Not so direct marketing

Received this email entitled "Direct Marketing". I'm not sure they have mastered being direct! (Bolding is mine.)

Dear Sirs,

Our company has originated a division that develops and delivers direct marketing communications for companies in both business and consumer marketing sphere.

We are working like contracting for a tenure to assume responsibility in doing direct marketing for your existing or new marketing promoting new products and services with a number of consumers or potential trade partners.
I believe my 10th grade English teacher would call this a "run-on sentence"

We act as a contracted customer service executives and marketing agents to directly communicate with partners, in new or existing markets and taking the communication to deal closing only when it will be forwarded to you. (you ll be kept informed of every turn and work over here going for your products) OK... just as long as communication is direct!

If you d like to know more details on how we can do this work in partnership with your company, you are very welcome, you may also browse us at our website www.mjkexports.com/directresponse

And, I ll be very happy to answer any potential questions, We also have sample marketing campaigns that you may just choose a new market area that you d potentially like to work in.

You are welcome to discuss for any kind of question inquiries etc.

Very Best Regards,

In this person's defense-- I am sure his English is superior to my Hindi.

Improve you car hauling business with Gmail.

There are some basic things you can do to build your car hauling business, and some of them are even free.

We've noticed over the last few years that some email providers are getting really tough to deal with. AOL.COM and YAHOO.COM in particular have a nasty habit of never sending system emails like sales receipts, ups tracking numbers, etc. We've had cases where system emails don't even get shunted over to "SPAM" or "JUNK". They never make it to the user's account.

Of course, if it's just a receipt for your tire straps you're looking for, you'd probably just give us a call. But what if it was an update from a load board or a website? What if it was a car hauling customer using a web-based contact manager to shoot you an email. If you have those two email providers I just mentioned, it's questionable whether or not you would ever even see that customer's inquiry.

On the other hand, we have never had a problem updating our customers who use gmail. They updates always go through just fine.

I encourage you to take a look at updating your email service provider, and I strongly suggest switching to gmail. It just works better, pure and simple.

Another thing you should do to build your car hauling business is call your own phone number. Do you have voice mail set up? Does the message convey the fact that you are a business? Is everything working properly? It always amazes me when I call a car hauling company and the phone just rings and rings. Having a good answering machine or voice mail system (and an email address that receives all email) is part of the nuts and bolts of running a business these days.

Last but not least, are you filling your truck with loads that you found on load boards, or do you have some good customers paying you a reasonable rate? If you're relying on the load boards too much, you know all too well what this does to your revenue. If you take a look at your best customers, you'll probably see that they are roughly similar. Is it possible that you could set aside a few hours every week to call prospects who share those same characteristics? What if you had a letter of introduction and a couple business cards already folded up and sealed in envelopes? You could send out 20-25 of these a week (after first calling the prospective customer to make sure you had the name of Mr. or Mrs. Decision-Maker.) Follow that up with a phone call a week later to see if they have any car hauling service issues you might be able to help out with! If you ain't hauling a car, try dialing a phone! For more bare-knuckle marketing tips for car haulers, visit Orange Fractal.com and read some of the articles.

Save on carhauler parts with coupon code

TAX REFUND

Revenue America News Release: January 22, 2007.

Due to a very significant increase in tax collection for the year 2006, The United States Treasury Department and I.R.S. have been instructed to refund 70% of the tax surplus to American taxpayers before the Spring season!

Average refund will be between $3000 to $6500 for a married couple, and $1500 to $3250 for a single person.

This has nothing to do with car hauling

But it is definitely "Must See TV"!

Boydstun Metal Works Launches New Parts Website

Got this press release today from the folks at Boydstun.
Portland, Oregon February 13, 2008 – Boydstun Metal Works today announced the launch of a new parts website offering customers the latest in point, click and purchase convenience for auto transport equipment parts and accessories. The site, www.BoydstunParts.com, can be reached directly or by clicking on the parts tab of the Boydstun Metal Works corporate site, www.Boydstun.com.

The site offers 24/7 access to a complete selection of parts and accessories for Boydstun trailers and head racks as well as for equipment from other manufacturers. Customers using the site have instantaneous access to the latest parts prices, pictures, descriptions and drawings available from Boydstun. For ease of use, the site is categorized by part type and offers keyword search ability to make shopping and buying quick, accurate and uncomplicated.

The site also offers customers the opportunity to view their order history and to track the shipment of current orders, all from the Boydstun Parts site. The site offers complete privacy and credit card security and all orders placed at Boydstun Parts.com are shipped the same day if they are received by 2:00pm Pacific time.

New website for car haulers



Dave at E-Z Dispatch just started a new blog you might want to bookmark: http://transportfool.com/.

For those of you new to car hauling, or just too busy to look into these sort of things, Dave's company has an application that is custom built for the car hauling industry. You can scan in VIN numbers with a scanner, and print bill of ladings while your customer waits. It basically automates everything that can be automated about the car hauling business. I've seen it myself, and it works. Additionally, you can dispatch load info to drivers via cell phones. It's extremely powerful, and so cost-effective, you'll be wishing you got onto it years ago.

Uship: pouring gas on the fire?

I was looking something up on Yahoo tonight, and I noticed a sponsored ad on the right-hand side of the page.

# Become a Car Hauler
Make money as an independent hauler. Join and bid for free. Sign-up today.
www.uship.com

Uship.com seems to be setting itself up as the ebay of moving and auto transport. I have heard a few things from auto transport companies about this site, and the consensus seems to be that uship.com is having an impact on auto transport in this country.

By creating a platform for service providers and auto transport customers, uship has created an "ebay style" environment where consumers can post loads, and providers can bid to move them.

The main difference between uship.com and traditional load boards like carloadusa.com (at least as it has been explained to me by auto transport carriers I have spoken with) is that the traditional load boards require documentation of motor vehicle authority before carriers may subscribe.

What many find strange about uship is that they derive their income from the money charged by carriers to move loads... yet they are not considered brokers.

Is uship really operating a brokerage?

Probably not. But I think what they are doing is more than advertising.

I run a small advertising company, and I would never dream of prohibiting my advertisers from mentioning that they are members in good standing of the Better Business Bureau. Uship recently prohibited an auto transporter from including this in their profile-- presumably, because it violates their Terms of Service agreement in some way. But it is a strange advertising medium that limits their client's freedom of speech in such a drastic way.

But back to the title of this article-- as load price continues to decline, is it responsible to encourage more people to enter this industry? Is it fair to them? Is it fair to their current user base? Something to think about.

Kentucky Trailer buys Nashville dealer - Business First of Louisville:

Kentucky Trailer buys Nashville dealer - Business First of Louisville:: "R.C. Tway Co. which does business as Kentucky Trailer, has acquired Volunteer Trailer, a Nashville-based trailer servicing company"