Been thinking. Say you have 21 or 22 shipments on a trailer and that trailer has say 3k dollars worth of fuel surcharge freight in it, then say if you loaded that 22 bills on a Shiny wheels 53 footer and added 18 more bills for @ 4500 in fuel surcharges alone and pay the shiny wheels say 3k to move it up the road I suspect an outfit could make alot on surcharges alone and never have to put a road driver in a seat.
FedEx Freight | I am a simple man but...
- Thread starter Jeff
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With the US Dept of Energy setting the weekly fuel surcharge rates on average fuel price, and every LTL carrier all having different base rates and discounts for literally every shipper, I think even me,(Ted) can see they are using the surcharge to bolster their bottom line. PT, I would say gets so much per mile to move a trailer, plus fuel surcharge. The rest goes to the carrier to cover costs of handling, pickup and delivery and so on. I am quite sure every LTL makes more profit using PT for linehaul, except they cannot yet figure out how to use them for all nightly linehaul moves, and incorporate it into a system that thrives mostly on overnight moves of 400-500 miles or less.
Road_Warrior1
JUST TRUCK IT
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I agree somewhat with all of this. But if this were all the case.. then why has it taken how many years for every LTL to actually go this route? And still yet every LTL has new trucks, bunch of drivers on their board, etc..
Somewhere down the line it becomes not worth it
Somewhere down the line it becomes not worth it
Panhandler92
TB Newbie
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They can't get a contractor to run 90 miles then work the dock for 6 hours.
I believe LTL trucking companies ❤️ high fuel prices because they can pass that cost on to the customers with excellent profit. LTL companies get a surcharge on every shipment, The shiney wheels company only gets a set surcharge for the whole load
I work for A Duie Pyle. We are a northeast regional carrier. The company actively got rid of purchased transportation. Part cost. Mainly reliability issues. Never knew when they would show up. Most could not haul haz-mat. Lots of service failures. Granted, the big majority of freight we haul is next day service. Cant depend on that with contractors.
That's why there are still linehaul drivers in LTL companies because of the reliability and time sensitive freight
Correct. Our owner/ceo has said on multiple occasions Pyle does not sell a product. We sell and provide service. Customers depend on the service. Get it there on time and damage free. And the opinion is that ALL freight is time sensitive. Not just the guarantees
I use to notice that on my DR's back in the day. Some had substantial fuel surcharges. Stuff your average driver doesn't know when managers tell them in meetings that mty miles are killing us.
We have a winner! Post of the week/month.
Anyone who pays ANY attention to quarterly reports (for stockholders) knows that fuel prices contribute substantially to bottom line.
Up-good, Down bad.
Purple Hammer
On Time Delivery
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The only problem with the math is if you’re comparing one 28’ pup to one 53’ van. You have to figure that our road drivers pull a set of pups which equals 56’ of space. Also the decking capability of our trailers is better than the vans of most contractors. Usually can only use the deck platforms on the vans vs. multiple layers of decking beams on our equipment. I agree with the theory of the fuel surcharges in principle, but it would be interesting to see the actual costs to FedEx of PT compared to our equipment.
We would have to get top secret clearance for that! Unless Fred starts acting like Joe. Then we could find it in his garage.
Also worth mentioning, it's amazing how many T/L carrier drivers do not (can not?) have HazMat endorsement.
I think we've all heard about having to strip a PT of HM, so the random driver could pull it.
Well I I did say 3k in surcharges for the pup and 4500 for the fully loaded 53 footer with 18 more bills on it than the 28. So I was only allowing 1500 insted of 3k for a trailer that is only 3 feet short of the van so I was being real conservative. It could have been as high as 5500 or so for the full van of surcharges.
T Force Driver
TB Newbie
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Our dispatcher would just pull the bill…..
GirthQuake
Serving America Safely
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I’ve actually seen this happen. lol
Streaker69
The Influencer
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They hang a paper on the post by the door that says "do not load hazmat". I load it anyway. I'm not staying later than I have to cleaning bays over this nonsense. I strap it real good too.
GirthQuake
Serving America Safely
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Make sure to front load it and bury it behind tall freight or tables.
silent trucker
TB Veteran
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Is the cost of mirrors factored into this?