Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

I always figured if you worked smarter and harder then you would achieve twice as much.

 

Not all lumber is cheap. Structural lumber, 2x4s, 2x6s etc has a lousy rate because anybody can haul it and the competition for loads is fierce. It's especially bad in the winter when all the left coast tomato haulers grab a set of flatbeds, half a dozen straps, a winch bar made out of an old piece of rebar (Don't laugh, I've seen it) and declare themselves lumber haulers.
Finished moulding, high grade plywood, specialized siding, custom cut-stock for decorative use, pays pretty good. Most of those loads never appear on a load board. You won't have a prayer of getting your foot in the door. The local good-old-boy network has the best stuff sewed up. It's pretty hard to compete when the head of shipping and the truck company owners all grew up together, belong to the same clubs and play golf with each other.
In the meantime...there's a lot of one buck and change lumber headed south and east out of California. If you don't want it, somebody else will haul it..

 

Nope. You can work as hard as you want. But you’ll only ever make the rates that are posted on a load board. Everyone knows that anyone who says otherwise is a liar.

 

Well i can certainly agree with that. Ive hauled lumber off load boards , thru brokers , and thru direct customers.... The direct stuff was all special cut stuff going to jobsites . Paid good. Problem is its few and far between... most lumber loads is not even worth entertaining, whether it comes from the load board or not..... I just find it hard to believe somebody could run a curtain side maxi trailer in the pnw with almost 400k of gross revenue average per year..that is pretty much 2x as much as an average owner operators is making.... about 75% of the freight i ran in that region this year was all direct customers and there is just no way the rates are anywhere near that especially earlier in the year...and when u have all the mega flatbed companies and medium sized flatbed companies running that same setup....seems a little ridiculous to make that much money in such a small oversaturated market in like the cheapest freight region in the whole country ...but what the hell do i know .... I spent the whole year just trying to stay above water....like i said good for him

 

Because those numbers dont add up.. 6500 is a bad week and 9500 is a good week . I took the average between those....which is 8k.. Which is 32k a month and almost 400k per year......at 300k per year his average is 6250 a week. A far cry from the numbers u originally posted