Cascadia?? Should I??

Many haul for more than that but, many haul for less than a buck.

 

Well figure out your TRUE cost per mile then divide by .79 and that will give you the LEAST amount of $ you can work for and hope to be around next year.

 

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying you can't be successful with a cookie cutter fleet truck. Who I'm calling out is the guys who swear you CAN'T make money with what they like to call a "large car" (W900L, 379, Western Star ect) and somehow you're guaranteed to make more with a $5,000 Columbia with a Detroit. The way I see it and I'm sure someone will disagree but if you must have a $10k truck held together with zip ties and rust to survive then it's what your hauling that's the problem. The guys I know with the trucks that look like they were dug out of a scrap yard are not sitting on a pile of cash because they run cheap equipment. They're usually one flat tire away from bankruptcy, that's not to be said for everyone but it's usually the norm.

 

thankfully those duct tape and zip tie trucks will be taken out once csa2010 starts up
and hopefully that will raise the rates up some as the low ballers are removed

 

Big difference between a leaky liner and a blown engine...

 

Buy a RELIABLE truck that looks nice, comfortable for you to drive and has been maintained. If your looking for resale value then the Freightliner isn't the truck but if your looking for a truck with some comfort and not going to break your wallet then buy the freightliner.... Don't buy any truck brandnew and make sure u get a warranty. I drive a 04 Columbia that looks great which I bought in March to replace T2000 with a bad motor. My truck looks great rides good but I found out 3weeks ago it wasn't maintained properly cause I just handed out 12k to the Detroit Shop for an inframe.. and I checked this engine from top to bottom but it had some internal issues that surfaced quickly after I bought It. So, my advice is to buy what you fell comfortable with and purchase a warranty or have a pile of cash saved up... I love the interior room and parts are reasonable and theirs a Freightliner dealer on #### near every corner so service is no issue. My KW is nice too but parts prices are through the roof.

 

I know exactly what your sayimg. I had several reasons for going the route I did. 1 - it was going to be my first truck. I figured if this was not for me, it would not take long for me to get my money back, if I did not have a lot invested. I bought a ex walmart truck, very well maintained. though it was a intl 9670 coe. it was 50% less than a pete or k.w. of the same year & more miles on the others. mine had 400,000. your right about the price for what you are hauling. I think the theory goes like this. if a driver fails & has a nice expensive truck, it looks like he could not afford it & if he only had a cheaper truck he would still be in business. it does not occur to folks why some one failed, too cheap freight? could be, but all most see is one driver who had a expensive truck that did not make it due to the expensive truck.

 

I still can't figure out why some are stuck on using the $1 a mile number as being hauling cheap freight. It is all relative. One person getting 1.60 a mile and doing all the leg work to track down the freight, get paid on it, negotiate all the details, etc may not actually be making more NET than the leased drived who is pulling at .95 a mile, getting .30 in fuel surcharge (guarenteed regardless of load), getting good discounts on fuel to offset that cost further, discounts on parts, tires, insurances, etc by using the company's buying clout.

So what is cheap freight? If I can keep my costs to operate down lower than someone else and therefore pull the load cheaper than them and still make a decent profit, why is that my problem? The problem is that many do not want change how they operate to stay profitable. They want to run 80-90 mph like fuel is still .75 a gallon. They want to purchase the latest and greatest high class ride so they can stroke their egos. In other words, they do not want to operate a business. If your business model makes it so that you can buy that high class ride with a 180" super sleeper on the back, 2 tons of chrome, and enough lights to qualify as a rolling casino.... great! There is no reason to down those that chose to get a less expensive truck, drive a little slower and get that 7+ mpg and get 30% longer tire life. And you don't have to buy cheap junk that needs baling wire, shoe goo, JB Weld, and duck tape to hold it together. I have a 2006 truck almost paid off, a 2006 Jeep Liberty diesel paid for, 68 acres of Iowa farm land paid for, a 2005 New Holland ag tractor paid for and I do that on .92 to 1.08 a mile base rate. Oh, and just reroofed the house and out buildings. The truck is very well maintained with no baling wire, duck tape, wire ties, etc to hold it together.

This is why I mentioned the Coronado glider kit method early in this thread as opposed to the Cascadia or other newer trucks. Not that bad getting a brand new 2010 Coronado, interior spec'd to the gills, with a rebuilt pre emission 500hp DD engine, 13 speed tranny, 3.55 rears. For in the neighborhood of $100,000. And no Federal Excise Tax! Try doing that with a new production truck and see if you can drive it off the lot for less than $140,000. And with the new production truck, you have all that emissions stuff that costs an arm and a leg to keep going replacing all those sensors and other junk. Cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, and easier to work on (keeping labor costs down also).

 

I agree with you about the glider kit with a pre-emission engine being the way to go. I doubt I'll ever have a post-'01 engine in a truck... but I don't have that many years to worry about right now anyway!

Regarding my usual comments about $1.00 per mile freight. My outbound loads pay $3.25 to $4.00 per mile depending on commodity and time of year. That's plus FSC... right now our FSC is .53 cpm. My last load from central Indiana to Perry,GA paid me $1385.63 + $398.00 FSC... to me. And that's a load through a broker who already took his cut (CH Robinson). That's somewhere around $2.50 per mile.

During the veggie harvest we often run open tops loaded southbound and deadhead back to reload. Three WI to AR runs make for about an $8,000.00 week...give or take. Pretty good for drop and hook freight (on one end).

True, our northbound backhauls are cheaper... around $1.10 to $1.35 per mile flat rate... no FSC. But you still can do pretty well. And certain times of the year you can haul $3-4.00 per mile freight out of Florida and Georgia.

Our short hauls, for instance, pay good, too. Hancock, WI to Beloit, WI (120 miles?) pays up to $600.00 depending on weight.

My point is not to criticize but to let you know there are many good outfits out there where you can make good money but you have to look beyond the big guys and those 'recruiting books' you find at every truck stop. There is freight like this almost everywhere in the country but you won't see many outfits hurting for 0/0's with $$$ like this available. It ain't perfect but it ain't bad.

Why would you leave $1.00 per mile or more on the table when it's available to anybody who does their homework?