PrivateFleets.com

As the cost of fuel continues to set new records, I continue to sense something very distressing happening to many fleets I’ve talked to recently. The root cause of their troubles, generically speaking, is the same economic problem that is facing consumers: inflation is rising faster than business growth and income. 
 
Amazingly, one private fleet I […]

Recently, I interviewed some private fleets about what I consider to be a very interesting topic: activity-based pay for drivers. In the truckload world, paying by the mile is the standard. Private fleets typically have dedicated schedules and runs, and therefore hourly pay is more common. Among private fleets, activity-based pay for drivers is becoming more common. The definition of activity-based […]

A couple of weeks ago, I sent out emails to dozens of private fleet managers asking them to complete a short survey on the success of their third party backhaul programs. To date, I have received 45 responses. I am astonished at the response rate. During this next week, I will be compiling the results […]

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 […]

In a previous article, I wrote about a new tool from Intelek Technologies called StripMiner. If you work directly with shippers for third party backhaul freight, chances are that some of your customers require you to use their website to accept load offerings, to submit load status updates, and file invoices. Fleets can use the […]

Since one of the purposes of this blog is to track the trends in private versus contract carriage, I recently interviewed a large fleet that provides dedicated carriage for several large manufacturers and retailers. I found an interesting development that could impact the value equation for whether to use a private fleet versus a dedicated […]

Today, I had the chance to interview a fleet manager for a large private fleet based in North Georgia. I would rather not give their name, but I will tell you who they are privately if you really want to know. Last year, the company made a remarkable achievement: it increased overall revenue by 25 percent […]

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 […]

If you’ve ever set your sights on an item on eBay, you’ve experienced the frustration of losing your bid in the closing seconds. The competition might have been a savvy eBay enthusiast using an automated, last-second bidding tool such as EZ Sniper (www.ezsniper.com) that gives no one time to respond to their bid and keeps their knowledge […]

Recently, I have been trying to tackle a difficult problem: how to measure the size of the backhaul market for private fleets. With some input from those who read this blog, and some research on my own, I would like to produce a periodic report and analysis of trends in this market. I’m confident it would […]