Do owner operators still calculate loads by rate per mile?

Per mile has never told the full story.

 

Welcome, and for your first post, you've been in the business awhile.

I judge loads available to me by rate per mile, as the company I operate under provides that.

Time at home has really never bothered me, and I think that's why I'm semi-successful as an O/op.

If you want time at home, being an O/op is not something you should be considering.

I make my biggest money running weekends

 

Rate per mile and stay above $1000 a day.I would sometimes take a short load around Houston,take 4 or 5 hours,get $600 or $700.Once did 3 loads one day,9 mile trip,paid $500 each.

 

Try and go off a per day, want $1000 after fuel, so rate per mile does play into it but not the only picture. If you just haul off a rate per mile basis without thinking about alot of other things you are going to end up in a lot of dead areas. Not saying I don't haul into the dead area but I better be able to get out of the dead area making around the same $1000 per day after fuel (which is way less because I am empty)

 

I shouldn't have commented. These guys above me are getting $1000 a day after fuel.

We just bookkeep differnt.

 

Around here even for short hauls they keep rates around 2/mi not realizing they’re losing.
Example. Two weeks ago they called asking to move 45k in a dryvan. 36 loaded miles. What’s your price. I was just going over trucks so I said $500..
Course someone did it for $180, guess they was happy. Now considering it takes about an hour to load there at the place plus about same at receiver, all two lane and crooked as can be and you end up middle of nowhere. Let em have it.
But hey, they got it for $5/mile, just no miles.
Used to I charged by the hour on short haul stuff but most don’t know how to figure so they jump on the big $$/mile which is ok, if miles are there.

 

Of course you have to figure in all the other, but rate per mile is king. I'm not doing short loads often though either, but when I do, I try to move 3 or 4 a day.

It's a chess game, not checkers.

Once you've run an area a good while, you'll find contacts to get out.

Those "dead areas" are pretty much all I run.

 

I recently retired and was in a slightly different world with specialized freight with long term contracts. I came back empty nearly 100% of the time passing up lower paid, more difficult freight I could have loaded for a backhaul. I generally looked at the all miles run rate for the round, revenue per hour I normally averaged on that trip and the destination. When my normal picks weren’t available I picked a longer load with slightly lower rate per mile, but higher daily revenue causing me to work a few more hours the first day but only got back slightly later the next day since I didn’t do 10 and roll any earlier than 3am.
It was easier for me to know what loads were the most profitable for my rig than someone hauling on the spot market not knowing the delays possible at random shippers and receivers. I loaded from the same location and had been to all the customers many times so I knew which ones were trouble to deliver to.
My most profitable loads per mile were only 125 miles outbound and lower daily revenue but they took me to my home city on the days I went home.