Trucking Couple Tell All They Know in 'Vans 101' Seminar at Expedite Expo

Jenny Marcu, 26, comes from an expediter family - her parents and an aunt and uncle are all practitioners of this specialized form of freight hauling - so it was completely natural that she would go on the road with the man she wanted to marry.

That was several years ago, and she and husband Nick have been "out here" -- her term for the road -- practicing team-driving togetherness, which is one aspect of a craft that has its pros and cons. They shared what they know about the business with about 75 other truckers in an hour-long free seminar they called "Vans 101" during the annual Expedite Expo last week.

The two-day meeting, sponsored by ExpeditersOnline.com, is small as truck shows go, but big enough that trucks and cars filled all available parking slots at the Roberts Convention Center outside Wilmington, Ohio. And there was a steady flow of wanna-be, actual and retired truckers past product displays inside and outside the large building.

Cargo vans are one of the three main types of trucks used in hauling expedited freight, which must get to its destination fast and usually commands a premium rate. The others are medium- and heavy duty straight trucks, and standard tractor-trailers. Each hauls different amounts of "hot" freight, which can range from a single envelope with vital papers to a pallet of components needed to keep an assembly line open to emergency medical supplies.

Van Expedite

The Marcus drive an '06 Mercedes-made Sprinter, a high-cube vehicle that their fleet, Load One Transportation & Logistics of Taylor, Mich., prefers over the smaller domestic van. They've configured their Sprinter so it can haul three skids of freight, versus the two skids which most other vans can carry. This sometimes gives them a competitive edge, they said, though a typical load might be one skid that weighs about 1,000 pounds.

Most fleets want a truck to be capable of carrying 2,000 to 3,000 pounds, and require a load space that's at least 4 feet high and 8 feet long, plus a few inches longer to accommodate tie-downs for load securement, they said.

"Van expediting," as they call it, involves a truck that grosses under 10,001 pounds. Federal rules exempt its drivers from keeping log books, and they can usually bypass weigh stations and associated inspections, except while carrying placarded hazmat loads, the Marcus explained.
Most van expediters are owner-operators, like the Marcus, though some drive for owners who have several trucks leased to fleets. A few are independents with their own authority. Jenny and Nick run 100,000 miles a year, and their Sprinter, which they bought used, now has well over a half a million miles.

The Sprinter's small, 5-cylinder diesel is economical on fuel, turning in 21 mpg or better while running at reasonable speeds with a typical load. Nick said they tend to stick to speed limits to avoid tickets and to go easy on the truck. Regular maintenance is a must to ensure uptime, and they do as much as they can themselves to save money.

The Sprinter has been reliable, but suffers from "German over-engineering," he commented. For instance, while a domestic truck engine uses a spin-on oil filter, the Sprinter's filter mount is more complex and harder to handle.

Life on the Road

The couple live in their van and have outfitted the forward part of its cargo compartment as a sleeper. Every operator has a different idea about how the bed and cabinetry should be arranged. "We've redesigned our sleeper five times," Jenny said. "This winter we're going to do it again."

August, September, October and November are the busiest months for expedited freight, said Brian Welsh, a recruiting and retention agent for Load One, who manned a small booth in the expo hall. In those months, the supported manufacturing relates to late-year purchasing by businesses and the Christmas shopping rush. The company hauls a lot of automotive-related cargo, so normally sees a partial lull during summer auto-plant shutdowns.

Load One's fleet includes 50 Sprinters and Sprinter-size domestic trucks, 25 smaller cargo vans, 70 straight trucks and 120 tractor that pull company trailers, Welsh said. Turnover of contractors is low, usually about 10% a year, he said, and many of those "we get rid of, for lack of performance."

He recruits to replace those who leave because, unless a business upturn will support adding trucks, "you don't want to have too many trucks out there. You've got to be loyal to those you already have."

The World of Expedited Freight

Expedited freight revived about a year ago, following the major economic downturn that began in '08, most at the expo agreed. "2008 was rough," Nick Marcu recalled. "It got to where Jenny and I shared a box of macaroni and cheese for a day. That's all we ate. We did that to preserve our money to make the truck payment."

The truck supports its owner and must be paid for and cared for, Nick said. And budgeting is important to control spending, Jenny emphasized. Van expediting has lower costs than other types of trucking that require large, heavy vehicles. So revenue can be lower while van operators still make a decent living.

Being away from home for long periods is one of the major drawbacks of expedited hauling, the Marcus told their audience. "If you need to be home weekends or regularly, if you have children and are worried about missing milestones, sporting events, and sometimes even birthday parties, it honestly isn't ideal for you," Jenny said.

She and Nick were sometimes out for months at a time when they were leased to other companies, the couple said, but that's changed recently. "We're near Detroit," Nick said, "and Load One has a lot of freight that's inbound and outbound from Detroit, so now we're home almost every week."

Overall, home time depends on the company, and operators should ask a prospective carrier where its freight tends to go and what its usual lanes are.

One run they've been making has them leaving Detroit on a Monday morning and taking a load of automotive items from there to Laredo, Texas, from where it's transloaded for plants in Mexico. Then they take another load to Nogales, Ariz. By now it's late in the week and because not much freight leaves from Nogales, they deadhead to El Paso, Texas, load again and highball it back to Detroit, sharing the driving, for delivery on Monday morning.

"She does her share of driving," Nick says of Jenny. "It's part of being out there."

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