PrivateFleets.com

While attending the Truckload Carriers Association annual meeting this week, I met Lyn Simon, president of OneWayTrailers.com. Simon operates an online service for matching trailer owners – carriers, dealers, etc. — that need to move trailers (i.e. reposition) with the owners of trucks searching for opportunities to improve their asset utilization. Think of it as a load board, except instead of posting and searching for freight, you search for trailers that need to be moved. Intrigued, I asked Lyn if any private fleets use the service to fill their empty backhaul lanes. They certainly do, he said; some use it to find carriers to reposition their own trailers as well.

Fleets that find trailers that need to be moved can negotiate a rate that includes a provision that allows them to use the trailer to pick up and deliver their own freight before dropping the trailer off at the proper destination.

I didn’t have time to go into much detail with Lyn Simon about what the typical rate-per-mile is to move trailers. Given the choice between running your own trailer empty or bobtailing back to a distribution center, however, perhaps a one-way trailer move could fill a void in your network and increase revenue and decrease net operating costs.

If OneWayTrailers.com were started by a computer programmer looking to earn a few extra dollars, I would probably think it was doomed to fail. However, Lyn Simon is an experience trucking executive. He operates Simon Transport, a small dedicated fleet operation in Utah. He is also the son of Dick Simon, who was once the owner of a very large company, Simon Transport Services (remember the “Sweet Simon” Skunk on the back of the trailers?). The company was bought out by Swift, DBA Central Refrigerated Services in 2002 following bankruptcy. Central Refrigerated has grown to become one of the largest refrigerated carriers in the nation.

Perhaps OneWay Trailers might fill a niche in your operations. Or it may not, but you’ll never know until you give it a try. Besides visiting the website by clicking the link above or going to www.onewaytrailers.com, you can contact Lyn Simon at lsimon@onewaytrailers.com or call 801-746-7811.