example (not that they aren't easy to find and no one would buy a company for its warehouse footprint).

- When XPO wanted to sign long-term agreements with big shippers, the shippers said they were not going to give pre-Con-way XPO much business because XPO didn't own trucks and couldn't guarantee things. Everyone expects a driver shortage - in such a situation, pre-Con-way XPO (a broker) could find itself suddenly unprofitable. Having their own fleet - in Europe and the US now - solves that problem. This has been discussed ad nauseum inside XPO, in town halls, the media, SEC filings, etc. You'd have to be willfully resisting to avoid hearing that story.

And what is this "write it off" nonsense? When you write something off, you're getting a tax credit against a loss. That's like saying "you lost $1 but we'll give you 30 cents back". No company wants write-offs - they just use them if they have no choice. The idea that someone would spend $6 billion, take $1 billion (Menlo) out, and then "write off" the remaining $5bn is just lunacy.

XPO approached CNW about buying Menlo a couple years ago but the math didn't work. When they came back in 2015, from the start they were only interested in the whole enterprise, not just Menlo.

But yeah, it's all a grand conspiracy and only you barbers have figured it all out...
 
survy9 said:
- When XPO wanted to sign long-term agreements with big shippers, the shippers said they were not going to give pre-Con-way XPO much business because XPO didn't own trucks and couldn't guarantee things. Everyone expects a driver shortage - in such a situation, pre-Con-way XPO (a broker) could find itself suddenly unprofitable. Having their own fleet - in Europe and the US now - solves that problem. This has been discussed ad nauseum inside XPO, in town halls, the media, SEC filings, etc. You'd have to be willfully resisting to avoid hearing that story.
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You must be right survy9 that's why they're closing terminals, eliminating positions, laying drivers off and have a bunch working a few days and if they do work some of it's on the dock. This is all done to accommodate what you just mentioned above.
 
upnorth said:
They drill this numbers :horseshit: into the fos's. No logic anymore. I'm really starting to push back at this, and have gone to my regional and am prepared to go higher. It's asinine. I'm told " you don't understand". When I ask why I'm cramming and jamming, with an mty going home, I get a stunned look. No answer. Frustrating as all :censored:. I'm just going to do what I think is right and rattle some chains.
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I think some of the FOS's realize that it makes no sense, but they kinda have to do as they are told and just play the game to make their numbers. As long as it's off their dock it is no longer their problem.
But it seems the freight business has been this way forever. It makes no sense, but if you think about it, every LTL carrier has a certain limit. They cant move all the freight. So at some point the customers will come full circle. They have made the decision that paying claims is cheaper than running more sets, slowing down and ensuring that the freight gets loaded right.
Some number cruncher probably ran the numbers and it came out that way and that's the game they choose to play.
 
Northern Flash said:
The OD commercial that shows their doubles without sides to expose what the freight looks like inside the trailer was a genius idea. It shows the customers and the public what kind of care their freight gets while in transit.
I think that it would be a good idea for other carriers to follow the same idea since it's a way to personalize the customer's freight and it's movement.
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We had a terminal manager bring customers in for show and tell one day. Let them see how we load trailers and use wood. Many of them had no idea at all what happens after we drive away from their building.
 
hilo342 said:
If you are a customer who hires a 3PL to run your logistics your job as a 3PL is to find to lowest rate to ship something from point A to point B.
There might be other variables involved such a transit time or previous history with a certain carrier, but price is the primary factor. XPO LOGISTICS pretty much has to pick to lowest price and not favor XPO FREIGHT. Otherwise, the customer will switch to another 3PL who will. And unless XPO FREIGHT is prepared to go down to the bargain basement on rates, other will be hauling the cheap freight. Now because XPO owns both logistics and a freight line they can share information helpful in knowing how low they need to go. Just my opinion.
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When he bought that LTL in Europe XPO became the 12th largest 3PL in the world. After acquiring Con-way and getting Menlo, XPO is now the 6th largest 3PL in the world. He wants to be the number 1 3PL in the world. XPO freight only exists to facilitate that goal.
 
