“Hey dude, this sucks. I’ve got to tell you something.”
This is how Amanda Schuier starts a breakup conversation with unprofitable customers.
The audience laughed, but then she turned serious. “We are in such a delicate balance right now in terms of figuring out who we can move on from and who we can’t.”
According to a recent survey by CCJ, 57% of fleet respondents said they rarely terminate business with a shipper customer.
Schuier is senior vice president of Freeport, Ill.-based Quality Transport, a truckload carrier with 31 power units. On Nov. 18 in Scottsdale, Ariz., she participated in a panel discussion at the CCJ Solution Summit, “Moving on: lose the customers you are losing money with,” moderated by CCJ Editor Jason Cannon.
In 2018, motor carriers could afford to be selective of customers and shipments. In 2019, difficult decisions have had to be made, which can be even more excruciating for small fleets that need immediate cash flow by sticking to established customers, even when those customers are unprofitable.
As freight volumes dropped off in 2019, shippers’ attitudes are “probably that they are not going to have to pay decent rates until after the next presidential election,” said panelist John Miller, managing partner of Plains Dedicated, a motor carrier and logistics provider with headquarters in Championsgate, Fla.
