Hauling Christmas Tree

I saw that one coming!

To Calexico, $2,750 is $2.31 a mile. Since freight leaving L.A. ALWAYS pays way better than coming back, I can see how $2.31 a mile is attractive. Mexicali at that rate is a non-starter. Getting freight out of Calexico back to OR or WA for more trees... add your deadhead to see if $2.31 still looks attractive.

For those of you not familiar with what drives rates around here, let me rephrase how that posting normally reads... "Tengo varias cargas de arboles de navidades desde Oregon con el destino de Mexicali. Si quieres mas de un peso por milla, llama me."

To those of you that understood it, no offense meant, just a realist. Between bottom feeding to put food on the table and big companies that just want to pay their $.47 cpm variable cost, rates out of the northwest aren't going to get better anytime soon. At least not to SoCal.

 

Sounds like a huge pain when it's all said and done.

 

$9,000 sound good?

 

Saw a load posted today. They wanted me to bring 40+ 8' long 2"x4"'s into all my stake pockets and they were paying less than $3/mi with 7 stops. Complete joke.

 

We did pretty good with trees a few years ago out of Newland, NC. Last drop in LA had the fellows unloading it sweep the trailer clean. Tight fit to a nursery there, but slept while they unloaded. Ate some cajun food at 2nd drop and picked up at a customer back to NC.

Dry van. I don't recall rate, but folks were pleasant to deal with at p/u and drops.

 

all dry vans here. joke may have been on you.

http://imgur.com/CdWxs3t

 

My floor was a little worse for the wear holding soggy/icy trees for 4 days, but the folks did a great job unloading at all my stops and everyone was pleasant to be around. I was a little ticked that the shipper had me go to 1 place to sign in, another place 15 miles away to load, back to the 1st place to scale out, and a third place 30 miles out of the way for ice. Those 90 extra miles that were not mentioned up front... I also had to get a christmas tree permit from Oregon DOT (for exceeding local length laws).

Things to think about before you jump at the first $3/mile offer you see. That and I wouldn't bring a tractor/trailer with side fairings unless you were certain of the roads being used; you'll probably be going on some dirt logging roads with washbars... You should also plan on a trailer washout & factor in the wasted time to dry before being able to haul your next load.

 

How about flatbeds? Do they load them often with trees? How are the rates?

 

At the point they start having you jump thru hoops like that, especially adding 30+ miles which were not in the agreement you had with the broker, is when you call the broker and tell them they need to cover these extra costs or they can have the load back because they were not up front with you. That's a lie by omission and they are the unethical one in this scenario - not you by asking for more money after the fact. 9 times out of 10 you'll get the extra money, if not just look at the headache you saved yourself. With these messy plant loads, multi stop I always push aggressively for $5 a mile or better on long hauls. I don't care what they're paying anyone else and I don't get lots of them but when I do there,are never any regrets later.

 

I get $14 a mile on 2000 plus mile long hauls.