Finally got my own truck

If that's the case why are you quoting $800 as your daily rate? Quote what you really need to make. Most of the time you're going to get a no on the short loads, but if you catch a broker in a pinch like you did this time you can make money on it.

 

If your daily rate is 1000 and you have to drive 500 miles to get it it seems to me that 350 miles of fuel+truck should be worth more than 200 bucks. Is your fuel+truck cost really under .57 a mile? At the end of the day you keep more money with the 800 so I like that better. I'm figuring it will take the whole day as well.

 

@BoyWander Really enjoy reading your experiences as a new O/O! Hang in there buddy your doing a great job!!

Rax

 

Had a boss that would look at the big numbers. There was a haul every day and you could get one a day. Pay was 750 and you used maybe 200 in fuel.

That was not good enough for him. He instead hauled trees for 1000 a load that cost him 400 in fuel at the time. You may be thinking he made more money on the tree load but it would take him 2 days minimum per load.

At $800 for 200 miles you could have deadheaded out of there another 200 miles and still been at $2 per mile.

You need to quit the miles mentality. Get into the "how much do I get to keep?" Mentality.

You could have taken that load, deadheaded back and picked up the other one. Understand about sitting on it until the next day, but you have to ask. Now you have a broker that thinks your word is worthless along with all his contacts if they ever ask about you.

 

Since your a broker, what's your reaction to the OP
Quoting a price that was so high that he thought the
Broker wouldn't agree too.

Then after the broker called his bluff, declining
The load anyway. Does this just get swept to
The side in your circle.

 

I'd find it annoying but not serious. I really only get angry when someone takes a load that they never planned on running. That #### frustrates me.

There's no point in getting angry at people for not knowing the rules. Just roll your eyes and move on. Heck I'm probably happy they said no because people who do business that way are super flaky.

If you're going to name a high price name a price so high you'd happily do it IMO.

I get significantly more annoyed when someone calls me and tries to offer me a thousand bucks more than I have it posted for. It's just disrespectful to call me up, spend 2-3 minutes of my time getting the whole spiel for the load and then asking for a number I'd never do in a million years. I'm more than happy to negotiate (most likely by refusing to negotiate) but don't bother calling if you aren't willing to run it for somewhere withing a few hundred of the posted rate please.

 

I call that the "eff off price"

I will gladly give effs, for the right price...lol...usually 2.5x rate

 

Sure exactly. There are no bad lanes only bad rates. I'll find a truck to do a 10p15d into Alaska if someone is willing to pay me enough. Every single one of you should have a number you'd do the same. It might be 50k, but if you want to tell yourself you wouldn't run that load for 50k you're just being silly.

 

If I'm wrong here, please somebody tell me. But looking at gross revenue only is pointless. I'm not criticizing here, just educating, or at least trying to. You say you need $6000.00 gross. But what good is that if you only net $1000.00. Does that cover your expenses? Some think $100/hr for local work is good, but not if you only work 15-20 hrs/week. $4.00/mile sounds good, but not if it's only 100 miles a day.

You have to look at profit. Last week I did 1326 miles, 3 days, gross $3406-$700 fuel= $2706 profit minus my fixed expenses. This works for me. Now I understand that may not work for you, but you MUST look at the bottom line, not gross. I look at per day, per mile, per hour money on the profit side. I feel more people are tied up looking at miles and gross, which I think could sink a ship. Run YOUR business, just do it smart.

 

This is a really good post. It applies to every type of business too.