Hopper, Dump O/O's & Drivers

It all depends on who you're hauling for. WH was right about the local elevators...they pay within a week of receiving invoices. Cargill does direct deposit on soybean meal loads as soon as you pick them up. You don't even have to bill them. Other loads for Cargill get paid within a week of receipt of invoices. It's the brokers where you've got to be careful. Reliant out of Lincoln, NE can take 60 days at times.

As far as negotiating goes, if you're calling them looking for loads, you're already at a disadvantage. He knows you're looking for work and sitting. However, if he calls you, you've got SOME wiggle room. He's going to shoot you a low rate, knowing you'll want to dicker, but he's not found somebody for the load yet - at least one that he's happy with their rate. Personally, I just tell them I can't do it for that (while remaining friendly and professional) but I won't just automatically tell him what I'd have. I wait until he asks me. At that time, I give him my absolute bottom dollar (usually based on what I'm currently hauling for other companies for - but NEVER at a loss - I'll sit before I pay to work), and if he takes it he takes it, if he doesn't he doesn't. He's just shopping around. Simple as that. He doesn't care who hauls his grain, he's just looking for the best deal, like we do when we buy tires or fuel. If he balks at my rate, I'll usually tell him that other companies are paying me my rate to haul out of the same area, and that lets him know that I've got options, as well as giving him an idea of what he's competing with in terms of going freight rates. Likewise, when he tells you he can get it hauled cheaper, that should be your insight as to what you're up against. Don't be afraid to ask who'll haul it cheaper. His response will be a good indicator as to whether he's pulling your leg.

WH is right about another thing - it's ALL about supply and demand. Freight is a commodity, and some suppliers of that "commodity" will sell it at below cost just to get the business when things are slow. Shipping rates are not directly related to what it costs you to move the load, as much as they are directly related to what your competition will agree to move it for - whether he makes money, looses money, or breaks even.

Big John, a good example is ADM at Enid. Loreta will only pay a dime to get wheat brought up from Banner. Is it cheap? Yes. Will I haul it? Yes. Because I'm trying to go back north from Chickasha/OKC just like a whole bunch of other people, and they'll gladly haul it if I don't want to, so I might as well get paid SOMETHING to drive from OKC to Enid - even if it's just a dime. Loreta does this, well, because she can. That's why she's good at her job. She knows there's always more freight going south of Enid than there is coming back north.

My dad told me once that trucking may be a lifestyle, but it's a business first, and you have to run it like a business. I've never forgotten that.

 

all the elevators around here you turn in tickets by noon monday and cllect at noon thursday

 

Yeah Bill, thats what Loretta pays during harvest to bring it up from Banner. I use to haul out of Banner to Shawnee Milling years ago but don't remember what it paid back then.

 

That's pretty much how the elevators I haul for are, turn in your invoice on Monday, usually get a check in the mail Thurs or Fri. Its a shock to the system going out to haul for some of these other freight brokers and have to wait 30, 40 or more days to get paid.

I think in a few more days, we'll have corn to haul around here, I saw 2 combines in the field today. All you guys be safe out there this harvest, just because its something we've done a bunch of times doesn't mean we can take things for granted. I'm saying this for myself too. I enjoy talking to you all on here and hearing what you all have to say, don't want any of you to get hurt.

 

so yall are just now starting to harvest in ill?....hell its all but over here in ms....

 

Yep, I got 4 loads of corn out of the field today, didn't start till this afternoon, the first new crop I've hauled this year. The moisture was in the 17's, the driest corn I can remember ever hauling this early. Its going to my favorite company, and of course, they still have to have their Wed safety meeting, won't open till 8. Love, love, love them......

 

We got rained out today. Took 1 of the trucks to town and got a couple of new drives. Gotta take one tomorrow to get a new lug stud and a power divider seal. We put the last studs in ourselves but they passed this time. Its fine with me because I like to have never got 1 of the old ones knocked out. Probably be rolling stubble.500 acres down 3800 to go. They're almost through with the 2 new bins. The rice is yielding well so I get the feeling those might not be the last ones we get this fall. Built pad for 6.

 

Its gona be dry here too,RW. An uncle of mine called today wanting to run corn tomorrow,said his was 15.6 but i will have to see it to beleive it! The weather has been perfect for dry-down though,sunny,windy and absolutely NO humidity.If it's really that dry,it will be hard for the combines to overload us too bad,maybe.We'll see tomorrow i guess

How many rolls/acre does the stubble turn out,cowdoc?

 

The corn I was hauling may have been a short season variety, I'm not sure. But you're right, it definitely has been drying the last few days, been sunny, windy and warm, and cool at night. Super weather!