I have just about had it being screwed by brokers. I am contemplating signing on with a national/regional flatbed hauler. There are a bunch out there and they all very somewhat in pay and what the cover for the owner op.

I own the truck and trailer and they are both new enough to qualify for any fleet.

I hear the following companies advertise on Sirius/Roaddog all of the time and am wondering if any has had personal experience with them:

Fikes
Arrow
Anderson
Mercer

I live in Colorado, so It would be good good to keep it in the west and midwest.

Thanks in advance for taking the time respond.

DDECII
(PS) we are running a CAT not a Detroit now...but why change the name.

DDEC11 -  i amwith fikes now and personally i love it.  they make  me feel at home.  only been here 8 weeks , but have been doing pretty good for state of economy.  havent talked to any drivers that have a problem with company. hope u make it and keep trucking. good luck

Thanks for the reply.

I have an app in with Fikes. I have spoken with both Max Campbell and Wendy and both impress me as people who have the trucker interests in mind.

Cashflow has been our biggest problem to keeping the righ on the road. I signed on with a new factoring company last week and worked for only factorable companies. I should be paid for the four loads I did last week by Wednesday of this week.

The downside could be lack of cashflow for factoring comapnies in this down economy.

Time will tell if there is any interest in bringing us onboard.

Best of luck to you.

I went with Arrow one week (company driver) then left, I didn't like their policies. In that week I met and spoke with a few o/o's and they didn't seem too excited about the place.

My husband was with Anderson o/o and it wasn't working with them, although others we met said they were doing just fine with them.

We are with Louisiana Transport now, which is a sister company with Admiral Merchant, Universal Am-Cam and a few others I can't think of right now, all under parent company UTSI. We like them so far, have been with them since July. Their load board, although it's an older system, is great to work from because it lists loads from all the sister companies that we can take loads from, along with outside load boards like getloaded and 360. We also have an agent who helps find loads if needed. The linehaul rates have stayed pretty consistent in the profitable range and we've been able to stay busy and keep running for the most part. The corporate people we deal with on occasion have seemed reasonably friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable in their position. Also we haven't really come across any unsatisfied drivers with LTI or the other companies in the group so we're thinkin' we'll stick with them for a while, it seems to work for us.

hello....Pacer transport out of Desoto tx is one of the best out there for o/o..you get 75% of the gross..pluss 100% of f/s...you indeed are the boss...come and go as you please...stay out as long as you want...or as short as you want...if you ever need help..blown tire..or just low on funds..there are allways there to help...if your interested i can and will give all there info...good luck to you..and keep on trucking...p.s...you can check them out at their website.

Thanks for the replys. It sounds like you all are happy with the organizations that you are affiliated with.

The one thing that still concerns me is, if you are having to use the same load boards that I use, Internet Truck Stop, and Getloaded, are you paying a 25% commission to your company for the loads they get from these boards???

Obviously, you may be getting a better rate from a dedicated customer vs a ####### on either of these boards.

Let's put some rates with the names. We have been averaging between $1.85 to $2.50 per mile which includes fuel surcharge over the last month. We have only worked for companies that are factorable during this period. The factoring company is a nonrecourse and the factoring fee is 5%. We are generally paid in three days from the day we put the envelope in the the Trip Pak box.

Question....Can we do better by signing on as OO with any of these companies??