Community Forums

Fishrsafe · 03-13-2022, 07:02 AM

I have been reading this morning about RV transporter’s that are parking their trucks because of the high cost of fuel. Fuel surcharges are not being passed through to the drivers from the brokers so drivers are sitting it out waiting for this to change. My question is how does this affect new deliveries from Newmar? I know the rigs are driven to the dealership but does Newmar have its own drivers or do they use brokers? Our Superstar is scheduled to be completed at the end of ths month and after waiting 9 months already we are anxious to move into our full time home.

TandW · 03-13-2022, 07:14 AM

Not a comforting feeling knowing that cut-throat free-enterprise economics results in the cheapest delivery methods. Those first few miles are likely the roughest a rig ever sees.

Fiesta48 · 03-13-2022, 08:04 AM

We test drove 2 new Freightliner chassis with new houses on top. Both pulled to the right. First one badly. So bad they would not release it to us, needed steering parts. Second one slightly pulled, corrected with alignment.
It wandered slightly afterwards. I corrected it myself, it had toe in of 3/8" still.
Both had to be screwed up by the delivery people.

wrvond · 03-13-2022, 08:29 AM

Any scapegoat in a storm, eh?

It's absolutely true that rising fuel costs can eat into a transporter's income. The company I was leased with when I was delivering had it set up that driver's that delivered pull behinds got paid a certain amount per loaded mile. There were reimbursable costs but fuel wasn't one of them. On the other hand, drivers that delivered drive away units got paid on a different scale and fuel was a reimbursable cost for them. I imagine the logic was because drive aways could use gas or diesel have good mileage (relatively) or very poor mileage while a driver's truck uses the same fuel type every trip and gets about the same mileage regardless of the load.
If you are waiting on a motor coach to be delivered I expect any delay will be due to something other than fuel prices.

People that accuse transport drivers of damaging the RV they are delivering are only showing their ignorance.

Fishrsafe · 03-13-2022, 08:39 AM

So my question is this, does Newmar have their own delivery drivers or do they contract delivery out to independent transporter’s?

Thx

arcaguy · 03-13-2022, 08:43 AM

Delivering RVs has never been a lucrative job, in fact is was pretty much a break even type of thing after getting back home. My brother-in-law did this for a while and by the time he got the rig delivered and got back home he maybe had $100 in his pocket. Since fuel prices have gone up I can see where this is now a money losing proposition. I guess this is just another reason to try and arrange a factory pickup.

ArtJoyce · 03-13-2022, 08:56 AM

When flying to South Bend, IN years ago. The guy next to me was returning from delivering a Motor Home. He was retired and made it sound like he made a little money. The MH manufacture paid the fuel and return air fare. He sleep in the MH and got to see the US.

wrvond · 03-13-2022, 09:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishrsafe

So my question is this, does Newmar have their own delivery drivers or do they contract delivery out to independent transporter’s?

Thx

To my knowledge, no manufacturer maintains a staff of delivery drivers. There are transporter companies that are contracted by the various manufacturers and there are dealers that have independent drivers on call.
For example, I made deliveries to dealers within spittin' distance of Camping World but not one delivery to Camping World. My understanding at the time was that they provided their own drivers.
There is a dealership near where I live that hires hot shots to pick up units for them in Indiana but I believe that's only for pull behinds.

wrvond · 03-13-2022, 09:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arcaguy

Delivering RVs has never been a lucrative job, in fact is was pretty much a break even type of thing after getting back home. My brother-in-law did this for a while and by the time he got the rig delivered and got back home he maybe had $100 in his pocket. Since fuel prices have gone up I can see where this is now a money losing proposition. I guess this is just another reason to try and arrange a factory pickup.

A lot depends on how you go about it. I made good money pulling campers but I slept in my truck and spent very little on food. The thing is, you can't pull once a month and expect to get rich. I feel sorry for the youngsters that are trying to support a family - you've got to be on the road every day regardless of weather to make a living at it. It's also a high risk endeavor. I had a camper blow over in Wyoming. That cost me $5,000.00 and five days out of my life. Not to mention the stress.

There are rules that leased drivers must adhere to - they aren't allowed to use the "facilities" of any unit. A driver only enters a pull behind if there is no other choice. I once had a Cougar travel trailer deploy a bedroom slide by itself while I was at a rest stop (that was interesting!). For drive aways, the driver is supposed to not leave any evidence they were ever there.
When any unit leaves the factory propane and holding tanks are empty so there's no way to use those systems anyway. And the speed limit for RV's is 65mph. No driver wants to hit anything, including road debris, accidentally or through neglect. Any damage to that unit that can be identified by the dealership at delivery is grounds to refuse delivery and the driver has to return the unit and doesn't get paid a cent.
There was one dealership I delivered to that had a team of people that inspected every surface of the camper and touched every square inch of the exterior - including the roof and underbelly.
Having said all that, I admit there are going to be exceptions to everything and people are going to try to get away with anything they can. I have seen a puller spend the night inside a travel trailer at a rest stop. But quite frankly I think RV's suffer more wear, tear and damage sitting on the dealer's lot while lookyloo's track mud and grit in and operate knobs and switches they don't know how to work properly.

Ken C · 03-13-2022, 06:15 PM

Not sure if still true as this info is from 2018. While @ Newmar we were told that Newmar has their own Drivers as well as a subcontractor for delivery of new coaches.

Fishrsafe · 03-14-2022, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken C

Not sure if still true as this info is from 2018. While @ Newmar we were told that Newmar has their own Drivers as well as a subcontractor for delivery of new coaches.

Thanks, thats the info I was asking for.

Dutch Star Don · 03-14-2022, 09:16 AM

I know there is a dedicated set of drivers for Newmar as my local dealer requests certain drivers to deliver his coaches.

Fishrsafe · 03-14-2022, 11:29 AM

Confirmed this morning that Newmar has it’s own drivers as well as contractors it uses for delivery to it’s dealers.

Thanks everyone for your input.

BigMC · 03-15-2022, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishrsafe

I have been reading this morning about RV transporter’s that are parking their trucks because of the high cost of fuel. Fuel surcharges are not being passed through to the drivers from the brokers so drivers are sitting it out waiting for this to change. My question is how does this affect new deliveries from Newmar? I know the rigs are driven to the dealership but does Newmar have its own drivers or do they use brokers? Our Superstar is scheduled to be completed at the end of ths month and after waiting 9 months already we are anxious to move into our full time home.

My experience. My Newmar completed build on 03/04/22 and moved for transport. Was suppose to leave the next week and arrive sometime during that week or at best 03/11/22. Nothing. Dealer chased for me, start of this week and it now seems will arrive either 03/17 or 03/18. I understand Newmar does have its own drivers but with volume so high, can only guess the drivers are back logged unless they bring in agency drivers as well, which I just don't know.

I would take my example as maybe typical but it may also come down to the delivery location. More local deliveries from factory I guess could take precedent for obvious reasons, but thats my pure speculation.

I have a hard move on date for late next week and dealer (NIRVC) to be fair has discussed internally with its PDI team about my deadline.

Ordered 9 months ago and came 9,000 miles from overseas, so shall I say, somewhat eager now.

Hope yours arrives a little sooner (when you see the end of the tunnel its makes you far more eager to push ahead). One comment is maybe ask your dealer to actually call Newmar transport rather than rely on emails. Just too easy to allow emails to slip, whereas talking to Newmar people may (or may not) help push yours through.

Wont be long now though. Enjoy it.