Grain - How are they making money ?

Where we are at 90 percent of the trucks with farm tags are not even owned by a farm, its been over looked for years and isn't gonna change any time soon I'm sure.

There are a lot of guys that pull a reefer in season and then a hopper when it's booming. Never own a trailer just rent what ever they need and send it back when it slows up.

Really to make money with a hopper you gotta have the right size of trailer, know the right people and not be afraid to sit in line waiting to get loaded then run all night to beat the crowd to get empty so you can make your reload before they close. Rinse and repeat. I get tickled at the guys who buy a really light weight rig so they can haul more then cut the rate.

I have heard guys say stuff like well it isn't too bad but you have to get 3 a day to make anything. If there isn't any money in the first one what makes them think there is any in 3?

Pretty much there isn't a golden goose no where in truckin you gotta work to survive, and if there was an I knew bout it I sure wouldn't share it cause it would go from gold to pyrite in days lol.

I can and will say the guys with the big rides earned them in my experience, done with out plenty to get where they are. If you will notice they don't say much and drive to fast to be followed. The only way to keep it is to protect it

 

@wore out ^^^ great post; true below & ##### nice stacks! {{{{PB ENVY}}}}
Never done farm hauling, but asphalt gets cut-throat out-of season as well. (Tis why I get stuck with OS/OD on the off-times . . . nothing against skateboards, when they are loaded correctly on a trailer with integrity. I can only chain and tarp so much..)

 

We all love hearing that. My loads really aren't bad just have to make a few turns. The mile rates are where they should be but we run local too. So we don't get to load drive 400 miles and dump it's usually a fast and furious game.

They're running 3 pits again for beans so the lines are never too long a guy can turn 4 or 5 100 mule runs in a day which figures to a nice days paycheck and still being home at night. Even if you only manage 3 or 4 you still didn't have a day that was too horrible.

The ones I epically love are the guys doing the same thing I do running 75 and then pulling in at the elevator 2 trucks behind them and b.s.ing for a few minutes in line just to find out there running for 1.50 loaded. Waste all that fuel trying to get 6 or 7 turns to make ends meat because you're hauling that cheap. Regular effing geniuses I tell ya what.

I love the guys around here that pull off the farms for harvest and say it's big money. When we pull from the fields we figure $2.05/mile all miles on 900 bushels. Out permits let us run 103500 or there abouts. Whatever 90k +15% is.

That being for instance we have a 50 mile round elevator to dryer 2.05x50 comes out to 102.50/by 900 comes to 11.3 cents/bu round up to nearest penny that comes to .12/bu. Load 1100 bushel figures out to $132/round with beans that puts us at 96000 or so and with corn that puts us about 91500 or 92000. With corn we can only fit a max of about 1300 on before we cube out but that's the whereabouts of what I'll push the weight to corn harvest always pays better anyway so we do load up to the legal limits on corn with our permits. Beans is 1100 bushel max period no more.

With the numbers we have here on a bean harvest for a 50 mile round we make roughly 2.64/mile all miles with half miles mt and corn figures to 3.12/mile all miles with half the miles mt. It pays alright but you have to know what you're doing at those weights watched a guy turn to sharp last year let's just say his harvest and trailer were a little short.

 

You can make decent $ hauling grain, but you have to have a niche. Its all I do but im hooked up with an elevator that keeps me busy as I want to be all year. Normal day for me is $850-900 and 350-400 miles. Leave home about 5:30 or 6 am and usually back in the shed by 5 or 6 pm. 5 days a week till harvest then some Saturday work if I want it. Ive got a backhaul of beanmeal for 6 loads a week that unloads 3 miles from the elevator. There are only just a very few guys I know that are exclusive to one place and do it like I do, most guys are scrambling around all the time from place to place hauling here and there and that's where the rates get hacked up.