Back in Texas, finally!

My office view today! Finally back in Texas!

Had an interesting interaction with a broker we've been working with on developing a relationship, that honestly, has made my whole day!

When we left for Vegas a couple of weeks ago we got our normal “where’s your truck going to be over the next couple of weeks, I have some decent contracts coming up that might interest you, as you’ve become my preferred carrier, I REALLY want to work with you!”

So let’s break this down a bit….

1) We are a 1 truck operation, so in all reality, it’s in a broker’s best financial position to work with someone with a small fleet so as to not have to negotiate with multiple drivers and risk overcharging on a rate. 2) We are technically still “newbie babies” in the industry, despite Daryl’s 14 year driving history, in the eyes of the independent owner operator world we are fresh meat. 3) Most loads that we’ve hauled have been one and done, onto the next broker, but this guy keeps calling asking what we would charge him to move his equipment.

All that being said, we received status update checks the whole trip with potential loads that he had waiting on us to return to his service area.

After booking a load coming in from out in the middle of nowhere east Texas (because there was LITERALLY nothing worth hauling that would get us back to the FTW area), this broker spent ALL night, up until after 3am searching for loads that would get us closer to his pick up location in a effort to decrease the amount of “deadhead” miles, or unpaid miles that we travel empty between pickups. In this case, it was 390 miles, which is quite a haul unpaid with fuel at the cost it is now. This morning we spent (on a weekend mind you) a significant amount of time on the phone discussing how he could best pay us to compensate traveling to his customer, and from that conversation migrated from a broker wanting to get his load covered as cheaply as possible, to 3 business people developing a working relationship that honestly has some serious revenue generation capabilities. We discussed both our stakes in this giant game of trucking, learning about each other's family and work life balance and the cost of doing business in this cut throat industry.

The buzz in the industry right now is in a low rate market, which we are very much in, where shippers are bidding out their freight as cheaply as possible and an over capacity of trucks thanks to the mid and post pandemic market skyrocket, the name of the game is to develop strong bonds with those you work well with, and once the market changes, which it always does, those relationships will take you to a whole other level.

He sent me screenshots of their internal system where they track details on who to work with and who to avoid, and to say the details were flattering is an understatement, especially since all we are doing is providing good service, communication, transparency and reliability. Something we do on a daily basis without effort.

I say all that to say, the last few months have been difficult at best, especially in this market, only having 1 truck and 1 driver carrying all of the burden of running the 48 states to make us money. And that’s just his day time job, nights are spent going over finances, safety, regulatory, and all of the other many pieces that make up being an independent owner operator.

So today’s conversation definitely put some wind back in our sails to say the least, yet again reminding us that we are doing the right thing, for the right reasons, and knowing it’s not going unnoticed helped bolster a stressful day.

Another gem to our day came in the form of giving back. While stopped for a quick break we noticed a driver with a trainer struggling to back into a space. After some time, Daryl took the initiative to go over and see if an outsider’s perspective may help out the rookie driver. Both were very thankful for the information relayed and hopefully helped foster the idea that we are all in this together, looking out for one another, even if it was something as simple as helping out a new driver hone his technique.

I guess the theme to this posting is always look for the positive during stressful times. We stay up at night, like most small business owners, crunching numbers and business plans, and discussing future goals. But today reminded us that what we are doing serves a purpose, and our little dream is slowly making big waves even if we are just 1 truck and 1 driver, just a wife supporting her husband and a husband supporting his wife.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! We will be shut down in Pecos, TX where it’s nice and warm awaiting our Monday delivery, then on to do more good work as a “preferred carrier”...whatever that means lol

#viragotransport #adventuresofthebyebyewife #stepdecklife #4thgenerationtrucking