How are Brokers NOT to blame?

I'm not trying to be a know-it-all here. I've said, I have collected data about van rates. That said, there are some things that I purposefully left out of my calulations...one being weight.

MY base calculations include things like paying a certain load board a lot of money per month to access historical data on lanes, salary expectations for a driver if I had to pay one, HR stuff like workers comp, etc...

I have an absolute base rate of $1.71 per mile IF I'm calculating mileage...then I add fuel, tolls, etc... Right now fuel is $1 a mile so add that to $1.71 and the base rate becomes $2.71...
I have an hourly rate of $110 per hour if I need to find a rate that way...
I have a $1250 per day minimum (24 hours on the truck)...
$660 is my absolute minimum to start my truck. That's 6 hours - 2 for me, 2 for the shipper, and 2 for the receiver.

If bidding on a short run, like 150 miles, but I have to pick it up at 9 am and deliver the next day at 9am = $1250. I know some people's heads just exploded, but please share the way you would calculate this instead of telling me that my way is stupid...else, you're just a Satchel of Richards.

If a load is going 200 miles but will load asap, fcfs at both shipper/drop, this is where hourly rates come in. Let's assume the base rate of $660 and then 50mph for 200 miles is 4 hours = $440 + $660 = $1100. <-- this is why I don't get mad when I get stuck at a receiver for 4 hours... I included detention before I have to bill for it because I do NOT bill accessorials. Why not? Because I negotiate them ahead of time. I'll never call a broker and ask for detention because it took 4 hours to unload...that's just part of business. They rented my service until that load comes off my truck.

$110 per hour * 11 hours a day = $1210 + $40 per diem = $1250 minimum daily rate.
But, wait, who drives 11 hours every day? It doesn't matter, you are buying my FULL capacity when you hire me. For every moment you are engaged in business, as a business, you SHOULD be getting paid for it.

$1250 x 6 (because you'll need a reset after this) = $7500 per week.
If I'm going 2500 miles, you are basically getting my entire clock, so the rate needs to reflect that! This is the rate I ask to go to Portland. If I run the mileage in my calculator, I would come up with $7041.75. This doesn't include permits, etc, so there is a little extra factoring that goes into the rate. Oh, that reminds me, some brokers like TQL (4%) charge for quick pay. I add that into the rate by dividing the rate by .96 or whatever the charge is.

Does any of this stuff seem shady? Like I'm trying to get over on someone? It's simple math coupled with expectations that I found in the data analysis from the historical data I downloaded.

I hope someone sees this and thinks, hey, that's about right...maybe this info will help me somehow. If it's really low to you, I'm glad you have a good paying customer. If it seems high, say so.

You MUST account for every hour you are doing business. Then, you can determine if you are making enough to justify owning it all. They one thing that all my calculations cannot account for is that I want to drive. I have to compare what I could make in another job to what I make in trucking. Let's say I could be hired on at Walmart for $100k. You can use that number as a substitute in a formula.

For example, everyone here should know D=RT, distance = rate * time. But, T=R/D. See, if you have expectations (budget) for what you as a human can produce in a given time, you can use that determine, given your expenses, what you'll make at the end of the year. So, just like the formula above, d=rt, you can find one number from all the others with simple math rules.

*all rates are negotiable

 

The cheapest I can buy fuel in the US right now is at the TA in Springfield, MO for $4.734 a gallon. The absolute most I've ever paid for fuel was Huntsville to Portland with 41k lbs in the middle of summer for $2100.

However, why would I give that discount to a broker? That's a cushion for my expenses, not a discount on the rate for them...maybe that's why yall have been hauling so cheap.