Answer Me This !

Already done this. Short hauls pay better and less fuel is used. Made an extra 20k one year on net profit.

 

My formula is $2.50/mile + $100/stop with the pickup counting as stop 1. Using this a 100 mile load with one pick / one drop would be $4.50 / mile and a 600 mile one pick / one drop would be $2.83 / mile. It may be different for you, less or more. But thinking about stop pay plus miles this way will help compare the two. I guess the negative is since I bid everything within a 600 mile radius of home the same like this I do wind up with all the stuff to so-called dead areas. But I get there so often I have developed pretty good ways to get back.

 

Hey dannythetrucker, may I ask, is your formula based on using a standard 53' van trailer or something else?
Thnx.

 

I used to try to find 5-700 mile runs that I can do one each day when I pulled van.

Now if I do that amount of miles a day on platform I do a lot better!! But, I try to find shorter loads now because they pay a lot better.

Ive done roughly 25k miles less in the past year with a step/flat than I do with van.....

 

A week of short hauls pays me more than a week with one or two big runs, at least up here in the Northeast. I try to stay inside the OH-VA-ME triangle, and many runs are 400 miles or less including deadhead. It isn't everyone's preference, but it works for me.

 

I think it depends on where you live and what you haul. Many of the above answers are good as you know your area and freight rates. I tried the short haul from November to January with my flatbed in Florida. We covered our bills, but nothing else. I tend to do best by running long haul for two weeks at a time while averaging $5000 in revenue per week.

 

Florida is hit and miss. Try getting out of Florida and then running short haul in a better market. Then grab a load back to Florida when ready to go home. This is my normal routine and it works out very well.

 

Nope, I pull a 53' stepdeck and carry a lot of gear. I do a lot of securing and tarping. My theory is that if you go for the easy lanes and the easy hauls you will always have competitors nipping at your heels. But if you haul the lanes noone else wants and give good service you can lock it down easy. Not to be disrespectful, but you send a typical company driver in on the stuff I haul and they will either screw it up or whine and complain almost every time. It's music to my ears.

Of course you can get easy freight and good money for it if you are a great salesman, which I am not. But then you have to spend your time poisoning the well for your competition and playing office politics with your customers. I despise those activities. Just tell me what loads you are having trouble covering and I'll get it done for you, I'm easy.

 

The one thing the fans of short hauls haven't mentioned is the risk of downtime between loads. They work good when you can string them back to back. However, when one goes sideways it can put a dent in the cash flow. That in itself adds to the amount of hustle you have to put in to make it work.

If you have your own authority, the short trips increase your invoicing/collection activity due to more loads in a given time period. On the other hand having more receivables with smaller amounts due can have the effect of smoothing your cash flow, versus waiting for really big checks coming less frequently.

That said, I do mostly short, 200-400 mile trips to the surrounding states. Then once or twice a month I'll take a run out to south TX or PA. The long trips are less risky and slightly less profitable, while at the same time being less stressful as well. There's good money doing it either way. As already stated, the short trips are more profitable due to lower variable costs, mainly fuel, due to the truck running fewer miles.