For-hire motor carriers solicit and haul freight for profit (YRC, Roadway, UPS, J.B. Hunt). Private fleets transport their own goods and services - they are not for-hire (Toys R Us, Kraft, AT&T, Home Depot).

2. I've searched the PFD database and no revenue appears. What's the problem?

By the nature of their operations, private fleets have no revenues per se. And, total revenues for their corporate parent are not applicable to the fleet operation segment.

3. Why can't I find the company I'm searching for?

There are several possibilities...

• The company may be outside of your sales domain... i.e. your FleetSeek view may be confined to Missouri and the firm you're searching for is in Kansas.
• The company may be a for-hire firm (NMCD) while your FleetSeek subscription only covers private fleets (PFD).
• Despite our best efforts and respected resources, the company may have escaped our net. This may be especially true if the fleet is small or only has intra-state operations.

  Simply e-mail us as much information on the firm as you can. Company Name, City/State, Phone #, for-hire or private fleet designation is essential. We will call them and complete a firm profile and post it on FleetSeek within 48 hours of receiving your e-mail. In turn, we will e-mail you back with a confirmation of our query results.

4. Why, when I search a single state, do I get an error message?

If your FleetSeek view is confined to a single state it is unnecessary (and counterproductive) to first select the state as part of your criteria.

5. Why don't I get the results I want when I search by zip code range?

Enter the first 5 digits of the zip code, not zip + four. Be sure to include the beginning and ending zip code you want included as part of your selection criteria. Perhaps the zip code you selected exceeds the confines of your FleetSeek view.

6. I'm getting too many selected records. How can I narrow the search?

The trucking industry... for-hire and private fleets... is like a pyramid. There are lots of small companies at the bottom and very few big companies at the top. The larger the number range for total fleet, trucks, tractors or trailers, the fewer companies will be selected.

7. Why do you have trucks and tractors as separate selection criteria?

Straight trucks, commonly called delivery vehicles, do not have a fifth wheel and cannot pull a trailer other than a tag along. Tractors have a fifth wheel and pull a full size trailer. Note: Some "straight trucks" have sufficient gross vehicle weight to fall in the Class 7 and 8 tractor range, cement mixers for example.

8. Downloads

Background
All FleetSeek downloads (usually retrieved from our Jobs List) are provided in an MS Excel tab delimited format. This format was selected because it is not product specific, version dependent and has no record limit. The .XLS file extension has been applied to provide an association with the most popular application used by our subscribers, Microsoft Excel. The .XLS format allows data to be easily imported into marketing software including ACT, Goldmine, Sales Force and the like.

The download file has been compressed (WinZiped) to make the file as small as possible to speed up file movement over the internet, and to protect you from unwanted virus attachment in route. You should save the compressed file on your computer as a backup should you run into any problems attempting to decompress it, or format records to fit your management software. After saving this file, first copy it and then uncompress it, storing the uncompressed file in your working directory. Useful un-Zip software is available through WinZIP or PkZip. If you need one or the other of these utility programs, links are conveniently provided on the FleetSeek results screen.

Warnings
Although the Excel tab delimited format provided to you has no record limit, do not open it directly into MS Excel 2003 if your file contains more than 65,500 records. The 2003 version was written to only accept 65,500 records and if you add more than that, the additional records will simply be missing from the spreadsheet. The 2000 Excel version was worse, allowing only 16,000 records in the spreadsheet at one time.

This limitation was fixed with the 2007 edition of Excel, by and large. Upgrade to this edition and you'll alleviate the problem.

If you are using Excel 2003 and your download contains more than 65,500 records do not use the “OPEN” option shown in the FleetSeek “File download” dialog box. You must “SAVE” the download file to your computer, unzip it on your computer, and import it directly into your contact management system or use it as a data source with any database tool of your choice other than Excel. If these restrictions affect you and you must use Excel, either upgrade to Excel 2007; download segments of the file with record counts less 65,500 records; or use an application other than Excel to display your download data.

The Excel tab delimited format does allow for the importing of all downloaded records, without limit restrictions into contact management systems like ACT, Goldmine and Sales Force.

Helpful Hint
Importing download tab delimited data into third party software that does not recognize Excel may require using the windows file manager rename function to change the file extension from “.xls” to “.txt”