Truck Load Rates Halt 8 Week Slide 2.0

Is it sliding or not?!
Last week, I came back from CT to Iowa City, IA on Uber load that paid close to $3000...just made a bid on it and lo and behold I was awarded it. Delivered on Tuesday and from there I deadheaded to WI to load 5 000 lbs for $3700 to York, PA...from there I did not get as lucky and backhauled $1850 to Eau Claire, WI.
I am in 18000 in revenue this month which already exceeds my monthly minimum. I need $200 000 revenue to net $100 000 per year. For whatever reason, the formula which says that you get to keep half of your gross works like a clock for me...

I booked a well paying load from Minnesota to Boston area that picks up next week. It is 1500 miles for $5100 / 42 000 lbs. It is over 400 miles away from my terminal so now I have to come up with a way to pick it up e.g. IL-IN/OH - MN maybe $1200/1500 - $1500/1800 from what I see on the load boards today.
Frankly, I don't like to do it this way...it creates a puzzle to solve and additional stress. But if there is a 4 digit figure that starts with 5, I can't resist. At the worst case scenario, I could deadhead or cancel a few days before so that they have time to recover but I did deadhead there before and at the time when the load paid even less.
I noticed that some lanes out of Northern Wisconsin and East Minnesota to East Coast and Baltimore market area have soften on their rates. Not enough to call it poor but it is a noticeable slide nonetheless.
Still, it is not the first time this happens this year.

I'll need a new truck and I think sooner rather than later. My machine is running solid but I can feel it is tired. I don't like going to these so called friendly shops and beg for service either...yes, they're busy enough not to care much about the sight of a returning customer. On the other hand, all the things around me that I see, hear and read don't make me too zealous to engage financially more than I am. Giving a hefty down payment of 20 000 - 30 000 is not a problem. The problem is the answer to the question I ask myself: Have you for the last 5 years been able to put aside $120 000 - 130 000 on the top of you put aside for your own living? No?! Then what makes you think, it'll be easy for you to pay that thing off in 60 months? If I only had some assurance that the current situation will keep up at the level as it is for at least another 2-3 years...

Enough! I am in a hyper typing mood today.

 

good to hear from ya. Living the life!

@TallJoe #### nice rounds you've been putting together. What specs are you thinking when you get another rig? Probably another volvo right? Read some very good reviews from the MP8/D13 with 415 hp with turbo compounding getting really good fuel mileage. I wanna say it beat the 445 version in fuel economy. I'll try and find that article

My Conklin to Bayonne is done, Amazon bought the 2 ware houses and is knocking em down to put a final mile hub in. Might of mentioned this before can't remember. Been hitting it big waiting til end of the day to book stuff

 

@Brettj3876
Looking at Volvo 860 (big cab) D13/500 HP Eco-torque but with single Turbo. The only thing about Volvo is that their dealership customer service might be problematic. For instance, they are mostly closed on all Holidays and weekends. They seem overcrowded here in Chicago area too. I was also looking at Western Star 5700EX on Detroit DD13. It is almost the same price but serviced by Freightliner, which is a day and night better imo. At least, I'd get out of the Volvo club. lol
However, the essential question remains, is that an adequate investment to do what I've been doing, which is racing on the dry van spot market? Here, a duck tape, zip tights and spray paint cans are a norm to a lot of competitors and how can you get ahead of them? When you do it, you need to up the game and I got too complacent already.
Sorry to hear about your customer closing. Amazon is doing disservice to U.S. Economy, it has affected all of us already and will do continue to do so. They may say it is an inevitable aftermath of technological advancement and that you simply cannot stop it , the same way you cannot stop evolution. But that only means that folks like us become more replaceable and disposable. People don't realize that by buying from them, they are undercutting their own livelihoods.

 

Good for you Scooter. I am sure the other business is a hell of a gig since you decided to look down at what would have been an easy $30 000 monthly revenue on 6 000 miles/every night at home for a skilled fellow like you.
But you're right, best to get out of this for the sake of life quality and overall health of body and soul.
I am sure you could collect quite some cash for the equipment at this time too. Maybe it is best to wait with that though...in case you miss it too much.

 

I like the 5700 for an aero truck. With volvo I would of went with the 500hp too just because more power is always better Lol. Pulling frac pumps at 100k I was very impressed on how the mp8 445 and 415s pulled.

To be honest my dad and i were starting to hate going to Bayonne. It was awesome at 1st pre covid then It went to hell. It was always a cluster F way too small of a place. Couldn't nap because you always to move spots to let a guy in/out. Them booking too many trucks at once. Only 2 receiving/shipping doors and there would be 15+ trucks stacked up sometimes. If you didn't have 830 or 930 apt you could be there for 4+ hours sometimes. They just stored the wine bottles in conklin, they come down from Canada so them guys are prob running em straight down now.

Still have my steady coming back outta jersey, their good about giving us 3-4 days advance notice so we haven't had an issue booking stuff down to jersey.

Not much room at all. Built back when 40ft was a big wagon and the bottom right by the fence they're always a bunch of straight trucks parked there.

 

On this end i loved it, couldn't of had it any easier. 8 miles from the yard Lol and was always loaded within 30 min.

 

Came across this article today. Interesting how this chart corresponds with freight market
Stock Market Leverage in La-La Land, Rises to Historic WTF High

 

When that thing pops... look out!