Pilot Freight Carriers

[hwyhaulier]

...Some of the worst fanny chewings I got was for not spending the Big $...  

TM -

Ah, that scam! It went right to the top. Usually, whoever delivered the career advice had a Division Manager beating on him, who had a Region VP beating on
the D/M, and so on. Just so that someone back at the Home Office had neat little figures that fit their own ideas. The truth of it being the controlling ideas were
hardly ever actually tested. A little good field work would have settled the matter...

The criticism of the sales guys for not putting enough dinners, ball tickets, traffic club outings, and endless on the expense reports? The logic fails. A reasonable
conclusion (to the fallacy) being: The carrier who always had a full trailer of booze at the terminal, for distribution to worthy sales prospects should, therefore,
have had all the freight in a given town?

Seems to me, from our running discussions, that we both know many of the colorful names from the Bad, Old Days, "...same old crowd..." gang.

......................Vern..............

[ltmdwb]

Some patch history:

[Freightman]

Vern,

I remember spending close to $600 one week entertaining customers in Savannah, I thought my tush was grass and my boss was a lawn mower.  Anyway, he held me up as an example of how to "Do it right ".  I was told to "Wear the numbers off of the American Express card".  Which I did, but Vern I always though this was so shallow.  But I figured eating most of my meals on the company more than made up for it.

Be safe,
Tony

[hwyhaulier]

Tony -

Nasty, dirty work, but someone had to do it! <G> So, what happened later? After a long string of that, you were deemed a genius? They made you
a Regional Director of Sales and Marketing, or like that? Those were the days...

......................Vern..................

[Freightman]

Vern,
\
Actually my overall goal was National Accounts.  I was an excellent salesman, but a lousy politican.  I guess I didn't polish the right apples.  Anyway, I was also very good in operations, which I didn't like.  You stated that the freight business is a common sense business and largely it is.  I think so many people in positions of authority had their own agendas.  What used to really jerk a knot in my tush is whenever a carrier would have a management change in a terminal, the TM from whatever incoming carrier would bring in his buddies and talk about being a redheaded stepchild.  SON !  This happened most often in the Sunbelt as the Yankees wanted to get away from the cold weather and the IBT locals of the Midwest and Northeast.  Vern, don't kid yourself, the IBT locals here in the Southeast could be as nasty as they were up North.  Although I didn't have much trouble with the union guys.  I do think they got away with too much at times.    Ahhh those were my salad days.  If you ever see Jim Hackenburg, ask him about the No Name Cafe in Savannah, Ga.  We went out for the famous "Just one drink" and didn't get in until sunrise.

Be safe,
Tony