What companies are good to lease on with?

Dry van is very profitable if you work smart. Or you can work it really hard for nothing easy to get taken advantage of. Lots of flatbedders work really cheap pulling vans in the winter because they don't know any better. We have no idea what miles (he's independent so his expenses are high) he ran but in my own operation it wouldn't be unusual at all in a decent month to generate that kind of revenue on 6,500-7,500 miles or so, including deadhead miles. Drivers ought to stick with what they know and use common sense to get good rates.

 

The rate one gets leasing on is one thing, the package deal is what makes it viable or not. $1.50 (rate and fuel surcharge) isn't terrible for dry box work. if one is getting serious discounts on fuel, insurance, etc, and if the base plate costs are reimbursed. Right now, one should be getting their fuel, including fuel tax, at $3.24 or less. That puts it under $3 after fuel tax like Illinois. I Bought fuel last week at around $3.05, fuel tax included. My base plates are reimbursed every year. I get $38 an hour for detention time. $75 for first extra stop, $100 for each one after that. No cost installation, no deposit on Qualcomm and only hit for $10 a week. Only 50 cents a transaction for fuel card. Get parts and tires at carrier cost. Of course, it might also mean that one should probably avoid a truck that costs $200K or is a maintenance nightmare. Home every weekend/holiday even though not on dedicated. Fair amount of drop and hook to make HOS tolerable. And I usually take time off during hunting season and also two or three weeks off during the year.

Being profitable is not all that difficult with the right package and good business sense.

 

did anyone already say ... Mercer?

 

Farm2Fleet is nice since they'll let you run PO, or rent you a van, or let you pull whatever kind of trailer you want to buy, if and when you decide to get one. I have a flatbed with them, but will pull a PO if the trailer is in the shop, and it's absolutely seamless.

 

You mentioned that dry van is profitable if you work smart.... Is that what you run? and are you with farm2fleet?

I have been driving for a bit over one year and have just bought my first truck, and I am working with the same company I have been a driver for, I am experiencing some conflict from dispatchers preferring the company trucks ... also the pay is .95 plus FSC... and it seems I could do better with f2f... what do you think? the one good thing where I am at is that I can get about two days a week hometime and freight/loads seem to be fairly constant... thanks for your comments...Tom

 

Only problem with pulling your own box is that the rate better be there to offset time sitting more for loading and unloading. I do a substantial amount of drop and hook at both ends. Not a good thing if the trailers are trash, but can be a very good thing if the trailers are well maintained and the customer base is good. There is no one size fits all deal in all of this. One person's idea of a great deal may not be another's. And the preference for company trucks over O/O can skew the whole thing. I am fortunate that the carrier I am with actually has more O/O than company trucks and there is no favoritism. They want the loads moved and will hand them off to anyone who can get it done. I have only seen situations, at my present carrier, where either an O/O was preferred over a company truck, or a company truck was preferred over an O/O when one or the other's HOS were not in a good way to get that particular load done comfortably. Or if one or the other needed to be somewhere for personal reasons like a doctor visit, something to do with family, etc. Never because of some childish preference of company over O/O stuff that some carriers seem to want to play. We barely have enough trucks to get done what we have. We don't have the luxury of playing silly little sandbox games like the mega carriers do.

 

95 cpm plus fsc? That's awesome if you all you want is to lose all the benefits of being an employee and gain none of the benefits of being a business owner. I will never understand why guys will run their truck at a buck thirty a mile when there are plenty of options out here that easily make two bucks a mile very attainable.

 

Well, the myopic folks will only see the rate and FSC per mile like spyder. But there is the total base plate reimbursement some also get, the $38-$50 and hour for sitting beyond the 1st at a shipper or receiver, the 80 cents to a buck off the cash pump price for fuel, the variable rate from $1 to $1.17 a mile based on length of haul, the $100 per extra stop compensation, etc, etc , etc. Compensation for dead head, including FSC if dead head is excessive, Oh yeah, I just described something similar to my contract. And my only charge by the carrier is $10 a week for the qualcomm, with no installation / removal fee and no deposit.

Two bucks a mile can be roughly the same as another person getting $1.40 a mile plus stacks of other compensation and perks also. It is the net at the end of it that really means anything, not the revenue and appearances at the front end. I have seen folks losing their shirts on just about everything from leasing on to being on their own. I have also seen folks do exceptionally well in both lease contract and independent. If one person gets $3 a mile on the rate and the other gets $1.50 a mile rate, but at the end of it all, they both are netting the same per mile for all miles divided by total net for the year, then what makes the $3 a mile person so special?

 

Cowpie Iowa has been a smoking hot market for dry vans the past several weeks. I know guys booking $1,000+ runs going 100 miles like it's nothing and runs even further than that also paying extremely well. You can say what you will about the few benefits they do.provide, drop and hook, cheaper fuel - still, there is a lot of money being left on the table at what they pay you. Yeah live loads sometimes suck but you've been doing this long enough to know what has the potential to be a time waster and what normally wouldn't. The worst part I always hated about drop and hook was other drivers who would drop trailers with flat tires, no lights, etc. Had it happen so many times. Really hated that. You can have it.

 

But everything is cyclical. With the up and downs and all arounds that rates and loads take, it is more consistent. I do well. I am not scratching for every dollar to make ends meet. Similarities do exist in other segments of life. The very same arguments can be made of investments. One can stick with solid index funds and other consistent types of investments with study growth. One can also play the commodities and speculation game and make those overnight major gains. But the latter also risks losing everything they have in a much greater way, and there are more losers than winners in that game.

So some of us like the index fund investment style of trucking. Good consistent rates, consistent loads tied to a great customer base, all kinds of extras that usually are not part of what the more independent operator would get. Just like choosing the right index fund with investing can determine what growth you have, choosing a right carrier to lease with is the very same thing. With what I have going on, there is not any major incentive for me to go chasing after all that money left on the table, as is claimed to be the case, but not something that is consistent or long term.

And I did mention, regarding the drop and hook, that the carrier situation plays into that. When one has a good carrier to work with that is meticulous about their trailers, tied to a good customer base that doesn't beat up trailers, and drivers and O/O who know a good thing when they see it, the drop and hook downfalls are not realized. Again, just like investing, one has to do their work in checking out a carrier to see if it a solid one to do business with.

All in all, at the end of the game, if we end up in the same place, who really cares about how we got there? There is no consistent statistic that shows going independent vs a quality lease contract will always yield coming out ahead at the end. And from most of what is put out about the independent vs contract operator seem more to be a "my dog is bigger than your dog" kind of mental exercise that really doesn't produce anything substantive. The day I see most independents living in upscale suburban homes while all the contract operators are only able to afford something in the projects, then all these independents vs contract operator debates might take on some merit. I see many independents living the same lifestyle as many contract operators, with both sides having some who are doing better than others.

Not more than a few years ago, independents on this very forum were hollering about how terrible everything was, how fuel prices were killing them, rates were terrible, etc. All the while, some of us contract operators were getting substantial FSC to offset the higher fuel costs, and consistent rates with steady freight volumes. Now things are better, thankfully, and a lot of independents who survived the last economic roller coaster ride are now starting to make some serious pocket money. This entire cycle will all occur again and again. All the while, many contract lease operators who have ties with solid carriers with a solid customer base will not have to experience all the frustration and roller coaster ride nonsense and come out just fine, sometimes in better physical and mental shape as well. You get the same thing with contract farming, investing, etc, etc etc. There are many sand boxes to play in.