Flatbed rates i was quoted today

heres another one that always amazes me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRfBJIzNrYw

 

No need for a RGN Tialand.
Wonder what my clients would say if I sent this size straight truck in to load one of their excavators?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE02TxLlRQU

 

Here ya go.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuWSxFWv3Fo

 

I would have DH

 

The one thing that still amazes me is the idea truckers have about brokers!
The broker doesn't make a dime and in fact would go broke if there were no trucks hauling their load!
The broker is simply a middle man that makes life easier for both the customer and the trucker!
It is so ridiculous to hear a trucker saying the broker ripped them off, if you hauled the load cheap you ripped yourself off!
I haven't taken a load in months as Iv been busy on a local gig but I do occasionally scout to see if there's anything worth while on there! Usually OD loads locally.
Here in California right now brokers seem to think $1 to $1.25 PM is a good rate for 100 to a couple of hundred miles, oh yeah and tarp it for $50 too all cause I hear them say its winter!

Well I just want to say this, I don't blame the broker. I blame the DUMB truckers that are complete idiots to fall for this bs, when will you learn that it is you who sets and controls the rates!
The broker only gets their couple hundred bucks for organizing the whole thing and earned it! When they have you running your ### off for $1 PM and you don't seem to have a problem with it why on earth would they let you know when they get a load paying $4 PM? Ever wonder that? The broker is here to make money every bit the same as you are! When you get a $4 or $5 PM load do you go to your local tire guy and say, " I know you have been giving me a good deal this year so far so I'll pay you $900 per tire instead of $450 this time cause I got double the usual PM rate last week"!
No I didn't think so, you are always looking for the best price at the cheapest place for the product you want, right!?
You as the trucker is the only one with the power to change what the truck gets paid.
Tell the broker what you need, if they don't pay it move on! If everybody took this philosophy the trucking world would be a much better place, not full of newbies who are here today and gone tomorrow cause they over ran their mileage, hours and burned through their diesel budget running hard for $1 PM just because someone said that's all it pays! After 6 months their out of business and someone new takes their place. The baby boom generation are retiring and the amount of newbies who have no business savvy far outweigh the ones that do! They don't last long but they sure make trying to get a decent rate hard for the ones who actually understand the trucking business before they go boom! The shippers and brokers sure love them though as they help keep the shippers cost down and the broker can make that killing on the good paying loads they get.

The phrases backload and winter rate is another thing.
Lets start with backload, there is really no such thing. I am always coming from somewhere and going to somewhere, I am not going to drive my truck in reverse all the way to my next destination! You want it moved from where Iv arrived then pay a standard fair price to where it is going, again it's not going backwards it's going forward! Maybe if your load is going to an area where loads are plentiful that may be cause for a decent rate but not half of a decent rate!

Winter Rate, lets break that down:
So you think a truck should work for half price in winter? Oh well then let me see why on earth that would be a good idea, eh diesel is usually more expensive in winter months so that's not a good one, eh ice and snow, I'm probably not going to get the mileage I'd get in summer being as I may have to put on chains in the freezing cold and travel at a very low speed hoping some fool doesn't come rolling into me! Wet roads, more chance of something going wrong and driving up my insurance! Oh maybe it's the salt getting in around my chassis and the extra washing I will have to do to try stop rust setting in on my truck! I could go on and on but hey, isn't winter rate being used as a common phrase for I want you to do it real cheap for me buddy cause its winter the most ridiculous thing you ever heard?

Don't get caught up in the bureaucracy that there is not enough work in winter, the FACT is if the truckers of the trucking industry can truck in bad conditions all winter for half the pay and still stay alive I have no clue why they would do so!

I say $4 PM min for winter work if summer is $2 for the same load!
I will always charge enough where I go, if I do get caught somewhere that there's only diesel money to haul out of there I will eat the deadhead myself before making someone's load cheap!
Just my 2c, hopefully it might set the hamster running the wheel in the mind of some guys!

 

thailand year 2556 is based on the BUDDHIST calendar which is longer days of the year

 

I am not a driver yet but am planning on doing it in the very near future. So I am trying to learn, I am seriously confused here, I am assuming you are an O/O and with that being said this does not make business sense to me. You could have at least covered your fuel costs to get to better freight. I understand pride but I think business has to trump pride. I am in no way trying to offend you with this, just trying to understand the thoughts behind it.

 

Its just principle. Dont haul cheap freight.

 

Not only that but the wear on the equipment Plus you still have the option to pick up some freight going back some where else. Also if he got lets say 4 dollars a mile going out that comes out to 2 dollars on all miles and if your operating cost are 1.60 a mile you are still making .40 on all miles.

 

Like I said I have zero experience which is why I asked. I someday hope to be an O/O so I am trying to learn as much as possible. I understand the principle side of the argument, but I also know that for every driver that says no there are 2 that will take the load. The prices will most likely not come back in favor of the O/O. So why not at least cover costs to get to a better area?

This I somewhat get, but if you can only get 1.25 pm to get out of an area isn't that better than nothing and eating the cost of fuel yourself?