Taking on Goliath---My Fight With TQL

Yes, they tried to blame it on the shipper, like they always do. But that is between them and their shipper. Their "mistake" cost me the weekend. I took the trailer because it was late in the day, and I was still hoping to grab a load. As it turns out, it was too late. One guy said he would have dead-headed home from there. Well, if dead-heading 900 miles is your cup of tea, then by all means, have at it. But I'm in this business to make money, not to burn it on fuel. I have a very stress-free and simple life. If I have to sit, I sit. My stuff is paid for and I have very little fixed obligations. I'm a poker player so I just stayed at the Wild Horse for the weekend and played cards and dice. It was a nice little break.

 

Yeah, they have some really good guys. But they are offset by the scum bags. One guy there paid me $700 for a 10-day load-out just two weeks prior. Yet a week before that, they had a reefer going from Mankato MN down to Texas somewhere. Four other brokers had the same trailer posted on DAT and were offering $750 to $1000. When I called TQL they didn't want to give anything. Even after I told him other brokers were paying $1000. So I told him to pound sand and hung up on him.

 

It was a nice trailer which they were giving to me for FREE to use for 7 days. Yes, it would be nice to get paid for it, but would you rather rent a trailer or get it for free? Especially if it's getting me HOME? I don't know if you guys have noticed, but unless you are in Cali, there aren't many loads going to Vegas. From anywhere. Maybe Phoenix and Reno will have some stuff, but that's about it. Load-outs are a whole different ball game. At best you make a killing because you can "double-dip" by getting two payments for the same load. But sometimes you just have to take the free trailer if it's going to further a plan you may have. I was able to land two jobs with that free trailer.

 

Some of you guys don't get it. The purpose to getting the trailer was to grab a load with it. I was able to get a load from La Grande down to Phoenix. And then I grabbed a load in Phoenix that took me home. So I was able to get TWO jobs WITH A FREE TRAILER, and I was able to GET HOME. And why wouldn't I want TONU if they canceled the load? Wouldn't YOU try to get TONU?

 

Opus, try to follow along...I got $700 for a LOAD-OUT, not a LOAD. A load-out is a trailer that they give you for free to use for a specific amount of time. Sometimes they pay you to move the trailer, sometimes they don't. Either way, you now get a free trailer that you can book loads with as if it was your own. So on that 10-day load-out, you may be able to land 4 or 5 loads and make money off of a trailer that is not yours. And you get paid for it.

That particular load-out was a dry van going from Phoenix to Northfield MN. That's a distance of roughly 1600 miles. It was going to Taylor Truck lines, who had bought it in a distress sale. So I got paid almost 44 cents a mile to move a trailer. Now, you ADD that 44 cents to any load(s) you land going up in that direction, and that INCREASES your rate per mile. As long as you get the trailer to where it needs to go by the specified date, you basically own the trailer for the time you have it. Without any of the headaches that come with ownership.