The Business of Independent Service Provider Contracting

Today, we'd like to announce a new initiative for 2016 that is aimed at helping you run your business better!

We would like to announce:  eTruckBiz University!

The purpose of eTruckBiz University is to be a source of continuing education and business training that you and your supervisory people cannot get from FXG. It is a way for you to get away from the daily grind so you can put things into perspective.

It is essential Business Training For FXG Contractors!

The time has come to look at the ISP Negotiation process from the contractor perspective. 

First, let's go ahead and call it what it is: David v. Goliath, FBS vs. FCS, Large Cap vs. Small Cap. It's the tremendous resources of FXG vs. those of an individual contractor. I think we can all agree that from the ability to influence, FXG holds the cards.

But that doesn't mean, a contractor cannot conduct a meaningful, and even successful negotiation. It just means that in order to do so, the contractor needs to do some homework, and find some very special tools and help.

Well, now, finally, the tools, and help exist...

Finally, it has arrived!

By overwhelming demand, we are introducing a new set of services from the highly experienced folks here at eTruckBiz, that will without question, make your life and business easier to manage, while producing information you need to conduct a more meaningful ISP negotiation.

We can now take some of the most burdensome chores out of your busy hands, so your can MANAGE your business,  instead of spending hour after hour doing "busy-work". 

Our new services produce not only the usual information you need for accounting and taxes, but turn this data into contractor-specific information that you'll use to get new, powerful insight into your FXG business.

One of the most difficult and tedious tasks that an FXG CSP faces, is the continuous burden of finding new drivers.

In order to find new drivers, you first must have a solid way of sourcing new potential driver leads. 

This can't be that hard...right?

Well...

How do you find them? Where do you find them? What do you do if you find them? How can you screen through them to get some good candidates, without it taking too much time and effort? Can you organize the ones I have so that you can find them and work on them when you need to? Can you email the good ones an application?

We've created a revolutionary new tool to make it easy to do all of this.

See how ...

Currently, I'm traveling the country, meeting with as many of you as I can.

While doing so, something is becoming very apparent. There is something at the core of running your business that is not being monitored. Something so basic and critical to your business' health, that you would think that it would be the one metric that is, for sure, being watched.

Shockingly, this is not the case. In fact, most folks do not have a clue.

There are many people that ask me how eTruckBiz For FXG can save them money. There are a multitude of ways, but one of the biggest, is how we monitor and track this one business metric, on your behalf, with no effort on your part. 

It is finally here!

After a considerable amount of work on our part and feedback from you, we have developed a tool that will help you prepare for your transition to an ISP operating agreement.

It is important to point out that the tool has been developed in both a mobile and a desktop version.

Soon you will see why.

We didn't want to develop this tool with just your ISP negotiations in mind. We wanted it to be useful in many other situations as well,

And boy is it ever!

This is a hot one!

If you haven't already done so, during your annual compliance certification, you will be asked by FXG to certify that you have "established a system for recording and maintaining records of hours worked by employees".

There are lots of theories as to why, but the bottom line is, you need to have a way to do this.

So, you can get all bent out of shape complaining about this little zinger, or we can look for an easy way to do this that satisfies the requirement, and, turns this new task into a positive for your bottom line! 

In case you haven't noticed yet, there will be a new compliance question that you are going to be asked to answer in your Annual Compliance Certification (ACC) this year. 

On the surface it appears harmless, but FXG thought it important enough to include in the certification process, and, may have even delayed this year's process to facilitate its inclusion.

There is a lot of speculation, but there is a reason why you should not take this lightly....

Most of you know that I have the wonderful opportunity to talk to many contractors daily, from coast to coast. They ask lots of questions, but what do you think the the most frequently asked one is? You might guess it's about new features or something in eTruckBiz right?

It's not.

The question that's on the most everyone's mind is: How can I make my business more profitable?

Actually, the answer is pretty simple. Yet few know the answer. For most, doing what it takes to become more profitable can be boiled down to doing one simple thing.

Before we tell you how to do this thing, let's understand why many of you may be struggling or not doing as well as you like. The reason your results may be suffering is because there is something you don't know. 

Let's look at an example...

There are 3 possible outcomes your business can experience each peak season. You can struggle and just get by, you can succeed and set your business up for more profit and growth in the future, or, you can fail.

We're going to assume that you want to succeed. If so, here are the most important tips you can use to make sure that this happens....

My name is Tracy Taylor and I’d like to share with you some thoughts on how I handle something that is easily overlooked, but vitally essential in today’s FXG environment.

As you run your operation, you constantly produce something that is time consuming, difficult and important, but does not necessarily benefit you. Most folks really don't like producing it, and in fact, most hate it, but you have to do it. Your efforts produce the vast majority of it for someone else, like your parent company.

It’s time that we look at how to turn the tide here and start producing some of these things for our own benefit, not just for FXG or other government entities. Because as you will see, it will save all your hard work from destruction!

How Can This Happen?

In over 20+ years of observation, I have continued to ask myself why, over much demonstrable triumph and success, do contractors and ISP's continue to make the same mistakes that plunge them back into crisis situations over and over again? 

Why is it so easy to forget the pain, suffering and cost of crisis management? 

Much has been written and said about what is probably the biggest contributor to problems and even failure of a FXG contractor or ISP operation.

Failure to get a system in place that provides you with a constant flow of driver applicants is likely to lead to many troubles, and possibly complete business failure. 

It is kind of like the weather, everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.

Well now we are. Doing something about Driver Recruitment that is.

There has been a lot of talk lately. Most of the talk surrounds the adverse events that are leading to big changes at FedEx Ground, particularly in the relationship that the corporation has with its independent contractors and independent service providers.

What does all this mean for you?

So things are changing for FedEx Ground P&D and Linehaul contractors. Soon, it will no longer be the same old same old. You are becoming more responsible for administrative and other tasks that were handled for you in the past. Contractor's operations will be growing and the demands placed them are becoming more and more complex. Regulation and compliance issues continue their slow steady march forward.

However, there changes are creating tremendous opportunities.....