Frustration!

If your sitting your not making any money at all. If rates are real cheap I'll sit for one whole day then dead head up to 500 miles if a better area exists within that range. I will haul those 2,300 mile loads all day all week for $2.00 per mile and I do when I can.

When I'm moving non stop for weeks at a time on those long runs I'm racking up the money and the truck just loves to cruise for days on end.

When I do short runs I make more per mile but in the end I make a lot more doing the long runs and short runs tend to be more stop and go and wear and tear on the truck. It takes a lot more time to do the short runs.

You need to take the good with the bad Freebrd. Sitting there pouting about rates gets you nothing. Your losing between $300 and $400 per day in revenue and your definitely not going to recoup that money by waiting for $.50 cents per mile more.

I know lots of drivers for TMC and other flatbed companies that haul bailed trash out of my area 600 miles for $1.30 then turn right around with freight paying $3.00+ and come back. They don't sit, they get the F out and in the end they average a very decent rate and KEEP MOVING!!!

 

The point is this is trucking and sometimes you have to take the good with the bad. I know my operating cost and what i need to make a profit and instead of sitting and waiteing for a magical number i take the load that makes me money. Yes i am very busy at $2.50 a mile and i will tell you this last quarter after all my cost i made to me $.85 a mile. Rretty good i think. Not all my loads are $2.50 some less some more but in my 22 years i learned its better to run for a little less than sit and waite and i do not mean run cheap you need to cover cost plus profit. You say you can make money at $1.50 a mile do some math and figure out the days lost sitting and i will bet at the end of the year or even quarter you would do better taking a load that pays a little less then sitting and loseing revenue.

 

It cost me money to sit and wait my fixed cost is set on running 20 days a month so if i sit my fixed cost goes up making it even harder to find loads to make profit at

I also think thats the worst thing for the truck is sit there and idle for days

 

I understand the point of getting out of an area to the better stuff, but I hate giving someone a deal to possibly break even. As well it seems the guys in the better area know you rolled into town for nothing & would like to keep you on that trend.

The problem is two fold in that shippers are rarely loyal & of course, the willingness of someone to do it for less.

 

A lot of these brokers are not making a killing as you may think. I hired a dispatcher for a major carrier to find me loads on the side. I've asked her a few times what she gets. On loads that are paying crap to get out of a bad area she's getting $26 dollars on a $380 load to the carrier.

A lot of these brokers are asked to put in bids for a shippers loads. The lowest bidder gets the contract so they have to cut into their profits also to the bare minimum.

 

See to me this is the problem with the industry. If we all just refused to haul it, the rate would have to go up and alot of these shippers would stop dealing with low bid brokers, but we all know that won't happen.

 

I understand your point but large companies and myself can't afford to sit around for a rate that will never come. Me and others have to get out of the area. There will always be large companies like Swift and others that will take the loads. It makes good business sense to at least pay for the fuel and the drivers wages rather then take a complete beating by dead heading out.

It's just part of the business. Make a killing going in and take a beating getting out but the overall average is good money and your moving. If you sit, you lose at least $300 to $400 in lost revenue.

It's not that the brokers are paying crap and making a killing. They are making crap also.

 

I had a cpl friend who also had that theory and now they are no longer in business together and the only reason he owns a truck is he got an inheritance of over 100k. He still runs cheap freight and his truck looks like crap and is probably poorly maintained. But his theory is a load on his trailer and he is making money. That theory doesn't always work.

Here's one for you. A load out of TX going to OH paying the same as a load out of TN going to OH but you'd have to deadhead 600 miles, what do you do?

 

I for one will leave the cheap load sitting.Tired of "taking the bad with the good",seems that only helps the "bad" grow.Every load needs a sustainable rate.
Just wish more of us felt the same way...

 

If more people felt this way we would have alot less brokers out here and much better paying freight!