had enough said:
All I know is xpo didn't want Conway LTL but had to take it along with what they really wanted, Menlo. And by the looks of things they still don't really want or care about it, a company that big could sell it or purposely run it into the ground and write it off before they unload it. Now you're panicking that it actually might be happening and you can't go anywhere because of your so-called hourly rate, so you have to stay on the ship whether it floats or sinks. Just reality, I'm jumping ship and following the freight before the driver market gets swamped with Conway drivers doing the same.
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People are just waiting for the opportunity. Everything has been a lie. Trailer rebranding ? Getting blanks. Uniforms by 4-1 ? Nope. No changes to compensation ? Destroyed our 401K and it wasn't even a good plan to begin with. But we got a 50 cent raise to help offset the thousands we lost. People are pissed.
 
catchTHErabbit said:
sorry there paco but all that freight YES all of it was on the dock for the f.o.s to see! it was a whole lot of ugly' 20ft garage door crate,4 12ft long skids 1 skid of a crane boom another 20 ft shid of rolled fabric 258 cube was what was left to load when i showed up,so in the famous words at nurhenberg"i was just following orders"!!!!!!!! numbers,numbers,numbers,i'm not concerned with numbers i'm concerned with our customers freight.the same can not be said about conway/xpo management!!!!!!!!! have a nice day
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What does a FOS know about loading a trailer ? All they do is play with their phones at the sector stand.
 
whip1 said:
How do you know that? Can you back it up with credible links, facts, or a well reasoned opinion?

If they don't want LTL, why did they spend 3 billion on the French outfit?
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They tried for over two years to buy Menlo. They bought the outfit in Europe to get their 3PL. This is all very much public knowledge. Jacobs does a lot of interviews. And he is incredibly open in them. A simple search on YouTube and it's all right there.
 
ssadab said:
NORBERT DENTRESSANGLE was bought to put XPO in the top 10 global 3pl's. It is not just some french ltl. They were buying up other 3pls before XPO bought them. With the purchase of Menlo, it put them at #6.

ND truck have been rebranded and their drivers have uniforms that say XPO. This was done within months of their buyout. Our uniforms, trucks, and buildings still say Conway. Many of our customers still don't know that we are now XPO.
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HOLY ::shit:: !!!! An intelligent post by someone paying attention and who clearly gives a ::shit:: enough to know what he is talking about.

Thank you.
 
cdd2002 said:
Why would somebody want to buy it now after xpo has took the most profitable part Menlo out. Nobody will want to pay enough to buy it anyway just like truckload. He could just maintain the fleet at current size or smaller and just give excess freight to other carriers.
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Some believe he didn't sell Truckload because he has a buyer lined up for the Freight/Truckload packaged as a business.
 
Q-ball said:
Goes way deeper than driver loyalty... A critical component to profitability is to eliminate damage claims... Every additional time a shipment gets handled, the higher the likelihood of damage... the more often a shipment gets swung, the higher the claims rate goes. Combine that with the fact that sub-service carriers usually do not have safe-stack trailers, and the insistence to maximize trailer cube and damage is inevitable... 60 Million $$ plus per year in damage claims tends to hurt the bottom line big time.

OD barn where I'm at recently took on a former Con-way account... While being hauled by Con-way, the OR for this account was approx. $1.35 -- For every dollar in revenue, it cost Con-way $1.35 to cover the damage claims (which were due primarily to sub-service moves). We (OD) have been hauling this damage sensitive freight for going on 2 months now and have had only 1 damage claim... Primary reason: We don't use sub-service carriers

I know this because I bailed on XPO/Con-way immediately after the purchase...
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Congratulations. Good to hear another convict got his parole.

This also speaks to the larger problem. So many good drivers have been run off to strengthen the competition.
 
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rangeman said:
How many times have we watched a six quality drivers try to get an oversize skid off a trailer,each one using short blades because they are better than the next guy,each one destroying it more because everybody's to f-in lazy to get or wait for long blades.If someone in charge grabbed each one of those guys by the ear (after removing their hoodies with the Bluetooth under it)and escorted them off the property,you would probably see a change in the way we do things. Again time for the higher ups to get their heads out of their ass.
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It seems anyone worth a ::shit:: has already left or has one foot out the door. If they escorted all the lazy and useless ones out.... what would be left ?
 
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