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Cost per mile ...
- Thread starter Michael Ludwig
- Start date
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Buzzy...I agree fully that pride of ownership has nothing to do with what you are pulling.
My point was company vs o/o DOES to some extent depend on what you are doing. My friends in the trash world have a limited pool of owner operators that would even consider doing the job, much less have a truck with the right specs to do it without mtce killing them. Likewise heavy haul applications where extra axles are required. Owner operators CAN do those jobs too, its just the eligible pool is much smaller than say, a van on a Kentucky pin to pin, so therefore company trucks make more sense.
You are right....If a guy has no pride, he shouldn't pull a van load of empty racks any more than a 110' windmill section. But therein lies the problem...there ARE owner ops that shouldn't be owner ops.
Back to the initial, initial point. A competent owner op, in my mind, is not significantly cheaper to run than a competent driver in a company truck. CPM should be very close, or else there may be something wrong with the business model, or the o/o is underpaid.
My point was company vs o/o DOES to some extent depend on what you are doing. My friends in the trash world have a limited pool of owner operators that would even consider doing the job, much less have a truck with the right specs to do it without mtce killing them. Likewise heavy haul applications where extra axles are required. Owner operators CAN do those jobs too, its just the eligible pool is much smaller than say, a van on a Kentucky pin to pin, so therefore company trucks make more sense.
You are right....If a guy has no pride, he shouldn't pull a van load of empty racks any more than a 110' windmill section. But therein lies the problem...there ARE owner ops that shouldn't be owner ops.
Back to the initial, initial point. A competent owner op, in my mind, is not significantly cheaper to run than a competent driver in a company truck. CPM should be very close, or else there may be something wrong with the business model, or the o/o is underpaid.
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You're 100% right Dave. Whether it's owner-op or company driver, end of the day cpm will work out the same. The company or operator has to make a profit AFTER expenses otherwise we get so far in the hole we get into Walker/mackinnon situations.
I've seen both on the road that I wouldn't class as drivers. in fact they weren't any good as "steering wheel holders" but maybe there is a place for bottom feeders somewhere.
As long as it isn't on my lanes.
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In all fairness, MacKinnon definitely knows what their cost per mile is, and I suspect Walker did as well. What killed Walker was their basket of eggs. What did MacKinnon in was their trying to help the chairman of the OTA, which position seems to have all the same luck as Canadian Olympic flag bearers 
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As for a place for bottom feeders, yes there is a place for them ... their sole purpose is to make the rest of us look good
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.As for a place for bottom feeders, yes there is a place for them ... their sole purpose is to make the rest of us look good
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I agree. I believe those failures as well as many others of what were actually good companies had a lot to do with the fact that we have lost so much manufacturing, and inbound revenue, while much higher than it used to be, probably should still be higher in order to remain profitable to do what they were doing.
It's likely they were trying to keep inbound customers by running guys out empty to the US or something .. while not being quite able to get the revenue on those trips that they needed.
Obviously they had weaknesses. But I actually don't believe they were ill intentioned in either case. I actually believe in most cases people are not ill intentioned, though many times with start-ups I think that people don't think it through and basically run out of money.
Michael, I agree 100% with your thought of factoring. It's never a good sign.
It's likely they were trying to keep inbound customers by running guys out empty to the US or something .. while not being quite able to get the revenue on those trips that they needed.
Obviously they had weaknesses. But I actually don't believe they were ill intentioned in either case. I actually believe in most cases people are not ill intentioned, though many times with start-ups I think that people don't think it through and basically run out of money.
Michael, I agree 100% with your thought of factoring. It's never a good sign.
Both the Man & Michael
I have great respect for both of you, from what you have written in previous posts.
In this instance I do disagree with your views. In the trucking industry I believe the following is the case.
From the little experience that I have regarding Bankrupcies, I have gathered that , they, tend to be repetitive and perpetrated by the same people.
Some of these people may be incompetent and not learn from their mistakes, although I believe that this is the minority.
I find it hard to Believe that a company the size of Mackinnon , in view of the previous failure of Walker once under their wings, did not have competent financial advisers during their partial demise.
They would have been under the scrutiny of their banks and accountants. The failure of their van division could not have been a surprise.
The surprise came to the long list of many smaller Carriers that had put their trust in them.
As I have mentioned many times earlier, our company would come out much stronger as well if we simply got rid of our debt.
Wow! Would we be competitive !!!
I have great respect for both of you, from what you have written in previous posts.
In this instance I do disagree with your views. In the trucking industry I believe the following is the case.
From the little experience that I have regarding Bankrupcies, I have gathered that , they, tend to be repetitive and perpetrated by the same people.
Some of these people may be incompetent and not learn from their mistakes, although I believe that this is the minority.
I find it hard to Believe that a company the size of Mackinnon , in view of the previous failure of Walker once under their wings, did not have competent financial advisers during their partial demise.
They would have been under the scrutiny of their banks and accountants. The failure of their van division could not have been a surprise.
The surprise came to the long list of many smaller Carriers that had put their trust in them.
As I have mentioned many times earlier, our company would come out much stronger as well if we simply got rid of our debt.
Wow! Would we be competitive !!!