Can I make money at 1.60 per mile

RTO. Not all brokers are scammers. I've never taken $1,000 off the top on a load...that's just outrageous.

 

I know all of them aren't but there are many that do OR get a load and sell it to a family member sitting across the room under a different "company/LLC" name or double dipping!

That and other reasons is why I gave that up and focused on getting radiated and chemoed that summer. I just can't take from the actual people who do all the real work and gave up on doing the broker/agent thing so they could get all they deserved in pay.

I still dabble at just looking for shippers for kicks and giggles and to see where they rates are heading which is back up a very good thing!

 

I make a living off cheap freight. I get with my FSC $1.59 per mile. Surcharge does vary depending on region and DOE stats. I drive nice and easy and run smarter, not harder. On a 3500 mile week, I will see $1900 after fuel/truck/insurance/and my personal maintenance account. I don't make great money, but I'm comfortable and thankful. My MPG average is 7.86 in a kW t2000 cat c15 engine 13speed, 336diffs.

 

If you are netting $1900 a week then that's actually not that bad! That's about what I did on my weekly company dedicated NYC route. As long as the bills get paid and the wife is happy then, yes, that's not that bad. At least you are staying busy. I take it you get your own loads and not through a broker or some trucking company.

 

I bought my truck and leased on to a major carrier.
Its not 100% how much you make, but how much you keep. Make wise when choosing your fixed expenses and harness your overhead. You'll do fine. I took home $7996.42 last month after everything was paid in full and all deductions taken out, even taxes.....

 

Shamus. I've said a lot of times in here that an operating capital account is very nesscary to have in case of trouble. Do you have one maybe called your emerency fund? If so how much is in it incase someone doesn't pay you on time or a piston decides to take off on a trip of it's own or the turbo dumps or any number of problems we face in a days work.

It looks like you have all your ducks marching to the same band! I do believe if you did a few more posts on your business plan on owing and running a truck some of these newer drivers might start to get out of the red and into the black!

 

I just throw this out here, instead of looking to go to GA then directly back to CA maybe look at doing an extra leg or two back to CA? It may mean an extra two or three days getting back home.. ..but I am finding in my own situation that leaving out on Sunday night or Monday morning then expecting to home by Friday or Saturday morning is not lending itself to the bottom line without consistant contract loads in the mix. Having a hard time selling the idea of 8 to 10 days out then 3 to 4 off to the old lady but it's looking like that's the only way to get my averages up when the majority of rates are haggled from load boards. One of the benefits of being leased on with a small contract carrier based about 30 miles from my house was it was all contract freight into and out of TN which made home time on weekends easy. The drawback was a piss poor flat mileage rate. It was easy to clear $2000 a week but who the hell wants to roll over 3200 miles to do it?

 

Free advice here, CHEAP FREIGHT IS CHEAP FREIGHT! And BACKHAULS DONT EXIST!!! Taking ok paying freight and then hauling cheap freight so you can average a cheap freight price is just plain ridiculous. If the average is 2.07 then why haul anything at 1.50? Dum da dum dum dum IMO. I dont and wont touch or even look at freight under 2 a mile