PrivateFleets.com

I’ve been getting some feedback from a few private fleet managers about what type of measurements for third party backhaul they use internally, and which measurements would lend themselves to comparisons with other private fleets.

Originally, I supposed that private fleets use empty mileage and cost-per-mile as key indicators of their fleet’s success for incorporating third party backhaul into their freight mix. As empty mileage decreases, cost per mile should also decrease. However, it appears this is not the case.

One reader told me that their fleet primarily tracks how much income and revenue is generated by third party backhaul moves. One of the traps in third party work, he said, is showing a great amount of revenue AND reduced empty miles, but getting no profit or losing money on the moves. To make this more clear, it would seem that private fleets actually track income–that is, profitability–for their third party backhaul.

If this is true for other carriers, I would like to know. This is interesting since there would appear to be no difference in how a private fleet accounts for third party freight in their general ledger versus a for-hire, common carrier. If enough private fleets track income and revenue for third party work, this would actually be quite easy to capture in a survey and develop a report that you could use to compare your fleet with others in terms of third party revenue and income by fleet size and type.

If this is what you do, and would be interested in me pursuing a report that looked at revenue and income for third party backhaul among various private fleets, please let me know by responding to this e-mail feed or by leaving a comment at www.privatefleets.com. Otherwise, if you have different metrics that you measure and are held accountable for, I would like to know as well.