The purpose of this blog
Filed under: The purpose of this blog
No news outlet or trade publication focuses on the challenges and, more importantly, the success of private fleets. Some of the largest and most successful trucking firms are owned and operated by manufacturers and shippers. Yet interestingly, private fleets themselves devote virtually no resources to explaining their success to the public.
The fact is, private fleets provide a unique value to the trucking industry and to the U.S. economy. Shippers often don’t always recognize the value of their own private fleet, let alone the value of others. To the board of directors, a private fleet is a high-risk cost center. And the idea of entrusting freight to someone else’s private fleet, especially a competitor, may seem farfetched.
This conventional mode of thinking is outdated. I hope to be the agent of change.
The purpose of this blog is to promote and strengthen private fleets both within and without. Think of it is the ultimate resource for shippers to understand the value of private fleets. I hope to educate shippers and private fleets on how they can work together to increase value through reducing transportation costs and improving the performance of supply chains.
If you are a supply chain manager or shipper considering starting a private fleet or expanding an existing one, pay attention. I hope to prepare you to work with your own private fleet and with other private fleets to acheive excellence. Finally, if you manage a private fleet, my goal is to prepare you to work with shippers–your own and with other shippers and logistics providers–to acheive excellence.
I once heard a private fleet manager say to a room full of fleet executives of for-hire trucking companies that private fleets are beginning to work together to share capacity and cost savings.
“Where we are going as an industry should scare you to death,” he said. In echoing his comments, I say the time has come. Get ready; here we go.
January 2nd, 2007 at 10:30 pm
Jason and Aaron Blogging…
I helped Jason and Aaron get started blogging on private fleets this last week. I should be practicing what I preach. They bought books about it and are very excited to make their first post on January 1, 2007.
……
March 7th, 2007 at 9:13 pm
I am looking for a way to benchmark our private fleet operation costs vs dedicated or contract carriage. What is the average cost per mile for a private fleet of 40 trucks operating Class 8 trucks driving 110,000 miles per year?
Or where can I go to get this information?
Thanks,
Walt Bendell
March 8th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Hi Walt,
This is in response to your question about benchmarking your private fleet operational costs. From the research I’ve done on benchmarking, I can say that there isn’t any published information that gets to the level of detail you are looking for. I can think of three possible sources to begin your search, though they are pretty generic.
Every year, the National Private Truck Council does a benchmarking study of its members. The problem with this, as with any survey results, is that what you get is pretty generic information about trends, but not true benchmarking information.
Another avenue would be to request bid packages from dedicated carriage providers. A story of how Atrium Companies turned a bid into a benchmark is featured on this site. Soliciting bids would of course serve as a useful benchmark to your own fleet, but third parties would only agree to participate if they knew the bid was legitimate–and not just a benchmarking effort.
And finally, I recently spoke with a consultant, Evan Armstrong of Armstrong and Associates, who provides detailed information on 3PLs and dedicated carriers. He would have a good idea of what the cost structure is for dedicated carriers and could probably give you some guidance on benchmarking your costs against third-party transportation providers.
Like you, we are still searching for the best sources of information and would like to work with you to see how you solve this problem. Perhaps we could go into more detail and write up a story for this blog on your efforts?