Low rates and no profits: Everyone’s crying.

I keep reading about everybody who owns a tractor trailer, crying about no profit. The solution I hear is buying newer aerodynamic tractors, driving slower, equipping with smaller hp engines, and on and on babbling.

If you’re working through a broker, they will pay you the cheapest per mile rate they possibly can, using you to enable them to profit more from your efforts. You are the only one that will do all the work and come up short, forever. If you work through a carrier, the carrier owner will do the same thing, sometimes even adding a broker between them and you at the steering wheel. You are trapped. You hold all the expenses to run the truck. Believe me, nothing will ever change. That’s good business for everybody but the owner operator…YOU!

Instead of being married to the steering wheel, accepting their rates, all the driving miles + total effort with every expense associated with having a USDOT number, you need to do something differently, finally, or stay with the torturous route of trying to stay ahead financially. It won’t work, ever.

Solution? Spend the time and effort, clean up, keep the truck parked, and spend a day every week selling yourself to the actual shippers. Learn how to sell yourself and your business! If it sounds scary, rip yourself out of the tractor, and go do it.

Set your rate adding deadhead miles and the time it takes you to pick up the load, and deliver it. If you give away the show by giving them a bargain rate, the only one hurting will be you, again and again, forever.

It is indeed a lot of energy. But a more comfortable energy than just driving yourself straight into the poor house forever.

Start at $4 per mile deadhead, $6 loaded PLUS tolls. Yes, plus tolls. Don’t be afraid.
Grow you business and take the actual time to really do it, patiently.

 

It's called, "Building your business!" It's scary to visit new potential customers, everything new is scary! Just knock out five to ten visits to different
shippers (factories, manufacturer sites, etc., but stay away from brokers (they're doing what YOU need to be doing, visiting and telephoning
customers).

 

Spend the time and energy to promote your business. It's scary at first, but will grow like a rose if you don't give up. Pretend you
are the only trucking company in the world...