cheap freight vs dead head

One of the many things poker taught me was to step back from complex problems and try to get a bigger picture. If I play this hand this way 1,000,000 times, will I win more than I lose? This transfers into trucking: if I drive like this for 1,000,000 miles, how likely am I to have an accident?


Back on point, when deciding whether to deadhead or take a load below my cost, I try to imagine how my business would look in 20 years if I deadheaded vs how it would look if I took the "backhaul." For me, my business, it is better to deadhead unless the cheap freight is exactly on my route AND the freight is easy on/easy off.

Of course you should have known before you accepted the original load that you were going into a bad area and padded that rate accordingly.

YMMV

 

Unless I know in advance what the load is, mostly based on what the broker says. If it is truly easy on/off, they often say so or use certain key words. "Palletized" product is more likely a faster unload than a "floor load." "First come, first serve" is usually good -- drive straight there and unload without waiting for an appointment. Sometimes you'll be in a long line though...

 

I'll haul cheap in almost the exact situation double yellow pointed out. IF the load goes to where I'm 99% certain the next load is going to be able to "make up" for the cheap one, if it's short and if it's a quickie based on my previous experiences. I'm not going to book a 1500 mile load at below what it cost me to haul it because that just wastes too much of my time to easily make up on the next one but I'll haul a cheapie for say 400 miles to get me to a great load because I probably couldn't deadhead and get the load on same day anyhow and even if I did I'd have limited time to run with it. So I guess if its under 200 miles its not worth it and if its over 500 miles its probably not worth it for me.

 

cheap freight is better than no freight

 

Not always true if it takes too much time where you could be hauling high paying freight. Just depends.

 

yes, you are correct. but there are number of times you can take the cheap load and you'll end up with a high-pay load later in that area

 

The OP asked a great question....It can be full of complex answers,Or in my case, simple.

99% of the time the answer is LOAD something.....IF I cant get any of my regular material back in..I'll use a broker,But keep in mind,My lanes are handsomely selected to bring a 'decent return load with $$$ on it

Now,If you take a load from lets say, Columbus,Ohio over to Albuquerque,NM...I Soooorely don't think your going to "dead" yourself back to the Midwest..Work your way back with LTL's of you have to......Coming back with NOTHING is not an option,For me anyway..

 

I've actually gotten good paying loads right out of Albuquerque twice out of maybe 100 loads delivered there! You're right but I don't hang out in Albq waiting on a load. I'm heading north, south or east depending on the season to get a load on. I usually average 250 miles of deadhead out of Albuquerque so my inbound rate reflects this.