"It gives you the ... wiggle room when it's time to negotiate on the contract market, because I'm going to tell you the spot market is not where you need to live." -Adam Wingfield of Innovative Logistics Group on the importance of knowing your numbers inside and out to build business
The freight spot markets are undeniably tough right now, that's sure, with rates continuing their slide for vans and reefers nationally in the last week, and profitability strained for all manner of independent owner-operators and small carriers with authority. Yet Adam Wingfield, whose talk early on the last day of the Mid-America Trucking Show Saturday, April 1, makes up the bulk of today's Overdrive Radio edition, wanted to make clear to all the owners in the audience a central message:
"You're going to be OK," Wingfield said early in his "Weathering the storm" talk.
Wingfield's talk was among the most engaging of any I had opportunity to sit in on at MATS.
OK, that is, if you do the work to solidify your relationships with the brokers, shippers and others who take care of you as you take care of them. If you truly own your backyard, so to speak, and take the time to connect with freight customers in your area. You'll be OK if you predict maintenance needs with well-timed interval tracking and stay compliant to enhance competitiveness in negotiations -- the difference between good and terrible safety scores will translate to dollars on the bottom line, in the end.
And, perhaps most importantly, know your numbers inside and out, Wingfield emphasized early and often, echoing a central message of Overdrive's own Partners in Business seminar with ATBS the day before and throughout the PIB program's two-decade-plus history. (Click through this link for video of our full session, if you missed it. Podcast listeners, stay tuned for an audio-only special edition in the coming week.)
