Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Not bad honestly. 12 weeks. Maybe it was 10 weeks I can’t remember. Basically the minimum time in order to make changes to factory orders. Obviously, trailers have gone nuts and used trucks are way up. I did speak to my guy yesterday and he said he can still get freshies for Feb.

Gimme a holler if interested. I have a KW dealer 20 mins away but buy my trucks from 600 miles away. He drop ships them straight to my yard. Broken arm.... sore peter.... can’t beat it.

 

I buy mine 1600 miles from home.

 

I woke up at 6:45 am and have a hangover after the money I had to spend for repairs, over the course of two days: $5,943.32.

Instead of showing rates and how rosy things have been lately, I thought, it would be a good thing to reveal a little different aspect of the business to a prospective owner operator thinking that it is money left after fuel and tolls while repairs are nothing to be concerned with. Not only that they are NOT nothing but there is never an end to them. Either a new truck with with $2500 - $3000 monthly payments or this in a pretty random and unexpected pattern:

 

75.00 hr shop labor is down right cheap.

 

I never understood how this labor hour rate was supposed to work. For one thing, I never watch those guys with a clock and I am under impression that they can use it as a leverage depending on a situation. And I mean at every shop. For instance, when there is not too many parts involved then the number of hours tend to be higher. In this particular case, there were quite many parts but If I had come with with my own then probably the work required for those fixes could have been a little longer. Or maybe there are some unwritten standards how much time a given repair should consume. I was at a different shop a few months ago to replace batteries, they billed me for 2.5 hours. I did not complain because I had to have them quick, although 1.5 hours would have been more accurate.