Produce average line haul amounts

Have you tried load board subscriptions? It's a very competitive business. Not many, if any, are going to give up their direct shippers or specialty brokers.

If you do a site search you will find this type of question seldom gets useful answers. A Google search for "produce truck brokers" will yield at least six produce brokers on the first two pages. In addition, it includes another six brokers that don't specialize but do haul produce.

 

I got a load of sweet potatoes on my truck now going up to north Jersey from vardaman ms. I'm not sure how to read that report though does it mean that's he average for the price of the load. So somewhere between the 2 numbers. I'm trying to figure this out because we use a broker for our backhauls and I think my boss is clueless. So I suspect we are getting hosed. Also do you guys know where I could get the average rate for regular frozen product.

 

Winkjr;
if some moron broker says the word "BACKHAUL" you are getting bent! As I said a year ago brokers think pushing paper and a few phone calls from truckers or company brokers makes them worth $500 for 30 minutes work at the most as most of these losers have been dealing with the same shippers and growers for years so it's not like they do any real work in the trucking world. They are scammers and thieves to be nice! I actually hung up on a few that I was trying to broker through when they wanted my , my, shippers information as if I was working for them and then screamed when I told them my offer was they get the usual 10% as I did! Some brokers I dealt with were so full of them selves and BULL I could smell them over the phone!

Still, Backhaul was what most of these idiots called freight out of Florida thinking every truck out there was going home thus the thinking that I'm getting you back home so I'll keep most of the rate doing you a favor getting you home!

Want to pee one of those thieves off/ Ask him what a back haul is because you don't need to go home so either give me a fair rate or "_____________________ off" They will hang up on you but call them back in 15 minutes and that load will be gone!No kidding idiots that have been sitting in Fl for a couple of days hoping the rates will go up will jump on anything just to pay for half their fuel costs! I finally figured out that If I took a FL load because it was the last thing to get on a Friday and it wasn't delivering further south than a line across Ocala then the MT deadhead into Ga or AL was worth the load.

Just remember that if you're doing that O/O deal I know you have an operating capital account set up. Screw a broker! After you have been doing this a while you'll know who the shippers are. Some of them will work with you because they know their brokers have been screwing you big time and they know that if you give them a $100 +- under what they pay the broker you are actually underbidding the thief! The growers or shippers will jump on that deal BUT this is why you have an operating capital (expenses) account. It might take the shipper up to 30-60 days to pay you BUT (again) once you and this shipper have worked together the settlements will be coming in on a regular basics and you will then put money back into that account!

Service your accounts as you would want them to service you and they will rather work with you over anyone else! This is why you treat your drivers right and they won't walk on you because you play with their pay and they are the ones making your money for you.

 

We aren't o/os just company drivers that haul our own Product to customers then we need to go home. What I'm trying to say is I think my boss is absent minded and letting us get screwed out of he proper rate just because it's a backhaul. Then we have a meeting yearly and have to hear how much we are losing but I think a major problem is our "backhauls". I know it's a backhaul but we shouldn't get bent over a barrel for it.

 

The problem is going to be hard to fix because of your boss' mentality. If he thinks of it as a backhaul, calls it a backhaul and expresses to a broker that he needs to get his trucks back for another load of your product then he is bending himself over the barrel just waiting for the deed to take place. He couldn't do anything worse if he trained to haul cheap loads.

The only way to fix the problem will be to fix the mentality and rid your vocabulary of the term backhaul. Your backhaul is Joe's fronthaul and Joe's backhaul is Fred's midhaul on a triangle. We must quit using the word backhaul. To a broker this means "I will haul cheap beause I need to get back".

When I operated a truck, I didn't have a backhaul, all my loads were just hauls as there was nowhere I had to go. I realize it is harder in your situation but the mentality has to change and you have to bluff and lose the urgency.

One more point, those you have dealt with that know the situation will always take advantage of it and will never offer more. You have to put on your poker face and sharpen your negotiating skills to get good broker loads. If it is on a load board it is not a great load, at best it is a good load but more are cheap loads.

 

Backhaul is just a word... not using it won't change freight rates.

During certain times of the year (harvest) I don't even haul a return load because I can make more deadheading back and grabbing another load (over $4.00/mile) rather than screwing with a $1.75 - $2.00 load and having it on my truck for two days.

If I need more $$$ I put more in the trailer....

 

i think im going to start asking our broker what the load pays and what he takes out. We were moving to do business with another broker called trinity transportation out of delaware. also i know for a fact that most times at least 2 brokers are involved because when im leaving and headed back i will get a call from someone i hadnt heard of from such and such company wanting ti check on the load thats how i found out it was double brokered.

 

Wildcat Hauling here. I have power only unit so far. Looking to purchase a Refer this 1st QTR. Which company to lease or should I run my own thing.

 

500 a soul is pretty low.

That truck will be doing thousands a run cross country. As company drivers we made up to several thousand some weeks as a husband wife team. And assuming FFE made more than that they did well. It is not for us to know what FFE made on those runs. We just drive the truck and we only have about 65 hours to get it done one way. Expected to be back on one coast or the other by the end of the 6th day.

If you visit the Cass Transport Index for the United States for all modes of transportation, you will see the USA is divided into regions with average haul rates for various ways to get something delivered. This information is somewhat old, dating back a couple of years. Most companies that are paid a certain rate keep that information to themselves.

The truck makes the money. And the drivers are paid from that. I tell you both right now 500 a week is too #### little for that kind of intense living. You can probably understand that you can do this work for 1350 each minimum and will do well. Anything less than that is selling your soul to the devil. (That is about .50 a mile starting rate allowing for inflation for each of you times 2700 miles between LA and NY)