Looking For Ideas To Improve Efficiency Of Regional Carrier.

Hi Scott, I'm not sure I'm following you here. Can you give me a little more information? Thanks for the response!

JB Here’s an idea. Do what the best does. On YouTube every Fri Prime Inc MO has a meeting. What is your companies advertised public gross revenue? In 2015 Prime had about $1.5B. The last I googled was about 2.2 in 2021. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s way above 2.5 this year. I assume this is just transport revenue. In other words I see several/many other ways the owner is bringing it in. I’ll probably get beat up over my numbers, then I’ll have to post it. Good luck!

Hey Ryan, thanks for the reply! I believe this is the first push for greater efficiency. Our only real goal is to eliminate outside carriers. Or at least reduce them and haul as much as possible ourselves (currently selling about 15-20 loads a week out of 60ish). I know route/scheduling efficiency isn't going to get us all the way there, we need more drivers, but it's a starting point. And we are ok with maintaining the status quo, but we are needing to exhaust all other options before we say this is the best we can do. Thanks again!

What are the areas where you believe the greatest improvement in efficiency is needed? E.g.: Fuel consumption, loads completed weekly, value of load to cost of shipping ratio, value of load to cost of warehousing ratio.

Have you made attempts to improve efficiency and failed, made attempts and succeeded, or is this the first attempt?

Thanks! I'll be sure to dig into this.

JB I suggest looking into a company called Software Advice.

Google it and add to the search top 10 integrated logistics systems for small operators. There are many low cost and somewhat scalable options to automate your truck routing with HOS.

Your other option is to partner with logistics companies like Ryder. You can glom onto their systems; fully secured SaaS model.

Not going to answer my two simple questions, though?

Not knowing that end of the industry, off the top of MY head is simply hire how many ever drivers you need, to haul those 15-20 loads you're selling off to 3rd parties

Sorry, not comfortable giving that info out just yet. Want to keep it anon for now.

Not going to answer my two simple questions, though?

Thanks for the response Anne! We do a little bit of everything as far as trailers go. Vans, flatbeds, dropdecks, tankers, et cet, depends on the load and the warehouse dock situation. I would say most of the time warehouses are requiring full loads, and any time they don't need a full load, they can order a little bit more just to fill it up. There are smaller warehouses that don't require as much chemical, so I am tinkering with more combo loads (we do one or two right now, just depends on the situation). One of the problems I have been tasked with is reducing the number of loads we have to sell to third party carriers. Currently we are doing about 45ish out of 60ish loads per week ourselves. I know there isn't a magic bullet to make third party carriers go away without hiring 5-6 more drivers, but that is the driving force behind the efficiency push. I get some emails from Freightwaves but rarely dig into them. I'll have to change that. Thanks again.

Hello all, this is my first post on here so forgive me if I make any faux paus. I am a driver manager of a company that hauls our own hazardous materials to our locations throughout the middle third of the US, from US/Canada border to US/Mexico border, based out of central KS. Our current SOP is that we have drivers deliver the product, pick up empty packages from the location, and bring them back to our manufacturing plant. Generally they are able to make 2-3 runs a week, depending on the location, and are home on the weekends. We are hauling full trailers to locations, generally we don't do split loads, and have several warehouses that need multiple loads a week. Does anyone have ideas on how we can become more efficient? We are generally utilizing our drivers pretty well as far as maximizing their available hours, but need to be better at having efficient routing/scheduling. I have been wracking my brain for the last couple of months and I cannot think of a better way to do this. Does anyone know of software to help schedule that integrates HOS? We've looked at a few and they don't fit our needs very well. I know that is not a lot of information but I can give more if anyone is interested.

Howdy, J.B.; and welcome!

As you've probably noticed, we are a website/forum geared toward helping potentials obtain their CDL's, mostly via paid company training. We do, however, have a few O/O's on board, and many many folks that have been in the industry for years, (like my guy...ergo, myself.)

What type of trailer(s) are you hauling your HazMat in? Saying packages, I'm assuming van, perhaps?

It's interesting you mention that warehouses 'need' multiple loads a week; could you perhaps integrate some LTL type runs, even farm a dedicated run or two out, to meet that need?

I'm just thinking 'outside the box' myself, for ya. Have you looked at any OOIDA postings/forums/publications for advice? Do you follow FreightWaves dot com at all???

Just a few thoughts, from myself; hoping others will stop by, with what little we may be able to do for you.

Best of luck; stop back~

~ Anne ~

p.s.: If you ever come across anyone looking to get their CDL , send them our way! :) The HRTP is top notch!

I hear ya, on the 'reveal' thingy; the shifts in this industry right now, are CRAY ZEE !! CFI buys and sells, within a month.. or ?!? I'm still confused. Heartland explained a bit to me, though!

(Great time to take hometime, BigScott, haha!)

Have you looked at this one, besides FreightWaves? OverDriveOnline; the Industry as a Whole.

It's hard to find, because when you Google it, if you don't put the 'online' in the name, you'll never find them.

For now, all I've got,

~ Anne ~

Sorry, not comfortable giving that info out just yet. Want to keep it anon for now.

Not going to answer my two simple questions, though?

Sure.

Another poser on TT.