What is the minimum per mile you would run for?

Many more questions to be answered. Location { fuel price,tolls, mountains, city driving, etc. },live load or pre-load 2nd trailer, who unloads, length of time to unload, frequency of loads, schedule of payments, type trailer { reefer, flat, tanker },scheduled loads or spur of the moment,possible back-haul,your equipment status as to age & condition,what happens if you cannot provide a truck, etc.Dedicated runs can be a bright future, but many things to consider.

 

What kind of profit margin do you want? 15% or 20%? 10% or 18% or 25% maybe?

Figure up your TRUE cost per mile to roll if you don't know. No sweeping under the rug or forgetting. Figure up your household expenses annually as a cost per mile. Guys will say you don't count household but unless the tooth fairy pays your utilities, mortgage, and buys groceries I don't understand how you can't count that as a cost?

For everyone this number is different but likely close to or maybe even above $2 per mile.

So for example if it costs you $1.97 and you want 15% profit you need to average $2.31 for every mile you turn.

$1.97 / .85 = $2.31 is your true cost to roll plus a 15% profit margin.

So now you can figure what will make this dedicated turn truly profitable.

 

I would ask about $1100.00, if there were at least 3 a week, with FSC to be added as fuel goes back up. I also know of plenty of trucks that would jump on it for around 900, if it were in my area. If you bid it too high, you can always go lower, but once you are low, hard to get more $$$.

Good luck, my friend.

 

personal bills shouldn't be figured as a cost per mile, personal expenses should be figured in with the driver pay, the driver pay should cover all those.

 

Well, there is the kicker. No freight in that area means lots of competition for the few loads. Maybe a grand is all the market will bare, maybe less. Like the Rolling Stones sang "YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT, BUT IF YOU TRY REAL HARD,YOU JUST MIGHT GET WHAT YOU NEED". Some rates are like the song.With 5 a week, have a back-up plan for when you have problems. It is worth something to have a steady run right from home. I would slip the forklift operators a few bucks to get you going quicker.
Good luck.

 

I had a good round trip run every Monday up until a few weeks ago. Solid rate. Was asked in late November if I could come down any at all. Asked to think it over. Ok I can do that. Wasn't much and the rate was still solid. Fuel was dropping 5 cents a day some days. About the second week of Jan broker gets dropped from the load. No longer has it. But the load still moves out every Monday same as always.

Not the brokers fault good people for the most part. My lesson from that as if I hadn't learned it a few times before. There are no friends in this business. Favors will be forgotten 5 minutes later. Always about price, always. Anybody can provide the service. So in the future cut no-one any slack. After all that's what I have been doing all along before now anyways and it's worked ok. Lost a lot of good round trip runs in the past. That's ok i'll take what I can get and make them pay for a little while. The next time anyone asks for me to cut it i'll walk like I used to before. Because it's not going to last anyways.

Dedicated is always the most difficult guys will gladly work it for nothing. Done enough runs like that to know they will pay substantially better than nothing when trucks are tight but can you can always count it in going bye, bye for sure. Good luck.