okay how much money you brokers make moving loads

What's "cheap" freight though? It's relative and subjective.

 

We are all in the business to make money. Everyone has a number per mile that is their operating cost. It varies from truck to truck, as truck and trailer payments vary and some have paid them off. I run reefer and for me, $2 a mile is my minimum.

We were discussing Florida earlier, so I will give you an example. When produce season first starts a load of sweet corn from Miami to Philly might pay $1000 and its around 1200 miles. Peak season the same load will pay $4000. Obviously the $1000 is cheap. So the smart thing to do is to deadhead out of Florida and get a load to Philly for $2000. But you will still have guys hauling the $1000 load. Make sense?

 

A load to Philly? Land of more garbage "cheap" freight? I have better luck getting something out of Georgia but that's just me. I also pull open deck. I'm not trying to tell you how to run your business. if that works for you then fine. My question was rhetorical. "Cheap" is relative and subjective. What's cheap to you may or may not be cheap to me. Neither one of us have the right to tell other businesses how to run nor can demand the entire country to capitulate into a set one-size-fits-all rate IMO.

 

And guys deadheading into GA drives that rate down.

 

Maybe "down" to you isn't the same as others. As previously mentioned, everybody has their own operating expenses.

 

Down is down, and rates out of GA are cheap, always have been.

 

What is, "cheap"? I see lots of $2.25-3/mile runs out of Savannah right now.

 

I usually don't load out of Philly. I usually load in Jersey or the Allentown area. When in Florida I deadhead to Georgia as well, unless I get offered something worthwhile. And I agree, while I try to help other drivers when I am able, they run their business the way they want to. When booking loads my offers are always fair. If I am offered a load into an area with constantly low rates, I only accept it if I am able to maintain my margin so it is still profitable to deadhead out.

 

I ran Georgia for quite a few years, I use the same broker, and have always gotten good rates out of them.

 

I usually deadhead back to Tennessee 500-700 miles or more from Florida but sometimes I see something that works out great. About 3 or 4 weeks ago it was a load of onions out of south Georgia going up to the Indianapolis area paying $1.70 a mile. I did $4 a mile into Florida from the midwest and got right back to that good area with the onion load. Otherwise it would have been 500 miles of deadhead to grab a $1,000 load from TN to the midwest. If I had firm rules about no less than $2 a mile I would have cost myself revenue in that scenario passing on the load. It was never going to pay $2 or more a mile. South GA dried up long ago.