Why oh why are you drivers taking this cheap freight????

Bill, that sounds really good except one thing you haven't factored in: Once these 1.10 miles move freely at that price more and more loads become 1.10 mile loads.
So you have a O/O that's figured the market for the time being, only to potentially harm himself financially further down the road.
So this 2.50 a mile could turn into 1.75 mile in time. This is what I think has made some area's just useless to go to now.
So what do we do when all areas are 1.10 a mile??

 

There is always money to be made in any market. What do I do? Open a truck repo business.

But why do you think that this is some how going to magically change a market that has been working like this since deregulation? Historically look at rates and markets you will see that what we see now has been there. Only difference is changing of markets based on demographics and manufacturing. And the tighter markets rates have increased.

Rates eroding?!? Why are companies in increasing numbers issuing guidance to the financial markets that they are seeing increased transportation or will see it in a certain time frame when contracts start renewing.

 

If everyone is so focused on making a certain amount of revenue per mile why do you care who pays it? If company X wants to pay to haul company Y's product why do you care so much?

This is business. Put your big boy pants and start acting like a business person and not a driver.

 

Here's an example of the triangle I am running. I will leave out the cities.

Start at A and take the load to B for $5000 on 2150 miles for 2.32 per mile.
My options from B are either deadhead to C which is 700 miles empty to pick up a load returning to A for 5000 on 2600 miles for 1.92 per mile.
OR- Take a load from B to D for 3300 on 2200 miles for 1.50.
B is a very dead market and 1.50 is about the best you can do out of there.
D is a good market back to A. D to A pays me 4500 on 2050 miles for 2.19.

A is where the house is, BTW.

So here we have 2 scenarios.
A-B-C-A = (miles = 2150+700+2600=5450) and $10,000 revenue = 1.83 all miles
A-B-D-A = (miles = 2150+2200+2050=6400) and revenue = 5000+3300+4500=12800 = exactly 2.00

I can do 2.5 cycles of trip A in one month very easily.
I can do 2.0 cycles of trip B in one month easily also. Pulling that load for 1.50 makes it worth it, in my situation.

This is working well for me. The places I see are where I enjoy going and actually look forward to work every day, still knowing all the while I am profitable at it. I will note- trip 1 that is the highest amount I can get to do it. $10,000. Trip 2 I am on my first round with it and the guy from B-D is already telling me to call back to haul it again. I am going to see if i can bump it up a bit on the next round. As long as D to home is paying well, I will continue to do so. If I am going to be of the mindset, "I will not run my truck for less than $2 per mile" and go empty to C, I will actually earn less on the round. It is all about planning and knowing all your options more than anything.

I should also note that in the right time of year I can do short hauls (overnighters) to the east coast and home again for bigger profit. In the beginning this year I started in the middle of the season and struggled to correctly put it all together to make it worth while. Losing a day or two on the east coast and going into weekends can screw it up - especially for the new guy. Now I have more contacts that are comfortable loading me and know the level of service I deliver. The key to making the big bucks in the short haul is lining up all the loads and using your time in the most efficient manner. If I can figure out a way to do that all year, I will focus my efforts there.

To each their own.

 

Exactly, and the formula works across all aspects of small biz, including trucking.

Sorry Irv, YOU'RE WRONG!!!

 

Would it help to know what the big carriers are charging per mile in the lane your running. You could goto their website and plug in some numbers matching what you normally carry. Then they will send you a free quote. Seems like it would be helpful to know what the competitors rates are for the lane your running.

 

Take the tinfoil hat off please.

 

So from what I'm reading its better just take everything that is offered to you just to keep moving?
Last company I was leased to had out bound freight that paid $3.00 a loaded mile but still couldnt make money at doing it always trying to load right back is not always the best I moved alot of $1.00 a mile freight just to come back and reload sometimes you couldn't find a load right back and dead headed back alot I was making $300,k a year but was driving 125,000 miles a year and never stoped

After I wore out my first truck I knew there had to be a better way that company would take me back any day but it's not worth it on paper I was really only making $1.35 all miles didn't matter half of them were empty it still cost to run loaded or not

 

Truck drivers are to blame for cheap rates. if a broker has a load and it hasnt moved, eventually they will need to raise the rate

 

Brokers also share blame in that. There are shippers/receivers out there who only care about price. If one broker will do the loads for $25 less on 1,000 loads then they are all over that... Race to the bottom has many players who share in the blame. That is the market and it will never change. The only thing you have control over is what YOU do...